January 12, 2016
NORTHBROOK, Ill., January 12, 2016 – UL (Underwriters Laboratories), a global safety science organization, today announced a collaboration with ALAS (Asociación Latinoamericana de Seguridad International, Inc.), a well-respected organization in the security industry. ALAS is a not-for-profit corporation based in Miami, Fla. that promotes the growth and professionalization of the security industry through education, investigation, networking and development of standards. Together, UL and ALAS will work to develop standards and certification programs for security products, systems and services for the Latin American market. A collaboration between UL and ALAS will help both organizations leverage their strengths to develop more robust standards and certification processes throughout Latin America.
“We chose to collaborate with ALAS because of our shared value of driving innovation and promoting safety and security,” said Neil Lakomiak, business development director for UL’s Building and Life Safety Technologies. “We believe the relationship will allow us to work more closely with the security industry at a time of growing supply chain complexities and an increased pace of change of technology. The relationship with ALAS signifies UL’s commitment to continuing to invest in the security market in Latin America by helping facilitate market-driven standards and certification programs for products, systems and services.”
Alberto Alvarez, ALAS’s CEO, said, “This collaboration joins ALAS’s extensive knowledge of the Latin American market with UL’s experience in certification to address an increasing need for certification throughout the industry. Together, they can improve products, systems and services to help manufacturers and end users reach higher levels of trust in products—an indispensable attribute for competing in the global marketplace.
As standards development improves, so will security products. And with UL and ALAS working together, there should be even more certified security products making it to the market, benefiting manufacturers and consumers alike.
UL has been expanding its operations in Latin America. In the past two years, UL in Brazil grew about 35% by developing new services and achieving INMETRO accreditation for new scopes, which allows the company to support more industries. The employee base in Brazil has also grown, from 100 to almost 250 since 2012. UL has opened new offices in Colombia and is continuing to expand throughout the region. Please visit https://brazil.ul.com for more information.