Category: News

Ron Davis talks to Becklar CEO Steve Richards about the importance of new technologies and being involved in the security industry. The company that I founded over 25 years ago does M&A work exclusively in the alarm and the security integrator markets (yes, that’s my day job, and I love it!). However, for 20 of […]

New research shows demand for smart home “repair” service is expected to grow 11% per year, emphasizing the importance of offering ongoing service agreements for RMR. A new global study confirms what Google and others have already determined … that professional equipment service will be a driving factor for the smart home market going forward. […]

With commercial and residential integrators’ non-overlapping knowledge sets, the time is right for an integrator partner to help clients. Has the time come for commercial and residential integrator partner relationships? In these interesting times, with our living and working landscapes changing every day, it just might be! With so much crossover happening, it does seem like a […]

How one audio technology dealer – venerable Audio Advice in N.C. – is getting noticed and what other integrators can take away from their techniques. Have you returned to welcoming people for open-house nights, exclusive customer appreciation events or other VIP happenings at your showroom? The pandemic essentially put a two-year pause on these types […]

The smart residence starts at the front door. Smart door locks, smart access control systems, networked cameras, video doorbells, smart garage door openers, parking access solutions, and other IoT devices represent a new generation of access control and monitoring solutions. Parks Associates’ new whitepaper “Smart Locks and Access Control Supply Chain: Scaling Innovation,” developed in partnership […]

What was the first event to which you went after lockdown? Mine was the Van Gogh Alive exhibition. I was a little conflicted at first. I hadn’t been around more than 10 people at a time in about a year. I hadn’t been to any venues (apart from the grocery store). And yet, I brought […]

Smart home buyers research product information from an average of more than two different types of sources before making a purchase decision, and the No. 1 source for researching a smart home product is the manufacturer’s website, followed by the website of the online retailer or integrator, and then in-person shopping. Those are the results […]

As many of you may know, I grew up in the Bahamas. I have the great opportunity to travel back to the Bahamas frequently to visit relatives and check on our family store. During a recent visit a few months ago, my wife and I had one of the most impactful customer service experiences of […]

It would be accurate to say that Frank McCann, founder of Edison, N.J.-based McCann Systems, is a bit of a contrarian when it comes to groupthink. The design-build integration company, which boasts more than a half-dozen offices around the country and a team of 150-plus, isn’t content to follow the crowd. For one, McCann and other […]

For more than a decade, we have heard the term “transformation” used to describe many societal shifts.  On the radar of this author and others who have been more intensely focused upon it, there exists a very different and dramatic demographic transformation on the near horizon. After significant research and use of the latest U.S. Census […]