Genesis Integrated Solutions + Evolon

Security integrator Genesis Integrated Solutions suffered financial losses from its customers’ missed security alerts before switching to a camera-agnostic threat-detection system from Evolon Technology. The result, the AI-driven Evolon Enterprise helps customers reduce risk, reduce costs, and ensure business continuity. It helps the integrator sell with increased confidence because he now provides a consistently reliable and accurate solution that proactively detects security breaches before they result in a loss.

Before George Karavangelas transitioned his company’s customer accounts to a threat-detection solution from Evolon Technology Inc., he and his wife took turns every night — all night — watching their customers’ surveillance cameras to make sure no security threats would be missed.

Karavangelas, who has been in the security industry since 2001 and owns Genesis Integrated Solutions LLC, appreciates how the surveillance industry has been transforming in recent years from one that was primarily reactive and used for forensic purposes after an incident occurred to one that is proactive and helps prevent security breaches from happening in the first place. He easily recognizes the value of using video analytics to weed out false alarms that can be caused by animals, weather, and people nearby, and provide alerts on only valid threats.

The reason Karavangelas had to personally monitor his customers’ video surveillance systems is because he underwent a damaging experience with a previous video analytics provider and central monitoring station. His customer — an auto leasing company with more than a dozen locations — had been getting hit almost weekly by thefts of wheels, rims, catalytic converters, and even entire cars being stolen. Although the remote video monitoring system that Genesis Integrated set up for their customer worked initially and even resulted in several apprehensions, it later missed some key security breaches. Karavangelas is unsure if this was the fault of the analytics provider, the central monitoring station, or both.

Either way, the damage was done. Overall, it resulted in six separate losses and $80,000 in out-of-pocket expenses to Genesis Integrated to pay for items not covered by insurance, he says. Ultimately, Genesis Integrated lost this key account. “They literally cost me one of my most important relationships,” Karavangelas says.

Around this time when Karavangelas had begun looking into a better solution for the problem of missed alerts, a professional acquaintance introduced him to Evolon Technology. The company provides video solutions that combine robust object detection with advanced AI-driven object classification. The technology piqued his interest and Karavangelas went to see a demonstration of Evolon’s threat-detection solutions at the next security industry trade show.

“I wanted to see it for myself, to see what the difference is — how much more it’s picking up, how better of a prevention vehicle the Evolon device would be,” Karavangelas says. He was excited to hear Evolon had a solution that was camera-agnostic and able to work with any camera brand, whether analog or IP.
Upon seeing the demonstration of Evolon, Karavangelas remarked that it was “literally the best analytics I’ve ever seen out of any product.” Genesis sells, designs, installs and services integrated security systems for a variety of market segments, but its niche is customers with assets that are kept outdoors, such as car dealerships. In fact, the first installation of Evolon’s solution that Genesis did was for a large dealer of pre-owned vehicles in southern New Jersey.

“The fact that Evolon not only got me the unit but sent one of the reps out here and helped me get it set up meant a lot to me,” Karavangelas says. Following that first installation, Evolon sent him a lead for another potential installation at a company that delivers uniforms and accessories to auto shops. From among their fleet of service vehicles, 18 catalytic converters had been stolen. Genesis presented a proposal and subsequently installed an Evolon system for them. Several more Evolon installations within Genesis Integrated’s service area in the northeastern U.S. followed that one.

“I can honestly say the move from [our previous provider] to Evolon was the best move I’ve ever done from a business standpoint since 2001,” Karavangelas says. “Now when I go to bed at night, I can sleep peacefully because I know that I’m not getting a call in the morning. That was what I dreaded the most. Every morning I woke up with anxiety wondering, ‘Did something happen? Did they miss something?’ None of that with Evolon. Like, the peace of mind I’ve gotten. I finally had faith in a company that delivered what they said they were going to do.”

Genesis Integrated sells the Evolon Enterprise solution to its customers, because Enterprise can be used with any existing or new camera and video management system brand. One of the deciding factors for Karavangelas in choosing Evolon Enterprise is that it is uncomplicated for a monitoring station operator to use. “This takes everything out of the equation for the monitoring station that’s getting the signal so they can dispatch properly. That made me the happiest, I would say, about Evolon,” he says.

Another deciding factor is the system’s ability to adjust the sensitivity to the environment to avoid false alarms. At one particular customer’s site, “We had people walking the property, cars going through — box trucks, smaller cars, everything — and the time and detail that Evolon spent to ensure that we were picking up everything that we needed to pick up, the due diligence that they did to ensure that the signals were going to go correctly to the monitoring station —and then, in turn, I would get less phone calls at night — was great,” Karavangelas says.

Evolon Technology provides security integrators like Genesis with a tool they can offer customers for relieving three critical pain points:

• reducing risk (eliminating false alarms and missed threats),
• reducing costs (both general costs and by utilizing existing security infrastructure, no rip-and-replace), and
• ensuring a customer’s business continuity (utilities keep running, vehicles still available to sell).

Those points were seen in action with two of Genesis Integrated’s customers using the Evolon Enterprise solution. In the first incident, a man was detected at the back of a car lot when the lot was closed at night. The central station dispatched the alarm, but it ended up being negated because it was determined the man was known to the car dealer and he had a reason for being on the premises.

“But the fact, for me, was it sent a message to everybody else. The message it sent was, ‘If you’re going to go back there when you’re not supposed to be back there, the police are going to get dispatched and you’re going to jail.’ So, the preventative measure of that dispatch going forward is priceless,” Karavangelas relates.

In the s econd incident, an E-ZPass electronic toll module was found to have been stolen. An alert was not dispatched because an employee with a passcode was the alleged culprit. However, because the Evolon Enterprise system had generated an alert, it made it easy for Karavangelas to pinpoint the time of the incident and then review the video footage to determine what happened and who was responsible.

Because Karavangelas runs two other businesses besides Genesis Integrated, his time is extremely important. In his experience as a reseller, he says Evolon respects his time by being available and responsive to his needs. “They basically make it easy for me to do what I need to do by being available when I need them to be available,” he says.

In addition to the support from Evolon, Karavangelas also points to the quality and the reliability of Evolon Enterprise as top factors in his success. “The fact that it exceeded my expectations is a blessing for me. The fact that I know I can go to bed at night, that the system is going to be there. That somebody’s going to walk on that property or try to do something bad, that signal’s going to get sent to the monitoring station. They’re going to dispatch. The customer’s not going to have a loss,” he describes. “I can sleep and have peace of mind knowing that I’m not getting a call in the morning saying, ‘Oh, they missed one and now we have three catalytic converters missing or six tires missing.’ That peace of mind — priceless.”

With Evolon as his technology provider, Karavangelas also gained a strong conviction in the ability of the solution to detect threats accurately and leave false alarms behind. “I didn’t have that confidence before. Now, it allows me to do it with 100 percent confidence that if something happens, it’s going to do exactly what I’m telling customers it’s supposed to do.”

He continues, “I’m thrilled with this product. The only thing keeping me in this business right now is Evolon.”