After a decade of experience working with System Surveyor, Inspired Technologies CEO Cleve Cary considers the site survey and system design platform one of the most important tools in his toolbox, relying on it to streamline his workflows, preserve institutional knowledge, and give customers a clearer view of their security systems. He was also among the platform’s earliest adopters.
“I think I was one of the first 10 users,” Cary said proudly. “Over the years, System Surveyor has made it a million times easier for me and my team to do our job and to present something that the customer can easily understand and visualize.”
Today, Cary leans on System Surveyor to capture important details during site surveys, collaborate with customers and subcontractors to design systems, and manage the lifecycle of those systems through a detailed digital archive of work spanning nearly a decade.
About Inspired Technologies
Inspired Technologies provides a wide range of security solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of each organization. Its team of dedicated security professionals delivers cutting-edge, cost-effective technology solutions from initial assessment through implementation and ongoing support. The company distinguishes itself through a reputation for excellence, integrity and attention to detail, designing innovative solutions for evolving security requirements across every stage of the process.
Under CEO and owner Cleve Cary, who joined Inspired Technologies in January of 2022, the organization has expanded beyond its original focus on access control and video surveillance to include electric fencing, gate systems, locker and key management, visitor management, project management software and other proprietary solutions.
In 2025, Cary established Fortified Technologies, which specializes in integrated smart lockers, surveillance platforms, and access control infrastructure, in order to complement Inspired Technologies’ commercial fencing, access control, and mobile camera trailer offerings. Together, both organizations’ integrated solutions are designed to address every security and business requirements.
Inspired Technologies provides a wide range of security solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of each organization. Its team of dedicated security professionals delivers cutting-edge, cost-effective technology solutions from initial assessment through implementation and ongoing support. The company distinguishes itself through a reputation for excellence, integrity and attention to detail, designing innovative solutions for evolving security requirements across every stage of the process.
Under CEO and owner Cleve Cary, who joined Inspired Technologies in January of 2022, the organization has expanded beyond its original focus on access control and video surveillance to include electric fencing, gate systems, locker and key management, visitor management, project management software and other proprietary solutions.
In 2025, Cary established Fortified Technologies, which specializes in integrated smart lockers, surveillance platforms, and access control infrastructure, in order to complement Inspired Technologies’ commercial fencing, access control, and mobile camera trailer offerings. Together, both organizations’ integrated solutions are designed to address every security and business requirements.
Cleve Cary
Inspired Technologies
CEO, Owner
CHALLENGE: Designing Complex Security Systems Customers Can Understand
Security system design often requires translating technical information into something customers can understand and approve. Traditional tools like CAD and Bluebeam have their place, but they don’t always make it easy to visualize what a proposed security system will actually look like in the physical environment. For Cary, the ability to visualize device placements and areas of coverage is one of System Surveyor’s biggest advantages.
“The ability for me to take System Surveyor into the field with a client by my side and make real-time adjustments so that they can see how that design is going to facilitate what they’re looking for—that’s pretty valuable,” Cary explained.
While many projects begin with a CAD model or PDF blueprint, Inspired Technologies utilizes System Surveyor to build out the security design, place devices and capture the details needed to communicate exactly what will be installed and where. The difference is particularly apparent in the field.
Because System Surveyor is designed to be a mobile-first, on-site companion—utilizing AI to capture key installation details, visualize device placements, and automate statements of work with System Surveyor AI Notetaker—Inspired Technologies can work directly with customers to make changes and demonstrate the impact of those decisions in real time, rather than returning to the office to translate site observations into a finished design
SOLUTION: Design in the Field, Collaborate in Real Time
When he joined the Inspired Technologies team in 2022, System Surveyor was already part of Cary’s workflow. Since 2016, he has brought the platform with him as he’s worked with different companies—a continuity that has allowed Cary to build an extensive archive of security designs for long-term customers.
In fact, one global organization Cary has worked with since before 2016 now has 966 surveys across 153 sites, with designs covering hundreds of individual projects and facilities. For Inspired Technologies, that archive isn’t simply historical documentation; it has become an operational resource, enabling instant access to digitalized resources for effortless lifecycle management.
When a technician or other team member needs to troubleshoot a system remotely, they can pull up the relevant design, select a device and see photographs and annotations showing what is installed and where.
“It’s almost like you’re standing in the space yourself,” Cary noted. “When a team needs to support a customer without physically returning to the site, that level of documentation is really valuable.”
For integrators, this remote support represents saved time, money, and resources. System Surveyor also gives Inspired Technologies a way to bring customers into the design process. During remote Microsoft Teams meetings, for example, stakeholders from across the country can review a design together and request changes while Cary’s team makes those adjustments in real time. When equipped with a dynamic digital as-built and detailed documentation, it’s easier to collaborate securely, make better technology decisions, and ensure stakeholders are on the same page.
The same approach extends to subcontractors. Instead of compiling handwritten notes and recalling conversations, Inspired Technologies can simply send their installers a System Surveyor link, which facilitates access not only to floor plans and device locations, but also photographs with annotations showing exactly where equipment should be mounted.
“It makes it hard for them to screw up,” Cary joked.
RESULTS: Finished Designs, Better Visualization and Long-Term Value
For Cary, one of System Surveyor’s most significant benefits is simple: the security design is finished when he leaves the site. Even though it’s common for Inspired Technologies to make a separate trip to generate or update a facility’s CAD drawings, once the team returns to complete the security design, System Surveyor allows them to build and refine the solution directly in the field.
“When I conduct a site survey, because of System Surveyor, the design is done when I walk off site,” Cary said.
That immediacy also changes the customer conversation. Rather than asking customers to interpret symbols on a traditional drawing, Inspired Technologies can show them what the proposed system will actually do.
A camera symbol on a static floor plan may indicate where a camera will be installed, but it doesn’t necessarily communicate what that camera will see. Whether designing for a sensor, Wi-Fi access point or a video surveillance camera, using System Surveyor Camera Advisor™ allows users to visualize a device’s area of coverage, field of view, cable pathways and other elements of the proposed system.
For Cary, that ability to make technical designs understandable is ultimately what makes System Surveyor so valuable.
“The ability for our customers to visualize what we’re talking about is huge,” Cary said.
After nearly a decade of use, Cary says the platform’s core value comes down to its ability to do the job consistently—and the responsiveness of the team behind it. That combination of a dependable design platform, a deep archive of project information and the ability to collaborate directly with System Surveyor’s team has kept the platform in Cary’s toolbox as his career and business have evolved.
For Inspired Technologies, System Surveyor is more than a digital replacement for paper drawings. It is a visual communication tool that helps the company turn complex security requirements into designs customers can see, understand and act on—and a lasting record that can continue delivering value long after the design is complete, well into the lifecycle of the system management.
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Customer
Inspired Technologies -
Industry
Security -
Headquarters
Hickory, KY
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