Editor's Note

One Size Does Not Fit All

This month I ventured out just a little bit to talk about residential security, though much of what I learned also applies to commercial and industrial security. No better place to learn about software than Silicon Valley.

After grabbing a taxi from San Francisco International Airport, I headed to Redwood City, only to be dropped off at the corner of a vacant lot and nowhere. My new good friends at Icontrol came quickly to my rescue. I learned really fast that this is how these guys work; off to the rescue, and the security dealer, now than ever before, can be the beneficiary of their knowledge.

Icontrol has been a security player for quite some time, but recently they expanded offerings into the security market with home security applications that dealers and integrators can be part of. This is good news for this group in the industry.

Greg Roberts, vice president of marketing at Icontrol, said in the cover story, “the security dealer now has more value than ever of the products they can offer to the consumer.”

Icontrol isn’t messing around either. Their smart home platform powers some well-known names, such as ADT (ADT Pulse), Comcast (Xfinity Home), Time Warner Cable (IntelligentHome) and Cox Communications (Cox Homelife), among others.

So, where is the value to the security dealer network? Icontrol has now stretched its boundaries where the smaller dealer, you know them as “Mom and Pop shops” can offer this same platform where security and home automation can reside. This solution offers incremental recurring monthly revenue opportunity, and dealers can enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Icontrol’s part in all this is to make sure their solutions are the most secure and reliable platforms in the smart home security space, but you can read all about this and more in this issue’s cover story with Icontrol.

This article originally appeared in the November 2015 issue of Security Today.

About the Author

Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.

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