Enhancing security through collaboration

Digital Content Editor, Eve Goode speaks exclusively with John Stafford, Vice President of Engineering, Physical Security at Heartland Business Systems at VerkadaOne.

Throughout the article, Stafford discusses Heartland Business Systems’ partnership with Verkada and the impact it has made. 

How has Heartland Business Systems’ collaboration with Verkada evolved over time and what milestones is the company most proud of?

We engaged with Verkada probably seven or eight years ago, the initial partnership was rocky, I’ll be honest, meaning we had to reset and re-engage.

Since the re-engagement, I think that this partnership with Verkada is the best partnership we have with any vendor we engaged with, so it’s pretty outstanding.

We went from a three-person physical security team to over 70 people and $33 million in lifetime bookings as well.

I think what I’m most proud of is our achievement as a diamond plus partner as well as our overall NPS score with Verkada. 

What has been the highlight for you at this year’s VerkadaOne event? 

The highlight for me is that there’s all kinds of new technology you can look at. The HBS team always looks forward to seeing what Verkada innovations are being released.

I also look forward to this event as it is one of the most important touchpoints to speak face-to-face with the Verkada reps and Verkada Leadership.

How does participating in events like VerkadaOne strengthen the partnership between HBS and Verkada?

VerkadaOne contributes significantly to our partnership. Being a Gold sponsor of the event this year HBS got a lot of attention from both Verkada and the customers attending.

Verkada ensures to align executive meetings with us. So that executive alignment is huge from a partnership perspective.

How do you see the future of Physical security evolving in the next few years?

AI is going to play a huge part in the evolution of physical security. I think we’re going to see more and more integrations with Helix products.

We are only scratching the surface of the possible use cases. 

What sets Verkada apart from all the other cloud vendors is when they innovate, they develop, they don’t acquire its innovation through development.

This keeps it all in its ecosystem to make it stronger. 

What are some of the key benefits you’ve seen since partnering with Verkada? 

The biggest benefit I have seen since partnering with Verkada has been growth. They have allowed me to grow my team. I use Verkada to build a pipeline and I have staffed the facility to support that pipeline. 

In correlation with this conversation about the relationship between HBS and Verkada, last year I spoke with Verkada’s CFO and I asked, “how do you find a successful partnership?” and his response was “50-50,” so I asked him to explain what he means and he said “Verkada sources 50% of opportunities to you (HBS) and you use this to provide a 50% deal reg.”

I remember thinking to myself, who else does that? Nobody. They are going to feed us 50% of their pipeline, so I will take that!