Since June, Lea Hilton has been president and owner of Vision Quest Inc., a company she bought from Larry Welbern for an undisclosed amount. Hilton said although the company’s legal name remains Vision Quest Inc., she has changed the name the company does business as to Vision Quest Security Solutions, because that’s a better indicator of what the company does. “We are a systems integration company. We do burglar and fire alarms, access control systems (closed-circuit TV) video systems, intercoms. We take the whole package and interface it together in one networked system, for commercial or residential (clients),” said John West, vice president and sales manager for the company. Vision Quest has 14 employees, who all work from the company’s Springfield office, 251 S. Union. Hilton said the company works nationwide for clients including U.S. Air Force bases. West said the company’s business is probably about 70 percent national and 30 percent local. “We travel all over, but I’m trying to now get everybody concentrated locally. Our technicians would really appreciate being home a little bit more,” Hilton said. Vision Quest’s 2004 revenues were $1.5 million, Hilton said. In the next decade, she’d like to triple the company’s size, she said. While nationwide work may necessitate opening satellite offices, Hilton plans to keep the main operations in Springfield. Hilton said the company has always sold, installed and serviced the various safety and security systems, but since becoming owner, she’s put more focus on the service and installation aspect. “We’ve always offered installation, to a degree, but not to what we’re doing now. We’re wanting to mainly continue turning into a contractor as opposed to just (selling) boxes,” said Hilton, who was the company’s operations manager before becoming its owner. West said the company’s business is about 80 percent commercial and 20 percent residential clients. He said that systems used for commercial clients are much more complex in terms of what they can do and how they function. “In a residential application, they’re becoming much more (complex). But it’s still basic. You have a burglar alarm and a fire alarm. You can put in cameras but (residential clients) are not to the same level of integration in a home that you are in a commercial application,” West said. For commercial clients, West added, any kind of a video system will serve as a deterrent to crime on the business’ premises. “In an application where there’s a specific area that the customer wants to cover but doesn’t want his employees to know that he’s watching them, there are a number of covert applications that we can (use to) put video equipment in and people will never know that they’re being observed,” he said. Such covert applications might be useful for cash-counting rooms and stockrooms that have only one way in and out and no way to monitor activities. Hilton’s company works with Springfield-based BioMetAccess Co. to offer biometrics to clients. “In a workplace application, biometrics will take the place of … the time clock, for time and attendance,” West said. With biometrics, such identifiers as fingerprints or retinal scans are used for each individual, making buddy-clocking – having a co-worker clock in an absent worker so they still get paid – impossible, West said. “In the other applications, if you’re trying to secure documents, cash-counting rooms, inventory, any kind of biometric control is only going to allow people that are authorized into that room, and can give you a log of who accessed that room at what time,” he said. Biometrics eliminates worries about lost keys or the need to change locks when an employee leaves the company, according to West. “All you have to do with a biometric system is remove their file, and they cannot get into that room anymore or access your building,” West said. “In a larger scenario, if you’re a very large company that uses (badges) for access control, anybody can get one of those badges and enter your building. Whether or not you have guards after that point to watch who comes and goes, all it takes is a lost card and your security is breached.” [[In-content Ad]]
