No matter where you were in 2021, we all shared some very similar experiences to what we experienced in 2020 — ones that redefined the way we worked, lived, and supported each other. This year, for ACRE, we continued to highlight our resilience as an organization, our ability to adapt, and how we came together as the team we now refer to as One ACRE.

Going into 2021, we had clear objectives for our organization. Following the previous years, our overarching goal was to drive organic and acquisitive growth while delivering trusted, reliable, and enterprise-ready solutions for our customers and partners. We aimed to drive innovation across our brands, grow and foster our teams, and improve operational efficiency. Here is a look at how we achieved our goals:

Growth

In March, ACRE was acquired by the European investment firm Triton. Triton has delivered the industry expertise and additional capital to support ACRE’s continued innovation and proven buy and build strategy. Over the past nine months, they have actively supported us by investing in the growth and development of the company. Their industry expertise and international network have further strengthened ACRE’s position as a leading global provider of intelligent electronic security solutions. We are beyond happy to be part of the Triton organization.

And only one month following Triton’s purchase of our company, we delivered on our promise of continued growth via acquisition. We purchased Time Data Security (“TDS”) based in Dublin, Ireland, to strengthen our product portfolio and increase our geographic reach. TDS, which delivers cloud-based visitor management, life safety, and access control applications, has benefitted by leveraging our existing reseller channels and end-users to help grow this business globally. 

And we didn’t stop there. We closed the book in 2021 with the acquisitions of Feenics and Matrix. Feenics brings cloud-based access control solutions to our rapidly growing network of global customers while also expanding its portfolio to support the growing demand for cloud-based security solutions. Matrix enables us to expand the addressable market for the company’s technology portfolio, offering customers a broader breadth of reliable, integrated access control and video surveillance technologies designed to meet evolving business and security requirements.

This year, one of our primary goals was to bring the industry’s best technology innovators into our network of brands. We have accomplished that; however, we are not pumping the breaks there. We will continue onward.

Impact

We delivered beyond our expectations for 2021. To list a few highlights, razberi Monitor won a 2021 Detektor International Award. ACRE Chief Product Officer Kim Loy was honored as one of the Top 50 Women in Technology and was named a top Women at the Frontline of the Industry. 

This year, we leveraged the power of our team to offer new services and products that redefine security. Vanderbilt International launched its new ACT Kit Builder to help partners build the correct access control solution based on specific project needs. Open Options released a new DNA Fusion recertification option that enables customers to take it at their own pace. And RS2 introduced razberi bundles to deliver integrated, easy-to-deploy solutions for security environments. 

Collaboration

We created a variety of conversations — from training to specific product features. Our marketing teams worked diligently to provide partners and customers with the information and support needed. As a team, we made the most out of another challenging year, turned it into an opportunity, and continued to accelerate forward. 

As technology leaders, our day-to-day work is more collaborative than ever before. We constantly brainstorm, connect, and work with our cross-functional teams to find the best solutions and drive results. We’ve identified areas we can further improve on as we build out our team, and we are looking for new ways to communicate effectively as more and more of our workforce is remote.  

Looking Ahead

We don’t know what the future holds, but we know that there are great things in store (and indeed some more acquisitive growth!). We’re incredibly thankful for our customers and partners, and team. Here’s to another year of collaboration, creation, and more growth in 2022!