Time Warner going retail with IntelligentHome

NEW YORK—Time Warner Cable is joining the new trend of retailing home security by offering IntelligentHome, its home security/home management product, in its several hundred retail stores nationwide, according to Adam Mayer, VP of IntelligentHome.

“We have retail stores where customers today can go to either subscribe to our other products—video, voice and data—[where] they can go with customer care issues, [and where] they can exchange equipment, so we certainly plan and we've already begun to have IntelligentHome present and demoed in those stores,” Mayer told Security Systems News. “We'll have salespeople who can show the product and certainly sell it and schedule an install.”

Time Warner, based here, recently announced that its nationwide rollout of IntelligentHome is expected to wrap up this fall. The company launched it in a few markets in 2011.

Time Warner this spring amped up the introduction of IntelligentHome, launching it in Maine, Kansas City, Mo., South Carolina, North Carolina and San Antonio.

Time Warner said recently that it was introducing IntelligentHome—which is professionally installed and professionally monitored—in Ohio and Wisconsin and that it also will launch the new product in New York City this fall. Those launches, the company said, “will wrap up TWC's rollout of the new product to all major markets in its service area.”

In addition to retail sales, Time Warner will sell and market IntelligentHome in a variety of other ways, including inbound and outbound sales, bill inserts, direct mail and television and print advertisements, Mayer said.

Erica Wood, co-owner and chief security officer at American Fire & Security, a Dayton, Ohio-based professional security company, told SSN she's not fazed by the new competition in Ohio.

“I think a cableco coming into our market will only help us. It makes consumers more aware of the products that are available and makes it easier for us to upsell,” she said in an email.

Time Warner describes IntelligentHome as “an easy-to-use wireless system that offers professional home security along with flexible features that allow customers to check in on their kids or pets, arm or disarm their security system, turn on a light or set the thermostat the way they like it—all via a smartphone, laptop or in-home touch screen.”

Time Warner is among a number of telecoms, cablecos and other companies, large and small, that are now selling their security products in a retail environment. Those companies include Comcast, AT&T, Lowe's, Security Options, The Alarm Company and SecureWatch 24.