Tsourides: Matrix to bring video to customers

MIAMISBURG, Ohio—Ninety days into her tenure as CEO of access control provider Matrix, Holly Tsourides is working to expand the company's video business and refine its go-to-market strategy.

Matrix is in the process of choosing an enterprise VMS partner “to integrate with and customize, and put the Frontier [Matrix's access control software line] name on it and provide that as an offering to our clients … in early 2014,” Tsourides told Security Systems News.

This was not the plan 90 days ago, but once Tsourides started visiting Matrix customers, she began to think that Matrix should be offering a video solution.

She conducted a customer survey and it confirmed her suspicions. “One takeaway was that they are definitely due for a video upgrade. About 60 percent [of Matrix customers] still use analog [cameras], 10 percent didn't have video solutions and 80 percent still have DVRs,” Tsourides said.

“These are large, sophisticated operations that have hundreds, sometimes thousands of doors that we manage for them, and yet they don't have a video solution of that same caliber. That's a huge opportunity for Matrix and for our customers.”

At the same time, Tsourides is refining Matrix' approach to the market. In some geographic locations it acts as an integrator, in others it is strictly a manufacturer with integrator partners.

“Right now, we're strengthening our relationships with existing clients and adding new customers in areas we serve directly,” she said. Those areas are greater Ohio and Southern Florida. In all other areas, but particularly in California, Matrix is looking for integrators who “want to partner with an enterprise-class access line that is not overly distributed and [a company] that values the channel loyalty.”

Last month, Matrix opened a new office in Lowell, Mass. It's a region that's “fantastic for recruiting security industry and high-tech talent,” she said. Tsourides added that Matrix has hired Jeremy Krinitt as senior director of product management. Krinitt will be based in Lowell and comes to Matrix from American Dynamics and Software House.

Tsourides said one of her goals in the coming months is to “ready the business to raise growth capital,” but the new office and other recent investments “have been 100 percent financed from our own operations.”