Blog Archives
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AMAG continues mission to integrate
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Tuesday March 6, 2012AMAG Technology Inc., Torrance, Calif., kicked off its 11 th Annual Engineering Symposium in Florida with new consultant-specifier attendees and vendor partners. The event is the largest to date, said Robert Sawyer, president and CEO of the company in his opening address. “Our direct customers are our integrators—that’s who we sell to—and we don’t ever sell to the end user. Our goal is exceptional customer service to all of our customers,” he said. Sawyer added that the company has upped its dealer training, which he feels is critical to AMAG’s continued success as well as that of the success of consultants and integrators. Matt Barnette, recently promoted to executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, reiterated... -
BICSI is hot; the weather, not so much
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Monday February 13, 2012Arriving in Orlando late yesterday and yearning for warm weather, I was greeted by a cold slap in the face—30 degrees in what is generally known as sunny and warm Florida. Coming in on the tail end of a cold snap, the sun revisited today and warm temperatures began to rebound to the norm. The BICSI show kicked off yesterday in a new venue, Mickey Mouse land and the Coronado Springs Resort and with bleary-eyed Registered Communications Distribution Designers, Registered Information Technology Professionals and other credential holders earning their continuing education credits at this focused training event. BICSI is known as the conference for the information technology and transport systems industry and the organization is also a... -
WSC Awards at ISC West
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Thursday January 19, 2012Women of the Year awards—call for nominations The Women’s Security Council’s (WSC) Women of the Year Awards deadline has been extended until January 31, 2012. Nominate your colleague today!! There is no cost to enter. The WSC Women of the Year Award recipients will be honored during ISC West 2012 in Las Vegas at WSC’s Awards Reception, profiled in the special April 2012 eWSC awards newsletter and announced in an official WSC press release to be distributed at ISC West. To nominate yourself or a colleague, please complete our online nomination form at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z7HTRXB Nominees will be judged based upon the leadership they have exhibited in the security industry and at their companies, and the ways... -
Say goodbye to 2G
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Tuesday January 10, 2012
Telular Corp., Chicago, announced today that its line of cellular alarm communicators for residential, commercial and PERS is evolving to 3G, all for the same price as its 2G solutions. “We’ve made the decision to completely eliminate 2G communicators,” said Shawn Welsh, vice president of marketing and development for Telular. “We’ve replaced the 2G communicators in our line with 3G so dealers don’t have to make a choice. We want our dealers to deploy 3G and we won’t straddle the pins. We know the value of moving quickly into 3G quickly and want to pass that along to the dealers,” Welsh said. He added that although 2G and GSM are going away, the technology that will certainly have longevity in the market is 3G... -
AMAG's secret to success
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Tuesday January 3, 2012AMAG Technology is a company with a great following and a suite of products that integrate and converge critical functions for the end user. I’ve had a chance to discuss their successes with Bob Sawyer, president of AMAG Technology and he gave me these thoughts on the topic: “The last recession proved unfortunate to many security companies which were required to make drastic changes in their organizations to stay profitable. I often spoke with colleagues about layoffs and office closings. Companies were cutting back in many departments, including sales and marketing. The recession was an eye opener for many. AMAG Technology was very fortunate throughout the recession and we were able to avoid layoffs and gain market share... -
Don’t be a turkey; read these awesome tips from integrators!
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Tuesday November 22, 2011It’s been a few weeks since ISC Solutions in New York, but PSA Security Network and its members provided some great, free content in sessions just steps from the exhibit floor. While I didn’t get a chance to sit in on all of the educational events, a couple that I did manage to squeeze into my schedule provided some great tips on the marketplace and how to generate more recurring revenue. Dan Budinoff, president of Security Specialists, talked about his company’s work in the education market at the Monroe College and how to get business from this sometimes complicated vertical market. Budinoff said some of the challenges working in the college market include complying with building codes; fire codes; and multi-tenant... -
FAP: Opportunity is everywhere
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Saturday November 12, 2011Honeywell wrapped its 22nd First Alert Professional Security Systems Convention 2011 with the message it started with: Opportunity is everywhere. That message was reinforced throughout the event, held at the Westin Kierland Scottsdale, Ariz., venue, November 10 through 13, under the theme: Exploring New Dimensions. Some 800 were in attendance, including alarm dealers, systems integrators, central station companies, distributors, vendors and high-level speakers. The keynote speaker of the event was Dan Clark, a spirited speaker who parlayed his life experiences (including a football injury in which doctors told him he would never regain control in his arm and have brain injury) and relationships with people in everyday walks of life... -
Solutions from New York’s ISC
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Thursday November 3, 2011The show is downsized but the message super-sized: all types of solutions are needed for the end user to migrate to new technologies or address the morphing communications landscape. Even the show directory was a pamphlet rather than a large guide, encouraging show-goers to go mobile with a smartphone application listing of booth numbers and other events. The first day was busy, and the opening ceremonies kicked off by kilted bagpipers from the New York City Fire Department. Here’s a briefing of some of the news coming out of the show: • Telular announced the first self-install cellular communicator for personal emergency response systems. It’s compatible with virtually all Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) panels... -
PSA highlights business solutions, products
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Monday October 24, 2011It felt like home at the first reception I attended at the PSA Convention 2011 in Puerto Rico last night. This was the first year media were invited and I felt privileged to be one of the attendees. And the best part was listening to the integrators, who excitedly talked about new horizons, how they have lots of business and how PSA Security Network has helped them get where they are with education, products, solutions, insurance, leasing and a whole range of value-add services. But there’s so much more to the organization. Did you know that anyone can buy products from the co-op? Yes, it’s true. And that they are forging new relationship with the National Systems Contractors Association and BICSI, among others? Or that they have a... -
Siemens makes lots of sense with new business unit
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Thursday October 20, 2011Siemens Building Technologies Division’s Fire Safety and Security business units recently merged to form a single business unit, Fire Safety and Security (FSS). It makes a lot of sense as security and fire solutions continue to merge and converge. And Siemens, with a great reputation in the marketplace for listening to the customer, delivering on its promises and moving forward at light speed with technologies and solutions, has also done well with its appointments in the new business unit. “The synergies that exist between the fire and security product and solution offerings, especially in the areas of Mass Notification and Siemens Intelligent Response, allow us to penetrate the market and offer customers the integrated...
