NMC hires new director of national sales

LAKE FOREST, Calif.—NMC recently hired Nicola Oakie, who previously worked as the general manager with American Video and Security and then the director of business development at I-View Now, as the company's new director of national sales.

Oakie officially starts at NMC on Jan. 2. “In a broad sense, her role will be to educate the dealers regarding video. Dealers can implement a full array of video services from clips to analytics,” Sharon Elder, NMC's vice president of sales, told Security Systems News. Dealers can implement video verification to cut attrition, Elder noted; NMC has partnerships with I-View Now, Sureview and continues to pursue secured video integrations.

“On her day-to-day responsibilities, she'll be implementing full-service video solutions, continuing education for the sales, dealer support and operator trainers. It takes a team approach to help a dealer implement these new solutions,” Elder said.

Oakie will leverage her background—including more than 20 years of experience in the industry, working with security dealers as well as I-View Now—in educating NMC's dealers about new solutions, particularly video technologies. “Video is going to be the concentration, and that really is my background,” Oakie told SSN. NMC can monitor a variety of cameras and that is a value for dealers, she mentioned.

NMC now can monitor Nest's Pro cameras through Nest's integration with I-View Now. “It is clear that Nest is a brand name. Dealers that are in that millennial arena, that Nest recognition arena, we want to be able to help dealers grow their business and compete on every level,” Elder said.

Oakie sees value in professional monitoring over self-monitoring. Consumer-level advertisements do a good job of telling users that they can receive notifications on their smart phone, she said, but pose the idea that consumers aren't always available. “That's where the National Monitoring Center will come in, to help the consumer when they're not available, and that is so key.”