A Conversation With Steve Gorski
IP camera manufacturer MOBOTIX is about to open a technology briefing center at its new Americas headquarters in New York City. We spoke with Steve Gorski, general manager of the company’s Americas division, about the company’s plans for the new center.
Q. Where did Mobotix get the idea to do a technology briefing center? A. Basically we’ve been here in the U.S. market since 2006 – we’re a German company that was founded in 1999. We have great technology – we were ranked No. 1 in high-resolution systems by IMS research – but one of the biggest challenges we have is that people don’t know us that well. We don’t have that brand-name recognition that Axis or Panasonic has. We have impressive results, sales and growth, but not as much is known about us.
One of the things that is really important to us is training. So the briefing center has a state-of-the-art facility to conduct demonstrations resellers and customers. We’re really excited about it. It will help resellers, giving them the training that they need, but it’s also a great place to bring customers so they can experience MOBOTIX solutions.
Q. What will go on at the center? A. Basically there are two functions: The building houses our U.S. headquarters, our subsidiary here in the United States. The remaining half is really a big room that we use as a training facility and demo area. There are classroom-style desks set up so that we can do training courses. On the other side of the room, we have all the MOBOTIX products displayed as we would at a trade show. We can use those to give professional demonstrations so customers can see everything up and running.
Q. So far, what have people’s impressions been?A. We moved our headquarters in August and have been doing renovations since then. We’re still doing a few more renovations and tweaks. We hope to be fully functional soon, but we just want to make it a few more cosmetic tweaks. We’re fully up and running – we can use the facility – but we just want to make it look a little nicer.
Most people who come in here are really impressed with it. We’ve got the Wall Street address because it’s familiar and prestigious. It makes a statement about who we are as a company to the U.S. market – it says we’re serious about our business and we’ve made a significant investment in our U.S. offices. We had a training a couple weeks ago, and people were saying to me, “Wow, this is an impressive office space.” It says to people, “See? We’re a real player; we’ve made a serious commitment.” That’s really important to us.
Q. Who is MOBOTIX targeting with this center? End-users? Integrators?A. We’re really here to support anybody. We sell through the channel. We sell to the distributor, who sells to the reseller, who works with the end-users. We really spend our time here helping the reseller and end user – it’s a great place or resellers to bring end users to see the products to understand how the technology works and functions. But we want to help all members of the channel, so if a distributor wanted to bring a reseller here to demonstrate the product, we’d love to do that. The center really serves all aspects of the channel.
We’re really excited about this facility. I don’t believe that any of our competitors have a facility in New York City. We have a unique approach to the market, and a unique solution in our decentralized concept. We want people to use it, to come here and bring their customers to learn all about MOBOTIX.