Page 18 - Security Today, October 2018

Making Your Expertise Unique
BEy Ralph C. Jensen
very businessperson wants to bring something differ- ent, or unique, to the table when they talk about their business solutions. In the security industry, or more particularly, the security consultant, the same applies. You’ve got to have a secret sauce.
TEECOM, a well-known and well-respected security consultant in California’s Bay Area brings a wealth of possibilities to the job site. According to Jeff Smith, an associate principal, with the firm, TEECOM is ahead of the industry curve in the processes and tools now in use.
“We function more like a tech firm than an AEC firm,” Smith said. “We use Slack for internal communication, Smartsheet for work collaboration, the full Google professional suite, Dropbox Profes- sional, Bluebeam for document markups, all of these tools allow us to deliver projects more efficiently and with predictable outcomes. All of this facilitates a collaborative design process that boosts our qual- ity assurance ratings.”
Well, who is TEECOM, and who have they worked for, and what
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work have they done?
They work with public institutions, tech giants, the Fortune 500,
architects, developers and contractors. Since 1997, TEECOM has cre- ated the vision for, designed, or managed more than 2,000 technology systems for leading clients such as San Francisco International Airport, The American Museum of Natural History, and Google. TEECOM has helped each of these organizations make critical technology deci- sions and, in many cases, helped them save money.
For example, Salesforce saves $1.2 million per year operationally, University of California at San Francisco saved $7 million on a building renovation, and UC Berkeley saved $12.5 million on an adaptive re-use.
“One of the things that makes us different is that we offer physi- cal security systems design within the context of an integrated design team,” Smith said. “Our multidisciplinary approach means that we are a one-stop-shop for clients, offering a single point of contact for all building technology disciplines.”
Because TEECOM handles every aspect of building planning and design, an employee can literally get up and walk across the office to ask
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