Meet Heath Gaffney of IMSYS Security in North

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heath Gaffney.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Heath. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
So my story goes, back at the ripe age of 12 I started my first sales job, selling newspapers. I loved it! Got up early, grabbed my yellow and orange newspaper bag, jumped on my Huffy bike and off I went, delivering the Sunday paper…damn the papers were big back then! Stuffed with all the flyers and coupons. That was the best day to land new customers. After delivering the papers, I would take the extras and sell them to potential new clients…okay, most the time I gave them away for free, but once that person saw all the “savings” inside….well just that one Sunday paper and all the saving more than paid for the daily paper. It was more like we paid them to read our newspaper! Perhaps the same approach should be used today?

Fast forward to 2005 and here I am at the ripe age of 34 starting my second company, Mobile Strategy Corp. dba IMSYS Security. Just prior to Founding IMSYS I was working with a mobile computing manufacturer and was working with several public safety institutions. We leveraged RFID tags and readers to track assets. Yet one of the most important assets were not tracked at all? This customer was a county sheriff’s office and the assets were people, particularly inmates. I had the solution, a partner company from Australia was successful at doing just this in Holland and other parts of the world… This was it, I found the system for my next venture. By the end of 2005 I had raised a little capital (okay, truth be told I really drained my personal accounts), got a couple close friends to assist and struck a deal with my global partner to introduce their solution in the USA.

The pilot program was so successful in leveraging active RFID tags and readers to monitor the movement of 20 prisoners from a cell block to the kitchen, we landed our first contract for over 1 million dollars! The contract was to track, monitor, and protect Judges in the county courthouse. Yes, they never really wanted to track the inmates, they just wanted to see the solution work in the worst environment they could. The project we deployed was for tracking the movement of over 600 people throughout an entire courthouse. All the judges and officers movements were monitored with a key fob type tag that also incorporated a button. The button served as a panic alarm, that when pressed would instantly notify central command of the location. Of course the implementation was a success! Next steps we were asked to integrated Video Surveillance to see the alarmed events in real time. We then incorporated access control with the swipe of a card. VoIP in order to have call buttons at doors and gates for central command to manage.

Within a few years we had taken a simple solution and morphed it into a complete Presence Awareness System! IMSYS defines Presence Awareness as the ability to leverage various proven technologies to provide our customers enough information that will allow them to make informed, intelligent decisions… Some of those decisions we have even automated and incorporated into our IMSYS Presence Awareness System, IPAS.

12 Years into the evolution of IMSYS Security, we have incorporated multiple tiers of technologies into IPAS which include Active & Passive RFID, Video Management, Wired and Wireless Panic alarms and sensors, Door/Gate/Light Automation, VoIP for 2 way communication. We have even incorporated facial and other biometric systems for customers’ specific requirements.

When I look back and see all that we have accomplished its rather impressive even to me… Now it’s time to let the world now about IMSYS and how we can help our customers create a safe, more secure & efficient environment!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No it was not a smooth road…. If it were, then it wouldn’t be fun! We have had many struggles in “finding our identity” so to speak would be our toughest challenge. IMSYS has evolved from a systems integrator where we had 15+ employees and did all aspects of projects, from design work, to pulling cables, installing hardware and backend servers and switches to today where we are currently a small group of 6 (looking to grow) focused on being a Solutions Provider. IMSYS focus is to work closely with our customers and provide information and knowledge to our customers…like our Presence Awareness, if we provide enough information for our customers to make informed decisions they will chose IMSYS for the next projects… IMSYS then brings in key partners to assist with the installation and deployment of our solutions. This allows IMSYS to focus on offering the best solutions we can and ensure they work to exceed our customers’ expectations.

Please tell us about IMSYS Security.
IMSYS delivers integrated IP Video and real time RFID tracking solutions to provide “Presence Awareness”, the ability to know who and what is present in specific areas of interest.

In today’s challenging environments, organizations are depending on automated systems for monitoring video, tracking personnel and securing premises with access control to provide safe and secure workplaces. IMSYS’ mission is to enable identification and verification through data capture technologies, IP video, wireless communications and intuitive software. Our systems provide access to mission critical information using “Technology to Empower Knowledge” to make organizations more efficient, safer and more secure.

IMSYS software solutions provide real ongoing cost savings by applying proven technology products and methodology to real world operations. Doing more with less and improving the bottom line by eliminating errors and the duplication of effort is the goal that can be achieved.

I would say I am most proud of all our employees have the same simple approach to business and we leverage the same moral, ethics, and values in business as we do at home. Honesty, integrity, and accountability is something I and we can always be proud of. One of my favorite sayings is “You can’t change the facts, but you can change how you react to them”.

Aside from our dedication to our customers we are set apart from others because we are upfront and honest, experienced and informed, willing to share information and knowledge….As I tell our customers is “IMSYS becomes part of your team, we are here to help you not sell you” From a product standpoint, we keep things simple and have 3 key factors,

1. Functional – Our solutions are as open platform as we can offer. We will never lock a customer into our solution and always use the best of breed proven technologies. As an example our Video Management System supports over 3000 different camera models! We can incorporate all types of technologies and if you have an idea or concept of how a technology may help your company, IMSYS will work with you to incorporate into our Presence Awareness to provide a functional solution!

2. Affordable – IMSYS Presence Awareness is very affordable and easy to price. Each module is clearly defined and we offer fully functional software with each license. As an example our Video Management System list price is $199 per camera…That is all! Have as many users as you want, incorporate as many servers as you need. The cost is simply per camera and you get a fully functioning VMS with all the bells and whistles. We are not going to charge you $10,000 to use a video wall, no per user or per device fee.

3. Easy to Use – We have found one of the toughest aspects of deploying a new technology is user interaction. If users cannot use the system effectively, well…. It won’t get used. I always like to say, if my 8 year old son cannot turn it on and start using it, then it’s not viable for the market place! Perhaps in today’s world I need to drop that age to 4 or 5 as an 8 year old now-a-days is a computer whiz kid!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
It is easy to sit and look back and say what if…hindsight is 20/20! I am more in-tune with not making the same mistake twice! Then you are always progressing and advancing. However, if I were to start over, I would have better defined my goals and objectives, had a clear vision of our growth strategies, clearly defined the roles, efforts, and accountability for each officer and employee.

Pricing:

• IPAS VMS List Price is $199.00 per camera
• IPAS Access is Free with every IPAS VMS camera license you purchase, otherwise it is $199 per door/gate
• Remote Systems Support is $75 per year per device (1st year support is free with initial purchase!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.imsyscorp.com
• Phone: 877 464 6797 option 1
• Email: sales@imsyscorp.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imsyscorp/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/IMSYS?lang=en

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