Netwatch: Reeling in the Years (2003 - 2011)

An Taoiseach Brian Cowen with David and Beatrice Walsh and Niall and Esther Kelly.

Taoiseach Officially Opens New Corporate Headquarters of Netwatch
Friday 30 April 2010

€5m Investment Creates 50 Highly Skilled Jobs

The Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, T.D., today (Friday 30th April 2010) officially opened the new Corporate Headquarters and state of the art Command Centre of Netwatch in Carlow and announced the creation of 50 new jobs by the company.

Netwatch is an award winning protection services company which provides real time remote security monitoring to businesses and private residences in Ireland and internationally.  The new HQ and command centre is located in a former Irish Sugar premises and represents an investment of more than €5m by the company.

This investment includes the establishment of a dedicated Research and Development centre, which has been supported by Enterprise Ireland.  Up to eight employees will focus on the development of new software applications and more intelligent transmission equipment and site hardware to ensure Netwatch remains a technological leader in protection systems.  In total, 50 new jobs in Operations and R&D will be created over the next eighteen months by the company, bringing total employment to over 120 people.

Speaking at the official opening, the Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, T.D. welcomed the decision of Netwatch to invest in research and development in the current economic climate and stated the investment was "closely aligned to the Government's agenda in relation to innovation."

"Significant investments in research and development are critical if we are to foster innovation in Ireland.  Netwatch is a dynamic and energetic company, driven by innovation and commercialisation and it is exactly the kind of company that we want in Ireland as we build our Smart Economy and strive to recover from our current economic difficulties," said the Taoiseach.

David Walsh, Managing Director of Netwatch said "This is a very strong statement of intent by us as a company in the Carlow region.  Our first innovation was in exploiting an idea - creating a safer and better way of providing security - and in identifying the revolutionary systems which would allow us to bring such a technology to the Irish market.

"The new R&D centre in Carlow, which has been supported by Enterprise Ireland, will allow us to continue to innovate with new applications and new technologies which will better protect our customers and their properties.  This investment will position us for future growth not only in Ireland but in overseas markets and will afford us the opportunity to pursue larger and more complex contracts.

"We are currently in advanced negotiations with the London Olympics to provide protection for critical communications infrastructure at the 2012 Olympic Games.  We have developed a unique wireless protection product for remote communication masts which is currently being trialed at several locations.  Securing contracts such as these is what will ultimately make Ireland's vision of being an innovation led economy a reality."

Michael Moriarty, Enterprise Ireland said: "Enterprise Ireland's strategy is to promote the development of innovative world-class Irish companies and support them grow to achieve strong positions in global markets.  Netwatch is a prime example of such a company.  Enterprise Ireland is working closely with Netwatch to support their continuing development.  With their focus on innovation as a key driver of their international growth strategy, they have successfully carved out their own place in global markets, driving jobs and export sales growth at home."

Established in 2003, by David Walsh, Managing Director and Niall Kelly, Director of Technology, Netwatch currently employs 70 staff and was the first company in Ireland to combine specialist video transmission technologies with satellite communications to provide safe, preventative, immediate and cost effective protection solutions for clients.  The Netwatch system is a "next generation" asset protection solution, which deploys the most advance protection technologies including GPS tracking, audio visual detection, personal protector equipment and wireless perimeter security cordons to protect individuals and premises.

The entrepreneurial spirit of the company has been recognized by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, the PA Consulting Management Awards and Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards among others.

Modern Communications could keep Carlow's safety in the picture 
[Michael Godfrey, The Nationalist] January 28th, 2005

CARLOW could have its own private CCTV network to monitor violence on the streets of the town for as little as €1,500 per week.

Local company, Netwatch Ireland Ltd, the first company in Ireland to use modern communication technologies to provide remote visual monitoring security systems to businesses throughout the country, has said it could provide such a system for the town.

Founded in 2002, the company has had an enviable success rate, winning the Carlow Chamber of Commerce New Business of the Year Award, 2003 as well as the 2004 Carlow Enterprise of the Year Award and National Enterprise Award 2004.  The company has also been shortlisted for the Small Firms Association (SFA) Awards, which will be presented by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in February.

The system used by Netwatch incorporates advanced alarm technology with the most modern CCTV techniques to create an intelligent security system which allows the command centre to watch in "real time" any intrusion taking place at a premises and, more importantly, to speak directly to criminals before they commit a crime.

Company Sales Director, David Walsh, stated it is only a matter of adapting their system and it could then provide Carlow with its own CCTV system.

"We have a tremendous relationship with the gardai and have had some tremendous success," he stressed.  "Knowing that they are being watched and that the Gardai have been notified is a huge deterrent - in 95% of recorded cases the intruder leaves the premises without committing a crime.  Imagine the success that could be had on the streets of the town if people knew they were being recorded as well as the fact that the gardai were on their way," Mr. Walsh stressed.

He pointed out that in many towns it was too expensive to have a CCTV system, as the cost of man-hours needed is cost prohibitive.  However, as they already have a manned command centre, he is sure a system could be in put in place to cover know hot-spots during critical times on busy weekend nights.

"We have the expertise and we have the system already in place.  It would only be a matter of coming up with a suitable timetable," Mr Walsh said.

When it started, Netwatch had just two employees and during its first year, it had a turnover of €10,000.  It now employs 25 people with a turnover of €1.8 million.  If current expansion plans materialise, it is envisaged that the company will employ 60 by end of 2006.

The idea to start the company stemmed from the fact that in 1999, gardai received 135,000 alarm calls from traditional burglar alarms.  Some 117,000 of these were false alarms.  It became obvious to Netwatch founders that remote visual verification was the most effective way of doing this.  But the most disturbing of all the statistics was, despite the fact that almost all of the companies surveyed had some form of crime prevention systems in place, almost half of them still suffered through crime.

Developing a solution the Netwatch founders accepted that it was not the case that existing security systems weren't effective, but to varying degrees of effectiveness.

Using new technologies pioneered in Australia, the Netwatch team developed a system for the Irish market, which delivers all of the advantages of intensive manned security solutions at an extremely low cost.  The Netwatch system differs from standard CCTV systems in some very important respects.  It is an event-based system.  When an alarm is triggered on a premises, live pictures of the area where the security breach occurred are send down ISDN lines to the Netwatch command centre.  It is a fully interactive system.  The cameras can be controlled remotely to focus on different areas and they are equipped with microphones and speakers allowing the command centre to communicate directly with the intruder to warn them to stop, that the gardai are on the way or, indeed to alert them to danger.  It also allows for a high degree of liaison with the Garda.  For example, if gardai inform Netwatch that they have a car in the area, the command centre will simply guide them to the exact location of the intruder allowing them to be apprehended "red-handed".  Another advantage of the system is that gardai and keyholders know they are only called upon when the activation has been caused by a genuine intruder.

"It is also very cost effective with a full monitoring service costing as little as €15 per day - not much more than an hour of a security guard's time," said Mr. Walsh.

In a major step forward for the company, the Society for the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), the representative body for the motor industry in Ireland, is recommending the system to its 1,850 members following its successful installation in several car dealerships throughout the country.

Mr. Walsh stressed the achievement of these results has been due to a combination of the technical and technological expertise of the Netwatch team; the extreme high service levels offered by the company; and the effectiveness of the system which has meant that client referral is among its most powerful sales and marketing tools.

 Recognition / Awards

SFA National Small Business 2006

Sunday Business Post Best in Business 2005

Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award 2005

PA Consulting Group Management Excellence 2005

Thou Shalt Not Have False Alarms
[Business & Finance] May, 2003

Too often the time of security companies and Gardaí is wasted by call-outs triggered by alarm systems that have cried wolf.  With break-ins and vandalism an ever-increasing burden for Irish business, a Carlow-based security firm may have the answer, reports Fearghal O'Connor.

Wailing alarms have become a regular part of life in most built up areas.  They are so common that passers-by now pay little attention to flashing lights and ringing bells emanating from darkened premises.  Indeed the skepticism may be well-founded.  Garda figures for 1999 show that of 135,000 alarm call-outs that year, 117,000 were false alarms.

If anything, this figure gives solace to burglars when they set off an alarm system. More and more, intruders can ignore expensive security systems because they know that those supposed to respond will believe that a break-in is probably not underway. However, if the building happens to be protected by Netwatch, intruders will quickly realise that they are up against a whole different level of security.

"The concept for Netwatch came about after a friend of ours was attacked by intruders after responding to an alarm at a building to which he was a keyholder," explains David Walsh, a director of the fledgling Carlow-based security company.

The system uses ISDN technology to monitor premises from a remote command centre. Intruder alarms are situated on the exterior of the site and CCTV cameras watch over everything.  As soon as the alarm is activated, a warning is sent to the command centre in Carlow.  The entire premises is instantly surveyed using the live video feed.  Netwatch can then call both the local Garda station and the keyholder to explain what is happening.

This has obvious benefits in the case of a false alarm.  However, the system really comes in to its own in the event of a real break-in.  The ISDN lines allow two-way communication: the command centre can actually speak to an intruder and warn them that they are being monitored.

The alarms are usually on the perimeter fence - this allows us to detect intruders before they can get to their target and commit the crime," explains Walsh.  "When we pick up somebody breaking in initially, we can watch them and set off the traditional alarm to see if that scares them off.  If that doesn't work, we communicate with them directly.  We will warn them that they are trespassing and that the police will be called.  Sometimes they think that it is just a recording to scare them away but when you give them a full description of themselves, they absolutely leg it.

We'll say something like, 'I can see you clearly, you are wearing a blue jacket and a peak cap'.  It never fails to work.  On every single occasion since we started last October, the intruder has quickly left the premises when we started speaking to them."

The Netwatch system has already received a lot of praise from Gardaí.  "When we ring them, we are ringing as eye-witnesses with visual verification that we are dealing with not just another false alarm," continues Walsh.  "In fact, two police forces in Britain have actually come out and said that they will no longer respond to alarms without visual verification.  Not only can we provide that, but we can even e-mail them a picture of the intruder to help speed up detection.  We will stay in constant contact with them or with the keyholder as they approach the building to keep them informed of what is happening inside.  This makes a big difference to a businessperson who is tired of coming in on a Monday morning and looking at tapes of the latest break in over the weekend."

This level of security is proving very attractive to a wide variety of Irish businesses.  Netwatch now employs ten people and has installed its state-of-the-art security systems in 80 sites throughout Ireland since its establishment six months ago.  Typical customers include factories, warehouses, stud-farms, garages and large retail premises.  The company is currently in discussions with Carlow Chamber of Commerce about installing the system throughout the town centre to combat anti-social behaviour at the weekends.

The big advantage of the Netwatch system is the peace of mind that it provides.  It is also much more cost-effective than employing on-site security guards.  Not surprisingly, this type of security is already big business in the US, the UK and France.  Netwatch is unlikely to have the Irish market all to itself for too long. Nevertheless, the Carlow company has implemented a high-tech security system that will be hard to beat.