New Member Profile: BQT Solutions

BQT Solutions

BQT Solutions America Inc., based in San Diego, California, develops, manufactures and supplies security card and biometric readers, electromechanical locks, and related electronic security products. And BQT Solutions recently joined the Security Industry Association (SIA)! To learn more about BQT Solutions, we chatted with Daniel DeBlasio, Vice President of Sales, North America. Find more details on the company on its website at https://bqtsolutions.com.

1. How did you get into the security industry?

I began my security career with Gemplus (now Gemalto) in 1998. My first assignment was in selling and positioning “convergence” in the physical access and IT space. There was a bit of a detour to financial institutions in selling and supporting the Smart Visa Program in 2001. But in 2002, it was back to business development on Convergence. Our first major client was Boeing, where we rebadged over 250,000 global employees with a converged badge using HID RFID cards embedded with a chip that supported PKI. Then came accounts like Pfizer, Citigroup and American Express. In 2007, I joined HID Global and began to really understand the physical access channel as well as the many solutions that make up a true converged solution. I joined BQT Solutions in 2017 to help grow their North American business.

2. Who are the prominent executives at your company? If someone wanted to meet a key person at an industry networking event, who would that be?

  • Robert Broomfield, Chairman, Non-Executive Director
  • Geoff Cleaves, President and CEO
  • Tom McMorrow, Vice President of Global Sales
  • Dominic Papandrea, Hardware Engineering

3.What do you enjoy most about your role?

Establishing trusted relationships that lead to new and renewed customers. Satisfying a customer need and eliminating their pain points is still something that excites me about the security industry. Doing this through trusted partner relationships that also grows their business is extremely rewarding. A happy customer and a happy partner make every day rewarding.

4. What’s your company’s biggest challenge right now?

I think the biggest challenge for BQT Solutions is growing our brand awareness in the U.S. market. We have some significant installs over the last 10 years, but the majority of integrators and manufacturers in North America do not know our brand and what we bring to market. Growing the brand awareness and building new partnerships will continue to be the challenge in 2018.

5. What trends does your company foresee for the security industry in the next year?

For 2018, I see continued challenges with these five areas: 1) Internet of Things (IoT), 2) Cloud, 3) Cybersecurity, 4) Big Data and 5) Mobile Credentials.

In today’s enterprise, we are already facing all five of these but to varying degrees. Cyberthreats will just continue to rise. Big Data will grow and be intricately linked with IoT. Bring your own device will only continue to grow and opportunities to secure these devices will continue to mature. The cloud will also continue to grow but enterprises need to use the same internal controls and measurements with their cloud decisions. IoT is in its infancy but will pose the biggest cyberthreat, depending on where the enterprise deploys it. Understanding how these various devices enter the network and what security controls are in place will be critical.

6. What does your organization receive from membership in SIA? How do you plan to be active in the association soon?

Membership in SIA allows for BQT Solutions to further communicate its value proposition of providing secure, high-quality, open systems and feature rich security solutions to market participants who can utilize a solution such as ours. BQT Solutions’ involvement will focus on which part of SIA requires the most attention while balancing the interests of our company to further grow our business.

7. Will your company participate in an upcoming event with SIA such as ISC West, New Product Showcase or Government Summit? If so, what aspect of the event appeals most to your company?

BQT Solutions will most definitely participate in ISC West 2018. We have two new locking solutions that we hope to have ready for the 2018 SIA New Product Showcase. The new product showcase appeals to us as it will help expand our presence and communicate our brand to the marketplace and the various solutions that we bring to the market.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).