The Emergence of APX Alarm
What are your projections for APX in 2010?
Our focus is on continuing the customer acquisition growth. We’re also looking at new product offerings to sell. We recently announced that we’re going to be using a new product to hang on the wall, and we think that’s really going to allow us to leverage our existing customer base to increase our RMR easily and provide services, such as energy management.
What specific technologies are you looking to bring to the marketplace?
We’ve been working closely with 2Gig Technologies, a startup group, to help define what we wanted to provide. Very simply, it’s a color touchscreen with a cell radio, so we are planning on moving 100 percent to cell that is enabled by Alarm.com. That is going to allow us to provide remote control and notifications and all those things that leverage existing technologies, such as the iPhone. It will allow us to leverage our existing customer base to increase RMR.
When [a new technology or service] comes along that we don’t even know about today, we have the ability to download new software to that panel and download a new user interface if that’s what’s needed. The panel has the ability to interface with other devices in the house through three methods: a direct serial bus that you can wire stuff into; a Z-Wave chip that is a wireless home automation protocol; and a proprietary wireless protocol for all the security peripherals. We did a field test of 2,000 units and our customers are really excited. It’s really a quantum leap, at least as far as what we have been offering to what we are going to offer.
Does APX have plans to branch into the commercial space?
We don’t right now. We’re really good at acquiring residential customers. I think one of the keys to our success is we stick with what we’re good at. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t look at going into commercial, but we think there is a lot of growth yet to be had in residential. There are some companies that are losing focus on residential or focusing their efforts on commercial. We think strategically it’s a good place to be. As other companies are moving away from residential, we think we can actually continue to pick up our good share.
APX recently celebrated the opening of its stylish 125,000-square-foot corporate headquarters. Does the new facility reflect the values of the company in any way?
Our headquarters certainly reflect the values, the mission, and our culture. We are all about families; protecting families and helping to secure their futures. There are different kinds of families. There are our customers who are our family; there are our employees who are a part of that family. So, the headquarters is very open. Most walls are glass. There are not a lot of offices. The idea behind that is to project a culture that we’re all in this together, we’re all a family. As we take care of our customers, we are taking care of ourselves. We’re taking care of our future and we’re ensuring a long and bright future if we provide the very best service we can to our customers. The building, as you walk through it, elicits those kinds of feelings.
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