Page 44 - Security Today, April 2018

INTEGRATION INSIGHT
By Jessica Davis
SERVICE DRIVEN SECURITY
Climatec works to adapt to the needs of their clients while offering world-class service
fficiency is part of Climatec’s DNA—after all, much of their work is in energy and access solutions—but effi- ciency doesn’t mean taking shortcuts. Climatec believes in client-focused, service-driven work and solutions. Their commitment to those ideals is what has made their ex-
pansion into security and life safety so successful. As Ray Gilley, Cli- matec’s vice president of security and life safety put it: “Service is the key to the security business.”
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRY
Nearly 20 years ago, Climatec was focused on building automation, heating and air conditioning. After multiple people asked about their fire safety and security work—which didn’t exist yet—the company worked to build relationships with people who worked in those industries.
Climatec was able to expand into the security industry through employees who had business contacts with security product manu- facturers. By building and reinforcing those relationships, the com- pany was able to offer those products to their markets, which opened up the door to offering security solutions to their clients. As a result, security is now one of Climatec’s three main divisions.
FITTING THE CLIENT’S NEEDS
According to Gilley, the company’s Professional Services Group, a
group of highly trained, technical-minded engineers, is what makes their security approach unique.
The PSG doesn’t work in sales—instead, the engineers and tech- nical people in the PSG work with sales to serve the client’s needs. The company’s sales team will approach the PSG with the client’s unique security requirements, and together they work out the right product, design and implementation. The PSG is able to get technical with things like the specs and metrics of a particular client’s solution. Often, Gilley said, the PSG can solve a client’s problem faster than a technician can.
“The PSG will generally help the sales guy drive in the right di- rection for the product,” Gilley said. “Once we get the right solution dialed in, then the PSG might do some programming, they might do some training, they might do some things that the client needs that the sales guy can’t do or even our own in-house staff can’t do.”
The sales staff can then go back to the client to make the sale on a solution that’s tailored to their security needs, and the operations group can move forward with it from there.
“I always say it’s the fuel for the plane, it makes the plane fly; the sales guy is the plane but without \[the PSG’s\] knowledge, without their technical expertise, without their design, the plane’s not going to fly fast enough and far enough,” Gilley said. “They can get that plane to fly fast and far. And they’re very smart people and they know how to provide the right product, the right solution, to that sales person.
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