Family Security
Monday, 01 June 2009 18:00
This small family business offers security for both its owners and for its customers.By Kate Leibsle
Think back to the last time someone you knew was in the hospital. Recall the frustration when you pushed the nurse call button. All the patient needed was ice or another blanket, and yet, you waited. And waited. And when someone finally arrived to answer the call, more time went by as the request was filled.
Now consider what would happen if someone answered when you pushed the call button – either a dispatcher or the nurse. The request would be communicated to someone who could handle it directly.
Sound unlikely? Not if the people at All Systems Designed Solutions and their spin-off, Sphere 3, have their way.
All Systems has been designing and installing security and communications systems for health care facilities, schools and businesses for more than 30 years. The company is family owned and operated by Gary Venable Sr. and his children, Gary Venable Jr. and Kourtney Govro.
Humble Beginnings
All Systems was actually formed out of another company that Gary Sr. worked at in the early 1970s. He’d grown up on a farm in southeast Missouri and attended the University of Missouri, becoming the first person in his family to graduate from college. He was working at an electronics company that wanted to discontinue its low-voltage business and thinking it was a good business opportunity, he bought it.
The company worked on board-level repairs for fire alarm, sound, security and communications systems and eventually morphed into All Systems, Govro said.
Today, the company has three verticals in its business: healthcare, education and corporate industrial. Its client list includes Saint Luke’s East, Lawrence Memorial Hospital, the Excelsior Springs School District, Valencia Place and Verizon, among others.
Smart Systems
All Systems is at its heart a security and communications systems company. Each business vertical is supported by teams that can design or recommend fire, security and communications systems for any situation, Govro said.
The company has stayed current with technology and the latest innovations, she said.
“Dad is an electrical engineer and Gary and I are IT nerds,” she said. “All of our systems are moving to IT networks. The transition is putting a lot of companies out of business, but we’re adapting as quickly as possible to meet demand.”
The company works with customers to increase security, while reducing their costs. Most of the systems revolve around remote monitoring with notification. In other words, video cameras capture images in a company’s parking lot. Using Video Analytics, the technology can identify if someone spends too much time in the lot or if people stand too near a car for an extended period of time and a trigger is set to alert security personnel to a possible threat. Someone in a remote location can call the area and assess the situation. If necessary, the system will alert a central monitoring station and dispatch security or the police to the area.
“A full-time guard service can cost $150,000 per station, per year,” Govro said. “This system is less than half of that.”
Sphering On
But health care is where All Systems has really made its mark in the business world. Today, it has about a 60 percent market share in the design and distribution of health care communications systems across the country. To better serve those clients, the company is in the process of starting a consulting business focused on health care, Sphere 3.
Sphere 3 works on the premise that health care institutions work in three areas that must be coordinated to offer the best patient care: processes, people and technology, Govro said.
One major problem hospitals face is their patient fall rates. There are two primary categories of falls: random falls in the corridor and those induced because patients tire of waiting after calling for help and get out of bed themselves. The fall rate is important to a hospital because any care a patient receives after a fall is non-reimbursable. A fall means an average of $24,500 in lost revenue to the hospital. Plus, someone who falls is likely to have his or her hospital stay extended. That isn’t good for the patient or the hospital, which needs to keep patients rotating in and out of beds to make money.
Sphere 3 is hoping to use the reduction of fall rate as a way to work with hospitals to utlize automated technology in nursing areas.
Technology and the response time can be monetized, Govro said, so a hospital knows how much it’s spending and saving through automation.
“With the economy, capital sales are difficult,” she said. “But hospitals will invest in improvements to their existing systems and processes.”
Sphere 3 is looking to hire and train six distributors around the country this year. The company just hired distributors in Denver, Houston and Australia.
“We have a passion about local business,” she said. “We want to have a global impact with a local business, so we’ll use our distribution channels with people who know that area.”
The Kite and the Anchor
The Venables and Govro not only have a passion for local business, but for keeping theirs a family business. Govro and Gary Jr. have been working at All Systems since they were kids.
“As kids, we were required to work for the company,” Govro said. “Gary started pulling wires as a teenager, and I was 13 when I started answering the phones.”
The succession plan in place will allow Gary Sr. to concentrate his time and efforts on mission trips to India, where his passion lies. The family’s foundation has built many schools and churches and is working on an 800-student school in India.
Family feuds have been non-existent since Govro and Gary Jr. joined All Systems, she said.
“We’re like the story of the kite and the anchor,” she said. “I’m the kite. I have the big ideas, but I don’t implement them. Gary is the anchor. He grounds me.
“We’re very respectful of one another. We never yell at one another.”
The family tries hard to keep a separation between the business and family time, which Govro admits she and her father find harder to do than Gary Jr. But they all put family first (including the other two children who aren’t in the business) for themselves and their employees.
“We have great people at the company who care about each other and our clients,” she said. “If I’m allowed to put my family first, my people should be allowed to do that.”
MBAs Mean Business
Through the years, All Systems has made good decisions and overcome difficulties to be successful. When the company first started working with more sophisticated technology, it found out that not all companies have the ethical standards it does. There were some difficult conversations with clients who weren’t getting what they’d paid for from companies All Systems partnered with, and in some cases, weren’t going to be able to implement processes they’d been promised. The lesson has been to work the technology out themselves, before installing it for any customers.
“Today, when we get a new technology in, we lock three people in a room and tell them to make it do everything it’s supposed to do and then figure out what we can do that it can’t do,” Govro said.
One of the best decisions the company recently made was taking the time and making the effort to allow Govro to earn her executive MBA at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“It’s not just because of what I learned, but because of who I became,” she said.
She credits her MBA with the decision to take on Sphere 3, as she was able to put together a business plan as a part of her coursework. Each of her classes was critical to putting together the pieces of the spin-off.
“It was the best investment,” she said. “We ROI’ed it in a year.”
Future Tech
While Sphere 3 may be the largest new initiative for All Systems, it’s by no means the only one. The company just completed an IP-based security system in the Excelsior Springs school district. New technologies are in development that would provide businesses with the ability to secure buildings and computers, all through employee name badges. There’s also research into biometric security systems. The company’s employing a social media strategy as well to attract customers and keep them informed about industry events.
“Twitter especially puts us in contact with hospitals that are outside the area,” Govro said.
Where does Govro see things in five years?
“We’d like Sphere 3 to have 26 U.S. distributors and three international partners,” she said.
The most important thing, however, is that the people at both companies continue moving forward and improving their lives and the lives of others, Govro said.
“I love what I do, but I love our people more,” she said. “And the people who invest in our systems care about their people, too.”
Kate Leibsle is managing editor of KC Small Business. (913) 432-6690// This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
