Posted by: imiloa In reply to: None Date:4/26/2006 8:18:05 PM Post #of 2452
Visited the company today.
I dropped into their Voyageur Way office this afternoon. I arrived unannounced, but Stephen Platt, the VP, took generous time to chat with me. Steve is a very friendly, down-to-earth engineer. My general sense of him was very sincere, competent, and busy.
Below are quick overviews of the info I learned.
MISC
The Voyageur Way office is their only facility. The Westminster Hwy address is their previously address. They moved to be neighbors with one of their primary electrical partners, and to be closer to downtown Vancouver.
The Voyageur office space is not large, but most of their staff are installation technicians that work in the field, so no need for extensive on-site offices.
SECURITY BIZ
Steve drives the core security installation business. He confirmed that they have over $3m in ongoing contracts, with plenty of biz on the horizon. His office had several stacks of building drawings, and it was clear that they are managing a lot of contracts.
We discussed a lot of topics, giving me a good sense of their current and near-term business. Quick highlights:
- Over $3m in ongoing contracts. - 24 security/network technicians.
- Originally specialized in security systems, but added voice/data networking a couple years ago, which has greatly increased their revenue stream. Some of their new contracts are pure voice/data jobs.
- New contracts being spec'd in Calgary & Portland.
- Calgary & Portland jobs are result of referrals by construction companies who like their Vancouver work.
- They are a preferred vendor for several of BC's top development firms, including Millennium which is the most likely candidate for the upcoming Olympic village developments.
- He showed me the security hardware they use for personnel access/tracking, both passive and active RF models.
- Steve's role is primarily evaluation and spec at this point, and his workload has risen to the level where he is looking to hire an assistant just to help him with the eval/spec work. The stacks of drawings definitely reinforced this reality.
Overall, their security/network biz seems both very steady, reliable, and growing. They have been scaling to meet demand and will continue to do so.
Again, my general sense of Steve is that he is a very sincere, straight-forward engineer. Moreover, our conversation covered a wide range of interwoven topics. Nutshell, I feel confident he was being 100% honest with me on all counts.
RFID
Perry Law, the president, and the RFID team are on the road for two weeks, New York, Romania, and Hungary, back around May 8th. The Philly mtg was originally scheduled for last Monday, 24th, so they may have used their tix to shop biz in NYC. This info isn't announced, so I didn't press for details.
Moreover Steve said his focus is entirely on the security biz, and that I would need to talk to Perry to get accurate info on the RFID contracts. Steve did confirm that they have a software team that developed their RFID solution. We talked for a bit about the technology, itself, and Steve noted that it's not that much different from the active systems they have used for years to track people in buildings.
ie: The RFID contracts aren't as much of a stretch from their core competency as some folks have speculated (including RFID Ltd).
Steve said they did R&D on chicken farms in the Fraser Valley (in BC), so the system has been tested in realistic environments.
Nutshell, from my discussion with Steve, I am confident that their RFID system is both real and viable. Moreover, that their core competencies extend naturally to the RFID tracking realm.
STOCK LEMON
Again, not Steve's dept. He said Perry was handling that, so I would need to ask Perry about the details. I have Perry's card and will arrange a mtg with him when he gets back from his travels.
That's the top-line report. Lots more details that I can relay over time. Just wanted to get the basics posted tonight.
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