The Interface Story

Our corporate journey began in 1995 when seasoned industry executive Michael Shaw founded Louisiana Security Holdings LLC (LSH) and acquired a small, commercial security monitoring company in Shreveport Louisiana. Launched as Security Concepts, the company began an expansion and growth strategy that involved both strategic acquisitions and internal growth initiatives. Within two years, the company had established branch offices in East Texas and throughout the states of Louisiana and Arkansas.

In 1997 LSH acquired St. Louis-based Interface Systems Inc., further expanding the company’s reach into Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and the Mid-Atlantic region. The name of the business became Interface Security Systems while we continued to pursue our expansion strategy as a commercial and residential security monitoring company.

By 2001, Interface had grown to become one of the top 20 security companies in the country, based on industry rankings. In order to continue its expansion, additional growth capital was sought, and in December 2001, Shaw and his management team partnered with SunTx Capital Partners to recapitalize the company. Armed with significant new capital, we accelerated our growth strategy by expanding into Mississippi, central Texas and California, making Interface a nationally-recognized provider of security monitoring services.

In 2007, Interface identified an emerging trend that would change the future course of the company. A technology transformation was beginning to take place in the security industry which would significantly impact the way security services are delivered to end-users. It was the convergence of internet protocol and information technology with security applications. The combination of physical security (buildings) and logical security (network and computer technologies) would redefine the role of commercial security providers.

In anticipation of this trend, Interface acquired Loss Prevention Management, a niche company that had developed a private, secure-managed, wide area broadband network for a large QSR. We successfully integrated LPM’s IP infrastructure and network operations center into Interface’s secure operations center, creating a unified technology platform from which to deliver IP-based physical security services over a PCI compliant, private secure managed broadband network.

Today, it is this platform that enables Interface to deliver a highly innovative and unparalleled IP services bundle, including both physical security and secure managed broadband, along with other IP managed services such as digital voice and guest WiFi. These unified, cloud-based managed services have now been deployed to many of the top retail, hospitality and restaurant brands in the country.

Since 2007, we have steadily demonstrated to large multi-location restaurant operators and retailers how our groundbreaking bundled physical and network security offering delivers the latest in technology at a greater value than if procured from multiple vendors. It simplifies and improves store operations, meets exceedingly stringent PCI security standards and saves businesses money.

Interface completed another game-changing acquisition in 2012 with our purchase of Westec Intelligent Surveillance, aka Digital Witness – the nation’s leading provider of interactive video monitoring services to many of the top retail, hospitality and restaurant brands in the country. As more and more retailers and multi-location store operators rely on enhanced interactive remote video services and analytics, our Digital Witness solutions provide unrivaled features and benefits.

While we celebrated 20 years in business in 2015, our journey is just beginning. Today, Interface is the leading provider of cloud-managed IP physical and network security. Our technology is unsurpassed and our commitment to quality service is our reputation. Ultimately, however, it’s the human equation that drives us.  Our people connect one-on-one with our clients to simplify their lives with powerful solutions. Rather than adopting a vendor mentality, Interface has always believed in partnering with our customers to help them connect and protect what’s important to them.

But we know we can’t rest on our laurels. Just as we were first to recognize the trend towards convergence in 2007 and capitalize on the opportunity, we continue to stay focused on the cutting edge of technology, constantly looking to improve and expand our service offerings. And as we combine new technologies with our own innovations, we will not only affirm our commitment to remain the undisputed leader in our managed services market.  We will continue to evolve the way leading retail, and hospitality companies deliver critical IP technology to their distributed enterprises.

Executive Leadership