"Rewarding, supportive, productive " - Fenix Monitoring

P I H S R E B M E M

"REWARDING, PRODUCTIVE, SUPPORTIVE"

Members Fenix Monitoring joined in 2020. We caught up with their Managing Director Carl Meason to discuss how experience of membership is matching his expectations.

BY KATHERINE INGRAM

What made you want to join the BSIA, and how has membership helped you?

When we initially developed Fenix Monitoring we wanted to find ways to engage with the industry, be part of leading the conversation and strive for some influence in our sector. As a new and emerging business, we needed to carefully consider how we could do this in the most direct and effective way. The BSIA helped us in our initial stages to have this voice and be a key stakeholder. As Fenix has developed and we have engaged further, this voice, and our relationship with the BSIA has positively evolved.

Were there any challenges that led to you joining the BSIA in terms of gaining contracts?

We would like to answer this in a slightly different way, it was not challenges that led us to the BSIA, we were looking for opportunities. We are primarily B2B, our customer base is also part of the BSIA and its target demographic. This network was seen as an immediate benefit. Our management team discussed these opportunities when joining the BSIA.

As we have developed and engaged further, this voice, and our relationship with the BSIA has positively evolved.

Out of interest, how big is your LinkedIn audience size?

Fenix Monitoring has a security specific following of over 1,200 professionals on LinkedIn. Much of our Senior Management team has a much larger and influential security audience including LinkedIn group Security Focus.

If I said to you that that value is directly proportional to engagement you’d probably agree with that statement?

100%. If you work with the BSIA for the status and legitimacy it brings that is great, it will certainly help you win business. The real value comes when you engage though. We have lost count of the new connections, relationships and ideas that have been ‘ sparked’ from being involved.

Rewarding, productive supportive

Was there anything else on your mind regarding perceptions that you wanted to shift or change when you joined the BSIA?

Absolutely. The ARC industry works in the background and we want to bring it to the attention of the masses. Fenix wanted to simplify electronic monitoring and make it accessible and easy to engage with. Many of our competitors have similar issues to us but we have seen an historic and ingrained ‘ us and them’ attitude. This is certainly understood when competing for the same business, but our problems are all the same, we wanted the BSIA to help us facilitate safe ground to discuss problems that affect us all. We are looking forward in the near future to have an ARC working group which will help achieve this step forward.

What recent success have you've had and could you tell us a little more about it?

Fenix Monitoring has experienced significant growth in an organic way with multiple major wins throughout this year. Our development of new technologies and attitude towards emerging business has helped unlock numerous opportunities. Fenix have brought 131 new businesses that have never used Monitoring services before into the ARC sector pool in the past 12 months. This has been achieved by removing barriers and positively developing the customer's experience. Everything Fenix does is done with a view to the long term. This includes the development of our senior management with a new Customer Experience lead, Head of Monitoring and Monitoring consultant.

Particular praise is needed for the great work undertaken to move the British Security Awards online in the midst of the Pandemic – it was a huge effort and a real boost for us and the industry at that time.

Is there anything this year that stood out for you, e.g. engagement opportunities or information sharing?

Fenix have been really impressed with BSIA's agility to react to the challenges of the past two years. They have been a solid institution that many of its members including us have relied upon for guidance and support. In particular, with lobbying government alongside others to achieve key worker status for our industry. We also think particular praise is needed for the great work undertaken to move the British Security Awards online in the midst of the Pandemic – it was a huge effort and a real boost for us and the industry at that time.

Over the past 12 months with lockdowns and the pandemic have you seen any significant changes in this time?

We believe the potential of the ARC industry has been recognised. The value of remote services has reached many more, and in this reach new ideas and innovative remote services have been created. The security industry was already combining physical and electronic security and have been working with these providers to offer additional options. We have also seen a large growth in Lone Worker monitoring with many employees remote working, this we believe will continue and accelerate.

Does membership help at all tendering for contracts?

We have certainly used our membership in every conversation about new business. The BSIA is now part of our history and will be as we continue to make our mark and speak to new friends. The Fenix Monitoring SME of the year award is proudly presented in our offices and is always a talking point.

What three words describe your membership of the BSIA?

Rewarding, Productive, Supportive

Is it the membership you had in mind initially or has it changed?

It has certainly changed. We were not aware of the full range of support mechanisms and benefits the BSIA can offer, the reality is sometimes you just don't know what you need until you need it. Our needs have changed in the past couple of years and the BSIA has always been there to support us. We have been surprised with how its wider network of experiences have benefited our business as it has grown.