Home Director adds integrators to Sears Connected Home

August 26, 2004 LIVERMORE, Calif. - Home Director, a home networking system manufacturer and supplier, has added two integrators to the Sears Connected Home program, bringing the current number to 13. But the company has plans to add to that number since the program - a home integration partnership rolled out in late 2003 between the two companies in which Home Director provides the infrastructure - has shown increased interest. “We are going to add a lot more integrators,” said Barbara Carney, Home Director’s vice president of Sears Connected Home. And it looks like the pool to choose from is populated. Carney said there have been more than 1,000 applicants to the program since its inception. “When you hang the Sears name out there, everyone and their brother wants to be a part if it,” Carney said. Although Home Director does not have a set number of companies it would like to add to the program, they are focused on a particular kind of representative - full-service integrators in high-growth housing markets. “There are a number of markets we are looking at throughout the country,” Carney said, adding that those markets are located throughout the country but focus on the Midwest, Southwest and Florida. “If we find an integrator in a market that we have needs, we will consider them.” The program does have a detailed application process, which includes interviews, a financial approval and a due diligence process. “Sears is very careful on who they hang their brand on,” Carney said. For more on this story see the October issue of Security Systems News.