In The Boardroom™ With...

Eric Jackel
Vice President, Shared Services
Prosegur Security USA : Security Monitoring

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thanks for joining us today, Eric! Your experience in the operations center space is extensive, and it is somewhat rare to see the type of longevity you’ve had with Prosegur. Can you please tell us a bit more about your background and how you got started?

Eric Jackel: Thank you, and yes… it has been a great run, and the future is brighter than ever! I actually got my start in the industry on the customer service side of things. When I first came in back in 2007, the company was called Viewpoint, which would later end up being acquired by Prosegur in 2018. My initial charge was to build a customer service program that would be unrivaled in our industry. Most remote services are somewhat “invisible” to the client, so building a program focused on proactive communication and relationship-building was unique at the time and gave us an advantage over our competitors. I am glad to say the programs we started back then are still going strong, and others within Prosegur have taken what we started and only improved on it.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What was unique about the program that you built? 

Eric Jackel: Well, as I mentioned, the underlying goal with the program was to make it proactive. If you are only talking to your clients in a reactive way, then you’re not really building any sort of relationship with them. Regular communication allows you to better understand your clients’ needs and challenges to a point where you can anticipate ahead of time what is coming. You should not be hearing from your security provider only when there’s a problem.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: In the past year or so, Prosegur started branding their operations centers with the “iSOC” concept. Can you explain a little about that?

Eric Jackel: The “SOC” part of it, of course stands for Security Operations Center, and the lowercase “i” represents several terms that apply to the modern-day SOC. Words like “innovation,” “intelligence,” “integration,” and so on. It is part of the evolution of our global network of SOCs from basic alarm response centers to fully equipped, multi-service, multi-platform fusion centers. Obviously, a lot of it is simply technology-driven, but we’re providing more remote services to clients than ever before, and the potential for expansion is just off the charts.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Can you expand on that? What types of services are you offering today that you did not offer 10 years ago?

Eric Jackel: It is a long list! Access control services, logistics management and GPS tracking, field services tied to security officer services, iOT-based applications, business continuity services, remote device management, remote system health monitoring, and so much more. When you can add to your repertoire through innovation and technology, you can provide your clients with some immensely powerful tools to help secure their assets, property, and people while also empowering their business decision-making process.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What other changes within the industry have you seen, and what would you say drives those changes?

Eric Jackel: The simple answer is technology. When I first joined the company, our core service was conducting virtual patrols. Within a couple of years, video analytics started to really gain traction, and we shifted toward more of an event-based model. As things progressed, we started to see various AI applications pop up. It has allowed us to develop new lines of business and new ways to grow.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: ISC West was held back in March, and you were a featured SIA Education program presenter. What was your topic and how do you think the show went overall?

Eric Jackel: It was great to see ISC so well-attended! Everyone there said how they felt it was back to pre-pandemic levels. There was a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, and some really great educational opportunities. We’re still working to follow up on all of the leads and new business partnerships from the show. My presentation was focused on Managed Services, with an emphasis on the integrator point-of-view. The discussion centered around revenue generation and how establishing managed services as its own line-of-business benefits both the service provider and customer. It was a great experience and I was honored to have the opportunity to share some of my own experiences with industry peers.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What was the biggest take-away from your presentation? 

Eric Jackel: I would say it’s probably how most of your customers actually want managed services, but they don’t realize it just yet, or simply don’t know what to call it. Very few companies these days have the capacity, personnel, and resources to maintain their security systems. With an unending series of firmware and software updates, the need to rotate passwords for security purposes, and the need to make sure that your systems are functioning at 100% at all times, it simply makes sense to outsource those functions. And, in most cases it’s more cost-effective as well.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: So, what’s next for Prosegur in the US? Where does the next chapter take you?   

Eric Jackel: Our goal is to continue to build on the hybrid security model. To explain a bit further, this is an innovative concept and approach where we work with clients and prospects to manage multiple aspects, or in some cases the totality, of their security programs. There may be guarding components, technology solutions, remote services, and so on. We want to continue to find ways to add value to partnering with Prosegur, whether it’s through new technologies, improvements on existing services, data and information management, or simply helping to develop and implement full-scale security strategies. Prosegur is one of the largest security providers in the world, third to be exact, but we’re still a relatively little-known entity in the US. So, our current leadership team has aggressive goals for growth in this market, and I’m confident that with the team we have in place, we’ll get there even sooner than planned. The “yellow wave” is coming!