Integrated Precision Systems triples its business growth using Paessler PRTG

About Integrated Precision Systems

Integrated Precision Systems (IPS) is a full-service, IoT-managed services solution provider focused on enterprise-class security systems. Services range from risk assessment and consultative design to full deployment and long-term system maintenance.

IPS designs, installs, and maintains network video surveillance, security systems, cloud data storage, and intrusion detection and monitoring. The company serves clients in federal, state, and local government, as well as industrial, banking, healthcare, education, commercial casino, and incarceration industries.

Since 1998, Integrated Precision Systems, Inc. has partnered with organizations across the public sector and highly regulated commercial industries to secure and protect their most valuable assets – both physical and human. Rob Jackson, an MIT engineer who worked in the aerospace industry and for Amazon prior to acquiring IPS in 2017, set his vision to transform the physical security systems integrator into an IoT-managed service provider.

Based in Cleveland, IPS helps clients in 27 states across the US and 17 countries navigate risks, regulations, and security budgets as new challenges arise. As legacy technologies become obsolete, IPS recommends and supports new systems. IPS’s team of IT professionals lives out its mission to make safe what matters most to their clients.

"PRTG helps us monitor critical security systems to give customers the peace of mind that their devices are operational and protecting their valuable assets."

Rob Jackson, President, Integrated Precision Systems

What Integrated Precision Systems uses PRTG for

Keep clients in highly regulated industries in compliance and protected by ensuring uptime of servers, cameras, power supplies, card readers, radiation detection panels, and much more.
Manage device lifecycle planning to reduce frequency of emergency device replacements due to failures.
Monitor server health and storage capacity to ensure video retention.
Reduce frequency of in-person service calls and accelerate issue resolution through remote monitoring.

The challenge

NOC at Integrated Precision Systems in action

A vital part of any organization’s security status is the consistent uptime of its network and connected devices. Failures can cause massive security issues such as:

Losing required compliance certifications.
Racking up fines.
Shutting down operations, which leads to loss of valuable revenue and assets.

A year after acquiring IPS, Jackson continued to receive complaints from both clients and his employees about video surveillance files being lost, unavailable, or not captured at all due to servers and devices falling offline and switches failing to transmit data.

Jackson knew IPS’s business model had to change and set a goal to build a service that would monitor the health of 20,000 client end points by 2024. In researching software solutions to accomplish that objective, Jackson had a couple critical requirements. “It had to be centralized so that our team could control the data. It had to be cost effective to monitor a diverse group of products. Some monitoring tools focused on specific products, but we wanted to be able to monitor anything,” said Jackson.

The solution

Jackson selected and implemented Paessler PRTG Network Monitor to transform IPS from a physical security integrator into an IoT-managed service provider. This move positioned the company to become a critical partner to its clients and to generate a steady, increasing stream of recurring revenue.

Serving clients in highly regulated industries means that there is no tolerance for downtime. One client, whose liability risk was extremely high, inadvertently changed the recording settings on a batch of cameras. This one user error put excessive load on the server and spiked the CPU usage, resulting in packets of lost video needed for both evidence and staff protection. Cameras were streaming directly to computers, but not being saved on the server, which meant that no one onsite realized that critical video footage was being lost. PRTG quickly detected the issue and alerted the IPS team. “Without PRTG, this could have gone on for weeks, but we were able to resolve it in three hours,” said Jackson.

Prior to implementing PRTG, IPS admins would visually check a client’s 300-camera system to ensure it was working properly every morning. Now, PRTG does this automatically, which has allowed IPS to scale up to more than 1,500 cameras and increase its revenue. By eliminating the manual process technicians previously used, techs have time to focus on more pressing issues.

IPS has also eliminated its manual internal ticketing process via customized scripts. These scripts enable two-way communication by watching SQL tables and creating service tickets directly in ConnectWise. These tickets contain the configuration and location of the device. If the event self-heals, the customized PRTG script closes the ticket, which saves time by eliminating the manual entry process.

Conclusion

IPS’s business tripled in three years and the company surpassed its goal to monitor 20,000 endpoints two years earlier than planned.

“We have a product we can sell. PRTG has helped us be more proactive in keeping our clients’ networks and devices online. It has increased our adeptness in device lifecycle planning, too. Both of which have helped reduce emergency situations, increase revenue, and deepen our relationships with our clients,” said Jackson.

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