Touchcom, Vicon partner

BEDFORD, Mass.--Touchcom, an integrator working in access control, intrusion, CCTV, employee and visitor management, and interactive building directories, has partnered with CCTV manufacturer Vicon Industries to share technologies and sales relationships. Specifically, Touchcom will integrate the full Vicon line into its OneFacility web site, which automates many of the daily transactions between tenants and property owners, including submission of work orders, security management and visitor admissions. Touchcom focuses on large office and residential properties and has 450,000 users on the OneFacility system. "We are slightly different as a systems integrator," said Frank Davies, regional sales director out of corporate headquarters and head of business development for Touchcom. "We offer a whole suite of different services, and we look for a level of cooperation from our manufacturers that's generally not found in this business. It's something we've found in Vicon. They were willing to share with us some of that technology design, and the winner is both companies as well as the end user." Similarly, Vicon's Ben Renshaw, national accounts and business development manager, said, "we're not your typical CCTV manufacturer. What we do well is offer a complete CCTV solution, top to bottom, but that's just a piece of the security puzzle. Touchcom supplies another piece of that. But end users don't want to piece the security solution together. They want one package. By sharing technology with people like Touchcom, we wind up solving real security problems." Both companies found the technology integration relatively easy, as both have embraced open code writing. But, said Renshaw, "the technology is the smaller piece of the integration; a to-market strategy is more important. Customer care has to interface with both companies, our guys out in the field doing joint sales calls have to be trained ... we spend a lot of time on to-market strategy." Davies said there may even be partnerships down the line where Vicon and another manufacturer working with Touchcom integrate their technology so that all three companies move their businesses forward. Vicon is a public company doing $60 million in annual revenues, with 210 worldwide employees and headquarters in Hauppauge, N.Y. Touchcom has seven U.S. offices and employs 65.