The PPM Team – ASIS Security Expo 2013 in Chicago, IL.
PPM: A World Leader in Corporate Security Continues to Innovate
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By Mark Kandborg
et me introduce you to PPM, an Edmonton-based software company that develops, maintains and delivers leading edge corporate security software to clients around the world, including social media giants, diamond mines, and famous cultural landmarks. PPM was established 25 years ago by Denis O’Sullivan, a former detective with the Irish police force who was, at the time, a corporate security advisor for the City of Edmonton. Her father’s background in law enforcement was a good fit, as company president and co-CEO Elaine O’Sullivan explains. “Think of a corporate security department as somewhat like a police department. They are responsible for protecting their organization’s assets, including their people, property and information. In essence, they are responsible for preventing incidents, and that’s everything from the most common, like laptop theft, fraud, and workplace violence, to those that make headlines like a teenager stowing away in a wheel well of an airplane, a terrorist act or the theft of credit card records from a retailer.” The consequences of any incident can be great and include direct financial loss, work disruption and litigation. The obvious objective is to prevent incidents, but how? Much of the solution lies in PPM’s specialty: the effective documentation, analysis and investigation of incidents. Back in the mid-’80s, dealing with hundreds and thousands of incident records was an almost overwhelming task.
“In much the same way as you might envision a police station back in the day with rows upon rows of filing cabinets full of incident reports, in corporate security it really was just paper records. It was challenging to answer quick questions, next to impossible to identify trends and annual reports took weeks to prepare,” O’Sullivan explains. The founders of PPM saw a need to take that information, put it into a computer and make it accessible. They dubbed their software “the new intelligence” and it was to change the face of corporate security forever. Today, PPM is a world leader in what they do and has successfully transitioned their software from DOS to Windows, from a bleeding edge solution to a mission critical tool and from local installations to the cloud. By enabling the effective documentation, analysis, and reporting of security events, their clients make informed decisions that prevent incidents, protect assets, and mitigate risk, O’Sullivan says. “Incidents happen. An employee is being threatened by a colleague, or an employee at a remote location has activated a panic alarm. Maybe a competitor has gained access to proprietary company research, or the CEOs office door was left unlocked and his laptop is missing. Accusations of negligence or of inadequate security are countered by documented evidence and the deployment of effective security safeguards is facilitated by statistics that demonstrate what’s needed — and where.” Historically a reporting and analytical tool, PPM’s latest solu-
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Perspective by PPM – Incident Management Software.
PPM’s Senior Management – Brian McIlravey, Elaine O’Sullivan & Peter Mah.
tions veer into the front-end where the company’s dispatching software now helps organizations respond to incidents, still collecting data but also managing real-time resources and ensuring the fastest possible response from the closest security officer. PPM is proud of their Alberta roots. Local clients include Alberta Health Services, ATCO Group, Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, City of Calgary, Calgary Transit, Fairmont Banff Springs, Grant MacEwan, Northlands, and Servus Credit Union. O’Sullivan says, “While we’re proud to have some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies using our software, we were just as proud when a local refinery invested in (software product) Perspective earlier this week.” As much as this Edmonton-based company has its feet solidly on Alberta soil, its vision, and its reach, is worldwide. “While the majority of us are here in Edmonton, we have three employees in Ontario, one in Quebec, one in the Maritimes and three in the United States. We also have people in Australia and the UK and we support well over a 100K software users around the world.”
PPM’s list of clients comes pretty close to what you would get if you googled “corporate and government giants.” They also include prominent educational institutions and established healthcare facilities. Dalhousie University, the University of Miami, Bank of Hawaii, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Blue Cross, Sun Life, CBS, Éstée Lauder, Ford Motor Company, John Deere, Mattel, Oakley, De Beers Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Company, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, the Port of London, Bell Canada, Motorola, Delta Air Lines and Microsoft all trust their corporate security to PPM, as do such obviously security-minded entities such as the Royal Canadian Mint, the Smithsonian, and perhaps my personal favourite — the Department of Homeland Security. This list should give you an idea of the level of trust and respect that this local company has earned over the past 25 years. Clearly, PPM has a lot to celebrate, and not just their tremendous growth and success. They also have a new home. “It’s been a great experience, having the opportunity to come in and build from scratch something that really reflects who we are and how we need to work, something that’s collaborative and open. We have developers, we have sales people, and we have marketers. There’s IT, there’s consulting and training, and there’s customer service. They’re all so different, but you want them to interact with each other. They have to be in a pocket with their peers because that’s who they work with the most, but you want to make it easy to ask questions and to collaborate cross-departmentally. In fact, the most creative solutions for our clients typically come from bringing a variety of groups together. It’s surprising what a developer, an account manager, and an application specialist can come up with when faced with a challenge and given a whiteboard wall and some markers.” In fact, every meeting room at PPM
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PPM’s New Offices in Oxford Tower.
(and there are eight of them) includes a floor to ceiling whiteboard wall with the development area the proud owner of a whiteboard wall that spans over 45 feet. Beyond being open and collaborative, even small touches make a big difference. O’Sullivan notes, “While we’re not Google and can’t offer napping pods and slides, we do have a foosball table and a TV/ Xbox rec room, we host monthly treat days where each department gets to arrange a surprise, and we have a really neat
new beverage system from Planet Coffee that I’m still getting thank you’s for two months after its installation.” In their new space, PPM also wanted to take advantage of technology to improve efficiency, effectiveness and of course, collaboration. Think meeting rooms that can be booked on devices by each door, individuals being able to remote into their desktops from every meeting room, and a board room that features an 80” TV on one wall and a high definition projector on the other. “We even needed to transition from an antiquated phone system to a new one. Complete Communications helped us select and implement our new VoIP system and are now working with us on a new video conferencing solution.”
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Advanced and reliable communication technologies are integral for the running of PPM’s day-to-day operations, not only because they support clients around the world— but also because O’Sullivan shares CEO duties with Brian McIlravey, who works out of a home office in Ontario. PPM also takes great pride in having built a team that has truly grown up with the company. O’Sullivan started as a summer student, taking on a full-time marketing position when she graduated from the University of Alberta (U of A) with her Bachelor of Commerce degree. That was 21 years ago. McIlravey joined the company 13 years ago, and the company’s CFO, Peter Mah, another U of A graduate, has been with PPM for 17 years. Beyond this core management group, PPM has countless employees who have celebrated 5, 10, and 15 year anniversaries, and PPM continues to encourage advancement and growth through the company while leveraging more and more experienced talent who can share what they’ve learned over the course of their careers. As for their unique co-CEO set-up, O’Sullivan explains, “When new leadership was required, Brian and I could have competed for the position. Instead, we realized that it made much more
sense to do it together. That was five years ago. He’s the big picture, visionary security expert, the guy who likes to get up in the front of a room to speak. I much prefer being back in the office making sure that everything is on track and that the details are being taken care of. With both the big picture vision and attention to details covered, we complement each other, and all significant decisions are made together.” We can take pride in the fact that PPM, one of our city’s best kept entrepreneurial secrets, is working hard and smart to keep everything from hospitals to banks to missile manufacturers secure. Thanks to their talented personnel, their loyal clients, their dedication to the industry and their knack for collaboration, there’s little doubt that this very big little Edmonton company will continue to do so for many more years to come. 10025-102A Avenue, Suite 1200 Edmonton, AB T5J 2Z2 Tel: 780 448 0616 • Toll-Free: 1 888 PPM 9PPM Fax: 780 448 0618 www.ppm2000.com
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Congrats PPM on 25 years!! Suite 1700, 10025 – 102A Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2Z2 Main Switchboard: (780) 426-8400 • Fax: (780) 424-9949 www.oxfordproperties.com
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CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY PPM BDO proudly serves local businesses.
Congtratulations PPM on your 2 5 th A n n i v e r s a r y !
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