Website www.csldual.com | Founded 1996 | |
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Key people Simon Banks
(Founder)
Phil Hollett
(CEO)
Ed Heale
(Managing Director)
David Doble
(Financial Director)
Mark Mayhew
(Chairman)
Santosh Chandorkar
(IT Director)
Rob Evans
(Sales Director)
Tony Mann
(Operations Director) | ||
CSL Group Limited is an international Critical Connectivity provider specialising in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. The CSL Group encompasses CSL Security and CSL Health operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden. CSL began as a supplier of dual signalling burglar alarms. CSL pioneered the use of dual signalling, wherein the alarm system communicates with a monitoring station using both wired (telephone or internet) and wireless (GPRS/GSM) communications for increased reliability. CSL is among Britain's largest burglar alarm companies, managing the signalling of hundreds of thousands of residential and commercial installations.
Contents
History
CSL was formed in 1996 by Chris Brookes and Simon Banks. In 2000, CSL became a Vodafone service provider and business partner. In 2006 a management buyout by Octopus Investments was successfully completed, allowing CSL to fund further product development including their Gemini Platform. During this process, Simon Banks and Phil Hollett - previously Managing Director and now CEO – bought out co-founder Chris Brookes.
CSL's installed base includes hundreds of thousands of connections and continues to grow. They have the support of every UK Alarm Receiving Centre, the organisations that monitor and despatch alarm signals.
In January 2012, CSL was acquired by Bowmark Capital for £32M. The two companies plan to work together on the next stage of CSL’s development. Simon Banks and Phil Hollett continue to direct the company with the support of Bowmark.
CSL Group Limited
CSL Group is an international M2M investment group, that consists of CSL Security and CSL Health. The Group currently operates in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden. CSL Security pioneered the move from wired to wireless technology in the electronic security industry and is now the established market leader. CSL Health offer wireless technology to the telecare market - designed to provide a much needed solution for the telephone line–based signalling vulnerabilities that have recently affected the industry.
Operations
CSL operate from their West London headquarters with the logistics department based in Mountain Ash in South Wales and regional sales offices.
Employees
CSL have one of the largest customer-facing teams in the industry. As well as the national sales team, CSL also have their marketing, technical, IT and finance departments at their London head office. Their manufacturing and distribution department is based in South Wales whilst CSL also have a Telemarketing team based in Nottingham.
100 in 100
CSL co-founded the "100 in 100" programme with Skills for Security, the skills body for the industry. The initiative aimed to place 100 apprentices within the Security Industry within 100 days. During 2011 the programme achieved success, placing 155 young people within 80 companies.
In the three years since its conception 100 in 100 Apprentices has provided a career for over 1300 young people in the security industry including installers, engineers, technicians, customer service personnel and locksmiths.
IFSEC
CSL exhibit each year at IFSEC International Exhibition[7] - the leading global annual security event. The event is the largest in security calendar, with nearly 25,000 delegates attending.
Every year CSL showcase their latest product innovations. CSL have a strong presence at the show; with an obtrusive stand and engagement in other peripheral activities such as sponsoring the Engineers of Tomorrow campaign. CSL exhibited at IFSEC 2012, with the event taking place at the NEC in Birmingham from 14–17 May. CSL has exhibited at IFSEC for many years, and remains a partner and supporter of the event.
Awards
CSL have won a series of awards within the security industry in recent years:
In 2007, CSL won the PSI Premier Award for ‘Intruder Alarm Product of the Year’, for the DualCom Plus.
At the IFSEC Industry Awards 2009, DigiPlus won the award for 'Communication Product of the Year'. In the same year, CSL achieved their second PSI Premier Award in 3 years; winning the prize for ‘Innovation of the Year’, for GPRS Gradeshift.
Two years later, at the IFSEC 2011 Awards, CSL again won the award for 'Communication Product of the Year'; this time for their WorldSIM. 2011 turned out to be another year with double success, as CSL went on to win the ‘Communications and Signalling Product of the Year 2011’ at the PSI Premier Awards, for its Gradeshift Range.
In June 2012, CSL again achieved success at the PSI Premier Awards - winning the Communication Product 2012 Award for G4 with WorldSIM. These awards are voted for by the readers of PSI magazine and visitors to the PSI website. This success was the fourth PSI Premier Award CSL has been awarded in the last six years.
In 2013, CSL claimed an unprecedented third award in a row at the PSI Premier Awards. Following on from success in the 'Communication Product of the Year' in 2011 and 2012, CSL again claimed this accolade - this time for WorldSIM.
Patents
CSL currently has two legal patents on their technology:
The first is for DigiPlus (patent number GB2465833). DigiPlus is a small device that fits between any existing digital communicator and the telephone line. DigiPlus enables all existing digital communicators to be fully compatible with any network upgrades.
The second is for the Gemini Platform (patent number GB2469231). Gemini is CSL’s network of polling servers. There are five servers in total which are all connected to Vodafone Virtual Private Networks to relay information from protected premises to the ARC.
The third patent is also for the Gemini Platform (patent number GB2469230).
For all patents; Simon Banks, Phil Hollett and Derf Mockford (CSL’s Product Manager) are the named inventors.