Halco Marketing 1989-2001

Halco Marketing, Inc. was founded in 1989 by Harold B DeVaney (Hal). Hal is a veteran of the industry and has worked in various positions from technician to business owner, starting in the Houston sound industry while still in college. His accomplishments include a wide variety of work in industrial plants, the aerospace industry, and operating as a Rauland-Borg regional manager. He later retired from Rauland-Borg after 15 years of work with experience in all market segments of Rauland products (Institutional, Healthcare, and Educational).

Marjorie Adams started working as technical specialist at Halco Marketing in 1993 after obtaining a Masters degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Houston Clear Lake. After becoming the sales manager in 1995, Marjorie began talks with Hal about a planned buy-out of the company so that Hal could retire. Halco Life Safety Systems, Inc. was started in 1999 in order to make the buy-out and transition easier for those involved. All former Halco Marketing employees were also invited to work for the new company and the assets of Halco Marketing were purchased by Life Safety Systems. Hal retired his position as president in 2001, but still offers advice on occasion. He is very proud of Halco and understands that the company is living up to the potential that he envisioned back in 1989.

Halco Life Safety Systems 2001-Present

A new era of Halco begins. Halco Marketing was primarily focused on Education, Commercial, and Correctional Institutions. Halco Life Safety Systems took a new direction in 2001. The new Halco would focus primarily in the Healthcare Industry. The mission statement was clear, “Build Lifetime Customers”. With the success of the Rauland Responder products Halco began growing market share in the Houston area.

In 2001 Cliff Switzer was promoted to Sales Manager. Cliff had been working primarily as a project manager for healthcare installations. He was very familiar with State code requirements, A&E firms, General Contractors, Electricals, and Hospital staff around the area. As we became more focused in healthcare we started learning more about the hospitals workflow and how we could incorporate their existing system into the nurse call system. We started integrating with their pagers, wireless phones, patient/staff location, ADT, and reporting software systems.

Halco Life Safety Systems, Inc. was outgrowing its physical location in early 2002 so Marjorie started making plans to secure a location where the company could continue to grow and prosper. The company moved into its new "digs" in August 2004. The newly built facility is three times the size of the older location and the company is currently planning on expanding even further as business grows.

In 2007 Cliff Switzer was promoted to Vice President and Marquis Woodard was promoted from Sales Consulting to Sales Manager. This allowed Halco to grow and develop the company further. We expanded the Sales Consulting department and establish a much stronger Customer Service and Integrations department.

For the last 6 years Halco has been recognized as one of Rauland-Borg’s top 10 distributors. In 2008 Halco submitted an application for Stellar Status with Rauland-Borg. The application involved an extensive evaluation of our standard operating processes, customer site visits, and several interviews with company management. Our application was submitted to a Stellar board of peers in our industry for review. In 2009 Halco Life Safety Systems was awarded Rauland Stellar Status<

The Halco team includes many people from different backgrounds and abilities, every one aof whom is dedicated to understanding both the industry and all available products. With that kind of service and loyalty Halco can promise the best solution in low voltage life safety equipment to the Houston healthcare market.