SIA New Member Profile: Watchful

New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Watchful works to empower security teams to build trust, perform confidently and deliver exceptional results to their clients. The company is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, and serves customers across New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada.

SIA spoke with Joshua Parsons, founder and CEO of Watchful, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

Tell us the story of your company.

Joshua Parsons: Watchful was born out of a deep commitment to crime prevention and community safety. My journey began in the New Zealand Police Force, where I served as a dedicated officer focused on keeping communities safe. Over the years, I saw firsthand the limitations of physical security alone in preventing crime and harm before it happens. This experience sparked an intense interest in finding proactive, technology-driven solutions that could enhance traditional security methods. My vision was to build a platform that not only supports physical security, but also anticipates risks before they become incidents. With advancements in artificial intelligence and analytics, I saw the potential to create a solution that would empower organizations to take preventive action, protect people and assets more effectively and reduce the human resources burden on security teams. And so, Watchful was born – technology that combines practical policing insights with cutting-edge tech, transforming the way we think about security and providing a new era of proactive protection.

Watchful is currently headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, where we began our journey. Our reach extends well beyond New Zealand, serving customers across New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada. As we continue to grow, we’re excited to announce that in December 2024, we’ll establish our first physical presence in the U.S. with our first U.S.-based staff member. This move marks the beginning of a broader expansion, and in 2025, we plan to further build our footprint in the U.S. with a larger team and physical presence. This growth aligns with our commitment to bringing proactive security solutions to organizations across North America and beyond.

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings or your company unique?

JP: Watchful gives camera monitoring agents superpowers with our bespoke decision making persona, Quill. Agents in Watchful monitor up to six times more cameras while increasing efficiency, consistency and reliability. Quill analyzes every threat on behalf of the agent, suggesting accurate and fast decisions. The gamification monitoring platform allows for an exciting and bespoke agent experience like no other, increasing employee satisfaction along the way.

What is something we might not know about your company – or something new you are doing in security?

JP: We are getting ready to launch the world’s first automated decision-making software for remote guarding, to automate low-level false alarms or nonthreatening people-based alarms. Our driven team of experts will not rest till this becomes a reality. This will create a new era of monitoring agents, positioning them as the truly specialized crime fighters in their own realm.

What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

JP: We are addicted to creating a safer world, faster. We believe the security industry’s current shift to camera monitoring will continue to grow at a huge pace and become what the alarm monitoring era of the 1980s and 1990s was, in the 2020s and 2030’. We believe businesses like Watchful and the customers we serve will create significantly safer communities and it is our goal to support our customers to stop more crime.

What are the biggest challenges facing your company and/or others in the security industry?

JP: Security technology is still very disparate and fragmented with different standards and protocols across hardware and software. Our major opportunity is to try and bridge this together to the greatest degree possible and promote a more collaborative and open technology standard from the software front. Many hardware vendors are progressing rapidly to more open integrations with supportive software development kits and APIs; however, the sector has a long way to go before these challenges are resolved.

What do you enjoy most about being at your company – and in the security industry?

JP: I get to work with people who are way smarter than me, who teach me so much every day. Everyone in my team rises to the challenges the industry faces with glee and optimism and as if any problem can be solved if we just put our mind to it. I love seeing this tenacity and creativity combine to create world-class and industry-leading technology. It makes constantly thinking about the business so much more worth it. As an entrepreneur you never truly switch off, so having an inspiring bunch of humans around you just makes it even more exciting.

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

JP: As new members of SIA, we look to become active participants in the SIA community. Currently, we attend major industry events like ISC East and West, and we look to further our engagement by contributing to SIA’s resources to stay at the forefront of industry trends. Over the next year, we aim to be more involved as panelists in relevant industry discussions, sharing our expertise and showcasing our product to the broader SIA community. We see this as a valuable opportunity to help shape the future of security innovation.

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.