A Strong Alliance

Tri-Ed and Aditya join forces to create an alliance that discusses key trends in today’s industry.

• By Jamie Friedlander
• Dec 30, 2013

When Pat Comunale, the president and CEO of independent security distributor Tri-Ed, began forming a relationship with India-based distributor Aditya Infotech, Ltd., it occurred to him that the relationship should be more than just a casual one. The two companies had great conversations regarding current market trends and the future of the industry. They decided to make their informal partnership a formal one by creating The International Alliance of Independent Security Distributors.

“The more we discussed things, we decided to get something a little more formal in place where we can grab other distributors and sit down and discuss— two or three times a year—trends that are happening across the world,” Comunale said. “We thought it made sense to put something more formal in place than to just have a casual relationship because I think we can get other members to join our alliance as well and really become a stronger group.”

Tri-Ed, which functions in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, and is the largest independent security distributor in North America, offers similar products and services to Aditya, which is based in India and has partners in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia. Both companies are leading global players in the safety products and solutions and video surveillance industry, offering products and installations in IP Video Surveillance, Intrusion, Fire, Home Automation and more. Though Comunale is pleased with the way the alliance is currently functioning, he hopes to see it expand to other areas of the world in the future.

“We’ve been looking to expand internationally for a period of time now,” Comunale said. “We’re North American centric—U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada—so part of our goal here is to continue to expand, either in Latin or Central America or in Europe.”

According to Comunale, Tri-Ed has been in conversation with several key distributors across the world, including one in particular that has expressed interest in Europe.

“As we continue to grow, we’ve been communicating with several different distributors just to catch trends that are going on in other parts of the world,” he said.

Aditya Khemka, the CEO and director of the Aditya Group, stated that the formation of the alliance shows both Aditya and Tri-Ed’s commitment to delivering the highest level of security products and services. Both companies, he said, understand that the security needs of each business vertical vary and have different challenges, and these challenges need to be met with tailored solutions.

The alliance will allow the two companies to discuss market trends and insights, as well as best trade practices and systems to valueadd their channel and employees in an attempt to set new and higher quality benchmarks in their respective domains and the industry as a whole. According to Comunale, the alliance will function much like a high-level focus group, and it will be valuable to vendors in their research and development efforts by allowing them to tailor their products to the market’s current conditions.

“When we look at the industry today, everything is evolving quite rapidly, from the lifestyle enhancements going on in the intrusion space to [the transition from] analog to IP in the video space,” Comunale said. “We’ve been talking about how cloud storage and everything that’s happening in our industry that hasn’t happened over the past five to ten years is finally moving fast forward.”Comunale said his company and Aditya see opportunities in the market such as these, as well as different trends with data and connectivity, as important ideas in the industry that need to be discussed.

“Everything is moving rapidly across all different product categories today,” he said. “We find it’s important to be collaborating with other distributors and making sure we’re staying ahead of the trends as opposed to trying to catch up to them.”

Comunale stressed the importance of being ahead of the trends, technology in particular.

“Being able to take advantage of technology to stay ahead of the trends, I think is important,” Comunale said. “For our customers, part of the way that we drive value is by bringing them technology, and bringing them technology at the right price. From a distributor standpoint, if we can leverage our purchasing power and deliver the best products at the right price to our customers, that’s the kind of the value add that distributors can bring right here in North America.”

Aditya places a lot of emphasis on building strong relationships with its customers, business partners, channel partners and associates. Because both companies are so strongly committed to satisfying their customers’ needs by delivering high quality products at a reasonable price, the Alliance was a perfect fit. The Alliance will meet a few times a year, according to Comunale, who added that the meetings will be rather informal until more members join. In the near future, Tri-Ed and Aditya plan on meeting at IFSEC and hopefully once before then.

Getting more likeminded companies to join the alliance is next on the agenda for Tri-Ed, according to Comunale. “We look forward to adding more members and becoming a global alliance to really strengthen our position as a manufacturing community.”

This article originally appeared in the January 2014 issue of Security Today.