Industry Influencer Q&A: A New Chapter in Five-plus Decades of RMR Creation with Napco's Dick Soloway
Many people look back on 1969 as a transformative year for the United States. Man walked on the moon. The Woodstock music festival became a symbol for the country. For Dick Soloway, 1969 marked the launch of his alarm communications business, which proved to be just as pivotal for the security industry.
Fast forward more than 50 years, and Soloway is still at the helm of NAPCO Security Technologies, having guided the company through the numerous technology twists and turns that have shaped the alarm and access control markets. In this exclusive Industry Influencer Q&A, Mr. Soloway reflects on how technology has evolved, as well as how NAPCO stands ready to meet the needs of its dealers and partners as they move into the future.
What prompted you to establish NAPCO all those years ago?
Soloway: From a young age, I was always interested in electronics, and in 11th grade, I installed a new type of invention, an electric garage door operator, for my mom, who had hurt her back lifting the heavy garage door. I decided to use my knowledge of transmitters, radios, and mechanics to launch a business, called Electric Eye Garage Door Company. I did installations myself and hired some friends. I actually met my future wife selling them. That was the beginning of my learning how to do installations and dealing with end-user customers.
I next entered the electronic music business, making guitar amps and effects pedals for stars like Hendrix, Clapton, and The Monkees. I sold that business to enter the alarm business, because alarms and security were important at the time. In 1969, I created the first electronic sirens to replace alarm bells that people couldn’t hear. I converted a tape recorder to communicate alarm signals with an electronic siren, which was new and unheard of at the time. That was the beginning of NAPCO. Then came alarm systems for residential, and I took the company public in 1972.
We acquired additional companies because I believed in vertical integration. We designed our own products, manufactured them in our own factory so we could be close to the production process, and sold them to dealers, giving them exactly what they wanted. In addition to alarm communicators, today we make a full line of fire alarm panels with built-in radios, intrusion panels, access control equipment, electronic and mechanical locks, and more.
I’d imagine that some of those dealers have been with you from the beginning. As more dealers have partnered with NAPCO over the years, how have they evolved over time?
Alarm dealers have always been looking for recurring revenue. When I started out, they installed a bell as the alarm sounder and leased a line to the police and fire departments. Then, tape recorders were a major breakthrough for the industry – they were programmed by NAPCO in Long Island, and alerted to a burglary or fire in progress. When the digital dialer emerged, we helped convert telephone answering services into central stations by providing them with alarm receivers for POTS lines. Thinking back on it, they were precursors to NAPCO’s StarLink cellular communicators. But back then, it really marked the beginning of recurring revenue for dealers, and over the next 2-3 years, every dealer wanted to build equity in their business with recurring revenue.
This is how the whole industry grew, and it was exciting because dealers were building equity in their business when they installed every alarm. Today’s alarm dealers have lots of RMR, but locksmiths and the access control providers really didn’t have it until now, with our MVP.
What is MVP, and how will it open RMR for access control-centric integrators and locksmiths?
MVP is a recurring revenue-generating cloud-based access control system for commercial buildings. It comes in two forms, one for enterprise access and one super-simple “EZ” App. MVP EZ is a game-changing opportunity to transform traditional door hardware expertise into lucrative recurring revenue with electronic access control. MVP brings NAPCO’s Trilogy Networx and ArchiTech Designer locks into the cloud, enabling remote management, instant system updates, and enhanced customer services, such as mobile credential management, emergency SMS occupant alerts, lockdowns, and more. If you are a security director at a hospital, you can get alerts of who went into drug cabinets at 4 a.m., for example.
MVP is a way for locksmiths and access dealers to build a recurring revenue business, similar to what we did for the alarm industry back in the 1970s. And what’s great about the whole thing is that NAPCO makes everything from soup to nuts – we make the locks, panels and radios, and the back-end cloud services – that we’ve proven at NAPCO over the years, as solid and bulletproof.
These lock and access control dealers will build equity year after year, just like the alarm business. It is a very exciting time. Everybody in this business – all the dealers – deserves recurring revenue. If you are an access control dealer or a locking dealer, you’ll be getting it and build a more valuable business.
As someone who remains active in the product development aspect of your business, how do you keep up with all the innovations?
I’ve been in electronics all my life – it is a passion I’ve had even before founding NAPCO in 1969. I’ve always stayed close to product development, working side-by-side with our talented engineering, sales, and marketing teams. We all collaborate to bring forward the best solutions to keep our customers’ accounts secure and our world safer. From advanced cybersecurity and video/data privacy measures that meet or exceed rigorous SOC 2 compliance standards for our cellular and cloud customers, to powerful preventative access controls that help keep dangerous contraband or unwanted visitors out of our schools and offices, we are constantly evaluating new technologies and trends and integrating them thoughtfully into our products.
What about AI? How does Napco leverage new technology innovations in artificial intelligence?
We use AI in a couple of different ways. In product design, we are able to work very efficiently using AI. We also use it for tech services for our dealers. If there are applications or special needs, we get the instantaneous information from the AI system, which connects our technicians to the dealers and walks them through applications. AI is a very important component for us, and it will become more important in the future.
