It's been 10 years and countless security system installations since then-startup Camtek Inc. sold its first access-control system with biometric readers, and it landed that sale with a relatively big fish—Avista Corp. subsidiary Avista Advantage.

Now known as Advantage IQ, the Spokane concern's access-control system, which controls and tracks entry into parts of a building, was malfunctioning, and the previous vendor couldn't seem to fix it, says Camtek owner Lorie Stephenson. She says she offered the company an access-control system replacement with a money-back guarantee that it would work. Advantage IQ took her up on the offer and is still using the system Camtek installed, complete with fingerprint readers for high-security clearance areas.

Camtek, which had just opened its doors back then, hasn't looked back since. Today, it averages annual sales in the $2 million to $3 million range and employs 13 people. It has a client list of about 600 customers, mostly commercial and industrial, and is licensed to do work in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and Montana. Its current work list includes a multiyear contract with Spokane Public Schools and a new contract at Spokane County's wastewater treatment plant, which is still under construction, Stephenson says.

Camtek sells, installs, and services access-control systems, surveillance equipment, and fire and burglar alarm systems, most of which now include sophisticated technologies. For instance, wireless transmission technology now enables security gear to be monitored from moving vehicles, access-control systems can be integrated with time-and-attendance software at a company, video surveillance cameras can be controlled from remote computers, and motion sensors on cameras allow computers to store surveillance images only when activity is taking place, eliminating the need to view hours of uneventful videotape, she says.

Stephenson says the company hasn't wavered from the narrow focus with which she launched it, after years of working for two other security-systems companies here. Camtek's mission is to offer the latest technology in reliable systems and provide fast and efficient customer service.

Camtek's ongoing, $5 million contract with Spokane Public Schools, which it landed in 2005, now includes 50 buildings with 220 access-control doors and more than 700 security cameras linked via broadband networking. The system allows security officers, maintenance workers, technology service personnel, and school administrators to pan, tilt, and zoom cameras, lock and unlock doors, and see heating and cooling controls and security devices—all from a computer screen.

When an alarm goes off at one of the schools, security officers can bring up on a screen live images of the site of the alarm. When they go into the situation already aware of what's happening, it helps them respond effectively, Stephenson says.

Meanwhile, at the site where Spokane County is building a new wastewater treatment plant, at 1004 N. Freya, Camtek-installed video surveillance cameras are providing a live video feed, so anyone visiting the county's Web site can see what work is being done in real time, she says. Once the project is complete, the cameras will be incorporated into the plant's security system.

In June, Camtek completed a $22,000 project for the Kittitas County Sheriff's Department. That system provides access control and video surveillance of the sheriff's office, the interview rooms, evidence rooms, and temporary jail cells. Stephenson says Camtek won that bid because it is a state-certified, 100 percent woman-owned business. Some contracts require participation by such contractors or federal funding isn't available to the job's sponsor, she explains.

Stephenson says Camtek's video surveillance cameras also are mounted on the rooftops of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Providence Holy Family Hospital, and Valley General Hospital & Medical Center, so Northwest MedStar can monitor wind and weather conditions on the helipads there and relay that information to pilots as they approach to land their helicopters.

Stephenson says the greatest challenge in the security-systems industry is keeping up with technological advances. The industry is moving away from analog surveillance cameras and stand-alone access-control systems and toward integrated systems based on Internet protocol communication, she says. She expects that while security software will become more expensive, the associated hardware will become less expensive and more accessible to smaller businesses.

Stephenson says she relies heavily on the expertise of several of the company's young, computer-savvy technicians to evaluate new products. Every system she considers selling is first tested at Camtek's corporate headquarters, a 4,000-square-foot facility at 3815 E. Everett. Six different security systems currently are operating or being tested there.

"As much as computers are changing, security is changing," she says, but adds, "I don't jump on everything new that comes out."

Camtek has kept its offerings streamlined over the years so technicians know the products inside and out.

"That allows me to give really good service," Stephenson says. When a client calls with a question or a problem, "our guys can help over the phone most of the time," she says.

Security systems aren't cheap. Currently, a five-door, access-control system runs about $10,000, and six higher-end Internet protocol cameras cost about $12,000, Stephenson says.

She says Camtek has very low turnover and a relaxed atmosphere.

"I have a great crew," Stephenson says. "Everybody works hard, and treats their customers like I do. If they're not a team player, and they don't provide exceptional customer service, then they're not here long."

Stephenson says she barbeques with employees every Friday, and comes to work most days in jeans, tee shirt, and tennis shoes—accompanied by her dogs, a Great Dane, a Catahoula, and a boxer mix. The dogs sleep under and around her desk and eat and drink from five-gallon buckets placed next to her desk. A six-foot-long shark hangs on the wall behind her conference table, and a photo of Stephenson with a 91-pound salmon she caught on the Kenai River in Alaska hangs on another wall.

Because she considers her employees part of her family, Stephenson says she had a very hard time laying off employees last year when the building industry slowdown dried up new orders for security systems. Lately, she's been subcontracting out wiring jobs to electrical contractors rather than taking on employees to do that work. She says her business has stayed afloat because of "good, solid customers that pay well."

Stephenson projects sales this year of more than $3 million, which would be a marked improvement over 2009, when the company did about $2.1 million in business. She says Camtek's best year was in 2006, when it did $3.2 million in sales.

She says she plans eventually to expand Camtek to the Tri-Cities and Seattle, but "that's a few years out. We want to be sure that as we grow, we can service what we do."