Vivint announces new campus, new solution

In the past couple of weeks, Vivint has made two announcements. The first announcement, which came out on June 13, was about the company's new facility. Then, on June 20, Vivint announced its new solution for property developers and managers—Vivint Smart Properties.

According to Vivint's announcement, the new facility will be a 43,000-square-foot building, capable of housing up to 400 employees and includes a demo home equipped with a Vivint smart home system, a full-size basketball court, fitness center and six training rooms, including a technical training room and a hands-on product training room.

“We look forward to tapping into the strong business and engineering talent of the Utah State University community and contributing to Utah's growth as a tech hub,” Alex Dunn, president at Vivint Smart Home, said in a prepared statement.

"We are very pleased to provide space for Vivint Smart Home on the USU Innovation Campus," Noelle Cockett, Utah State University president, said in the announcement. "The center will afford employment opportunities for people in Cache Valley, including USU students. Also, we anticipate USU research and outreach faculty engaging with Vivint R&D personnel in areas of common interest," Cockett continued.

Vivint Smart Properties will bring smart home devices to single- or multi-family rental properties, marketed specifically toward property managers. Harrison Jenkins, senior director of product integrations, told Security Systems News that this program is essentially “taking what we've been offering to single-family residential homeowners for years and making it accessible to renters. So, [that includes] lights, locks, thermostats, doorbell cameras, security.”

The customer, property managers, looks a little different from the company's typical customer, Jenkins noted. “It's just a different model for us, but I think we have a good understanding of how it needs to happen and we're ready to deploy it.”

Tom Few, Vivint Smart Home's vice president of business development, described how the new offering benefits both renters and property managers.

“We believe that it'll help drive occupancy, it'll help drive net operating income with increased rents,” Few told SSN. “I believe that it allows the renter to have control of their apartment, whether it be through video, door access, thermostats, lighting. These are all things that people are becoming accustomed to having and I think it's going to be an amenity that's going to attract more renters to that property.”

Vivint has dedicated that is focused on property managers, developers and owners, according to Few. “We are presenting the opportunity to them, we are getting to the decision makers, and … everybody that we have spoken to has been happy to talk to us and interested in the offering,” he said. “Now, it's just about creating that demand and actually deploying it.”