The UTC Acquisition of GE Security -- One Year Later

by Scott Howell, All Tech Marketing

Brand transitions do not happen overnight, and it has been one year since UTC bought the General Electric GE Security group. At Thursday ISC West media reception held at the Venetian hipster Tao restaurant and nightclub, UTC Fire and Security, Global Security Products President Mark Barry reviewed brand positioning and took questions from the press.

The following text summarizes the UTC branding and positioning at the ISC West security show, some of it new, some of it simply clarified and reinforced.

From the top: United Technologies Corporation (UTC) (NYSE: UTX) does about $54B in annual revenue. A good chunk of that revenue comes from the UTC Fire and Security business unit that is made up of three sub-business units: Global Security Products, Global Fire Products, and Fire and Security Services.

The Global Security Products (GSP) business unit was the one that exhibited at ISC West, so let us focus most of our attention on that and its four major brand groups:

Interlogix: Interlogix represents primarily UTC video (UltraView, TruVision, etc.) and intrusion detection products, for both residential and small-to-medium commercial markets, as well as several networking and fire products. Interlogix products primarily move through the dealer and distributor channels.

The Interlogix brand umbrella includes the formerly-owned-by-GE residential alarm business. The UTC-GE deal gave UTC at 10-year license to use the GE name. However, UTC has resurrected the Interlogix brand name and intends to move along the retirement of the GE branding well in advance of the ten-year deadline. More info on the ISC announcements in the UTC Fire and Security Web newsroom or at: http://www.utcfireandsecurity.com/utcfs/Templates/Pages/Template-83/0,11710,pageId%3D82720%26siteId%3D70,00.html

Lenel: The Lenel brand will continue to represent the integrated, enterprise security management system products including OnGuard, SkyPoint, Facility Commander and Picture Perfect. Its products primarily move through the integrator/VAR channel to commercial and government customers.

Onity: Electronic locks, in-room safes and energy management solutions for specific verticals including hospitality and education fall under the Onity umbrella.

Supra: This brand encompasses key management systems including the modern version of a real estate agent key lock box...still hanging off the doorknob of the for-sale home, but now opened by a smart phone instead of mechanical pushbutton.

Each of the four brands will operate as individual businesses, with dedicated product development, customer support and sales teams.

And in separate UTC branding news, the Fire and Security Services business unit has aligned its United States services businesses under the Chubb brand including use of a single identity for vehicles and uniforms. The services business unit (BU) will continue to be run separate from the Global Security Products BU. The services group offerings were not represented in the UTC booth at ISC West.

UTC was sporting a brand new booth at the ISC Show, and offered attendees their first opportunity to display all four GSP brands, Interlogix, Lenel, Onity and Supra, within the same booth space.