Durango – This small mountain town seems far from the front lines of global terrorism, but it is home for one office of a company in the vanguard of the battle.
In the burgeoning and fractured homeland-security market, Verint Systems Inc., a provider of sophisticated video surveillance systems, is clearly emerging as a leader, an industry analyst said.
In the London Underground, video surveillance proved effective in identifying suspects later captured in connection with the July 21 attempted bombings. The London Underground has been a client of Verint’s since last fall, but company officials would not say whether Verint’s technology was used in the bombing probe. Verint’s customer list also includes the New Jersey Turnpike; Washington Dulles International Airport; Portland, Ore., light rail; Montreal Metro; and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Verint, a publicly traded company based in Melville, N.Y., has a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.
It has more than 1,000 clients in more than 50 countries. Its employees are in 13 countries, with a strong presence in Durango, and also in Denver, although company officials will not disclose numbers at specific locations. The last time the company confirmed staffing levels a few years ago, Verint had roughly 100 employees in Durango working in research and development, sales, customer support, and other areas.
Durango is one of those places where people who could live and work anywhere like to live and work, said Alan Roden, Verint’s vice president of corporate development. And Denver has a deep pool of talent in technology, he said.
Roden wouldn’t comment last week on the status or progress of deployment of the Verint system in the London Underground. The rail line was still a new client as of July 7, when four blasts, three in the underground and one on a bus, killed more than 50 people, including the bombers.
“Verint is a leader in this industry,” said Alan Weinfeld, a senior analyst with Kaufman Brothers L.P., a Manhattan investment bank that specializes in technology and communications industries. “This company wasn’t profitable until 9/11. It required a real threat for people to invest in these systems.”
Verint offers more than its competitors, said Weinfeld, because it sells a complete platform that not only records images and sounds but has software that collects, retains, analyzes and distributes information about the recordings to decisionmakers.
If the technology is fully applied by clients, Verint’s approach to video surveillance goes far beyond the traditional setup of a security guard or two seated in front of a bank of monitors receiving feed from remote cameras, says Verint spokesman Jayson Schkloven.
Verint systems, using sophisticated software, can collect, store, analyze and relay data from digital video, e-mail, Internet, voice and fax transmissions in real time.
“We’ve taken a very different approach,” Roden said. “We have a highly scalable software solution to monitor critical infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels, mass transit and commercial facilities. We help customers collect information, apply analytical techniques and generate actionable intelligence.”
A Verint system can monitor a port, looking for any number of triggers that represent potential threats. For example, a small, fast-approaching boat, which would be unusual and suspicious in certain areas, could be one alarm trigger. The system would immediately notify all appropriate authorities.
Another application can alert authorities at a government office or in any public place whenever someone enters with a package and leaves it behind in an inappropriate area.
Tracking objects and identifying human forms and suspicious behaviors require sophisticated analytic software, Roden said.
Verint also works with law enforcement intelligence agencies that monitor calls and then must distill countless pieces of information into usable data.
“There is no shortage of information,” Roden said. “The challenge has been distilling actionable intelligence from the raw information.”
The same challenge exists in business, he said. Verint systems provide business intelligence by monitoring efficiency at call centers and tracking traffic patterns in retail stores, such as those owned by clients Home Depot and Target. And Verint watches for customer and employee theft.
Utilities, financial and educational institutions are also on the Verint client list.
Verint reported $250 million in revenues last year, an increase of almost 30 percent over the previous year, Weinfeld said. He expects revenue growth of 21 percent in 2005 and just over 20 percent in 2006.
“And that’s pretty conservative,” he said.
Verint has a strong presence in Colorado because of a once- small company called Loronix. It was founded in 1987 in Durango by two Fort Lewis College graduates, Pete Jankowski and Kevin Linville. Its first product was a simple security tool – computerized identification badges.
Loronix Information Systems Inc.’s product line had evolved into sophisticated video surveillance systems by the time it merged with Comverse Technology Inc. in July 2000.
Comverse paid $224.5 million in stock for Loronix.
Loronix became part of a Comverse subsidiary renamed Verint Systems Inc. in 2002. It remains a majority owned subsidiary of Comverse Technology Inc.
Verint is led by chief executive Dan Bodner, a veteran of the Israeli army.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
