While it may be recognized by systems integrators as one of the foremost distributors of security products, executives at Anixter are quick to point out that what they really offer the security channel goes well beyond hardware and software solutions. Rather than merely being a product distributor, the company sees itself as a global supply chain partner, educating both integrators and their end-user customers on the litany of products available that fit their specific needs to help them make informed technology purchasing decisions.
However, there are still a number of people who remain unclear as to what the company does or the services it provides. Seeking to clear up that confusion, Anixter this week invited the media to its headquarters in Glenview, Ill., in the Chicagoland area, to tour its Infrastructure Solutions Lab and learn more about what it's doing to keep the channel ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest tech trends.
"Back in 2014 when Anixter acquired Tri-Ed, we never saw Anixter as a competitor," says Pat Comunale, the former president and CEO of Tri-Ed who now serves as president of global security solutions at Anixter. "When we put our debt together with our investment bankers, little did we know Anixter is the largest global supplier of security products and we're pretty proud about that and I think it is time we got our message out and explain to the industry who we are because we're not your typical 'pick, pack and ship' distributor."
Anixter was founded in 1957 as a supplier of wire and cable solutions and gradually grew to include products for the telecommunications, electric utility and security industries. The company now does about $8 billion in revenue annually, over half of which comes from their network and security solutions segment. Anixter serves nearly every vertical market imaginable – residential, commercial, healthcare, government, education, and utilities – and segments its offerings into three different groups, the aforementioned Network & Security Solutions (NSS), Electrical & Electronic Solutions (EES) and Utility Power Solutions (UPS).
In addition to organic growth, Anixter has also made a concerted effort to strengthen its foothold in each segment of the security distribution channel through acquisitions, purchasing Clark Security Products, one of the leading suppliers of door hardware products, in 2010, followed by its acquisition of industry stalwart Tri-Ed in 2014.
"It's pretty exciting to be part of a group that can sell from the door lock hardware locksmith all the way up to and including the high-end integrator," Comunale says. "If you have followed Anixter over the last three years, we've put a major focus in security and that was part of the reason for the acquisition of Tri-Ed. If you thought about Anixter prior, you would say, 'well, geez they are a big company, high-end integration business' and you probably weren't really quite sure whether they were really a distributor - you knew they were involved the data center space - but now we can really go from the low end to the high end and close the entire gap when it comes to security."
According to Comunale, the company plans to integrate both the Clark and Tri-Ed divisions into their NSS segment moving forward to clear up any confusion that may have previously existed.
"I think that is important to the industry because if you talked to some of our customers, it was very confusing and I think it was confusing to our suppliers as well," he says. "We felt that it was best to have one integration and get everybody aligned in one direction. We will be coming together under one platform… and going forward you’ll see our Anixter logo be a lot more prevalent."
Based on some erroneous reports, Comunale says there is also this misconception in the marketplace that Anixter competes against it integrators.
"It couldn’t be further from the truth," he says. "We have a Demand Creation Group and what this group does is work with end-users who will actually use our (infrastructure solutions) labs and partner with the integrator."
A Strategic Partner for Integrators
Brent Edmunds, president and co-founder of systems integration firm Stone Security, credits Anixter with helping his company be able to scale and grow with the needs and demands of their customers.
"I guess you could say we're kind of a poster child for what Anixter can do in helping a company like ours," he says.
In 2006 when the commercial integration business of Stone was launched, Edmunds, a former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, says they were obtaining products from one of Anixter's competitors when they received a large order that they couldn't fulfill. By chance, they received a cold call from one of Anixter's reps located in their Salt Lake City branch and they were able to successfully complete that project. Edmunds says they have been a partner ever since.
"Ten years later, we have grown our business from about three or four people to 40 people and more than 10 times the revenue of what we were then," Edmunds explains. "Without a doubt, Anixter has been the most strategic partner along that pathway."
Among some the ways that Anixter has helped Stone Security specifically over the last decade, according to Edmunds, include:
- Having both a local and global presence. Edmunds says their previous distributor did not have any employees located in the vicinity of their Utah office whereas they could go and speak directly with their local Anixter rep anytime.
- Flexibility. Given the long periods of time that many security installation projects take to begin, complete and be paid for - 30, 60, 90 days and even longer in many cases - Edmunds says having that flexibility was crucial for them.
- Demand Creation Teams. Anixter works to match their integrator partners with various end-user projects in their communities. "We're still working with those customers eight, nine, 10 years later," Edmunds says. "Those are big accounts - universities, school districts and things like that."
- Product development and testing. Because most integrators do not have the time nor the resources to devote to keeping up with the latest tech trends or to verify how some manufacturers' products will work in real world deployments, Anixter offers in-house product testing and demonstrations to help integrators and end-users wade through myriad security systems and devices across every product category.
- Product staging and kitting services. As Stone Security has continued to grow, Edmunds says they have worked on projects that require products to be prepped and ready to go ahead of time. Anixter can bring in the equipment needed for a job in advance; warehouse it, pre-assign IP addresses to various devices, etc., to help integrators save time.
Staying Ahead of Tech Trends
Another thing that company officials say sets Anixter apart from other security products distributors is the resources they devote to researching technology, not only by talking to manufacturers to learn about what they’re working on as well as integrators to see what kinds of deployment challenges they are experiencing, but also by taking an active role in the development of standards. According to Bob Dolan, the company’s director of technology for enterprise cabling and security solutions, Anixter is the only active distributor in ONVIF and they have representatives on a host of other industry standards committees, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).
"The whole idea of selecting the right technology is what does the integrator need and how can we help them become stickier with their customer," Dolan says. "The problem with technology changing so quickly is running into vulnerabilities. We’ve all heard about hacks and those types of issues and the types of things we’re trying to solve is from a perspective of how do we help the integrator find the right solution and where they’re taking it to? As we migrate to (improved product) interoperability, there are problems that that create and integrators have to address it regularly."
Anixter also has its own Infrastructure Solutions Lab located onsite at its Glenview facility where integrators can have various products tested to see what their capabilities and limitations may be in the field and determine what they may need on the back-end to successfully complete a project. Integrators can also bring end-user customers to the lab to demonstrate how a product or system implementation may look and operate within their particular application.
"Throughout the years, the last 20-plus years, thousands of folks have come through here and a common question we always get is, 'why do you have a lab?' The lab is really borne out of our heritage," explains Andrew Jimenez, vice president of technology for enterprise cabling and security solutions at Anixter. "If you remember back (in the 90s), the Ethernet protocol was kind of emerging as the de facto communications protocol for corporate networks… we consolidated across one wiring system – twisted pair cable – and back then Anixter actually developed what we call a 'level' specification and this specification was the first performance document that actually quantified performance levels for different types of cable and we were really at the forefront of that."
Subsequently, the company began testing products to those specifications in the lab and their capability and desire to test different products only grew from there.
"The role that we played early on was really to be that kind of independent organization that provided the insight needed for customers to make the right product selection and that is how the lab has evolved," Jimenez adds. "When we built it 25 years ago, it was really a test and measurement facility… but what we found is that customers actually enjoyed coming here, seeing what we did and getting this high-qualified insight into cable performance and that’s something that we’re still doing today and, obviously, our technology expertise has evolved."
The UL-certified, 4,000-square-foot facility now features a full gamut of security products, spanning video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, mass notification, and fire safety, along with nearly any piece of networking equipment, such as servers and wireless communications solutions, an integrator would ever need.
"Irrespective of how a customer is engaged with us, we have a support structure in place to really provide that type of insight customers are looking for," Jimenez says. "Another question we get is, 'why is Anixter on industry committees?' Again, it comes back to that customer insight, the technical insight we want to provide our customers. For instance, the IEEE may be developing standards that won’t be deployed for another five years, but if you can provide some technical information to a customer about, 'hey, this standard is coming down the road, you need to look at this type of infrastructure or this type of product solution,' they’re going to make a better purchasing decision and that’s why we keep doing it. We are a distributor, we ship widgets from point A to point B globally, but those widgets are very important and we want to have some insight as to what is coming next."
About the Author:
Joel Griffin is the Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
