Episode 326 ControlTalk NOW features “A Grand Opening” with Jackson Control’s Roger Rebennack and Stephen Heckler, and Acreto’s Thad Eidman explains “Ecosystem Security”

The following is a presentation of the Control Trends Podcasting network
This Eric Stromquist. Welcome to Control Talk. Now you’re smart buildings video, cast and podcast for the week ending August 4 2019. This is Episode 326. We talk about all things smart building and HVAC controls, and I am joined by your co host and the man, the myth, the legend, the one the only preseason football plan baseball watching man Kenny Smyers the control man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kenny, man, welcome to the show. We got an exciting one coming up, buddy.
Well, we sure do. Eric, I tell you this is one of the best shows we’ve had in a while because we have some fabulous guests, and some interviews that are really gonna bring our control trans community up to speed in a couple different levels. We’ve got some physical stuff where we got locations, we’ve got some exciting news where we have a grand opening somewhere in Ohio, and then we’ve got a very, very a champion of cyber security coming on later on the show. But how about that bra we’ll talk about a little bit later. I know we won’t with that Cincinnati part where they had, you know, the whole team’s converged on the infield for about 20 minutes. And it was the it was probably the craziest episode. I’ve seen that they kept the team the network’s kept the TV’s running. And it was videoed, and now it’s just just tearing things up. We get
just mentioned. I did not see it. I suspect I can see it on YouTube. So I’ll check that out.
Yes, yes. But it was like $200 million of fighting going on. And if I was the owner, and the one guy I’d already been traded, was traded during the game for Cincinnati, and he gets traded to the Indians. And normally the rules are you take the guy off the field, as soon as the trades. Yeah, I mean, pirates have had four or five episodes where the guy literally got taken out of the game. He’s playing second base, and he went to San Francisco, we had another guy who was in the seventh inning, it’s due up to bat. He was taken out because the other team doesn’t want their you know, their recently purchased resource getting hurt for the other team. So you had me Kim at these pictures are making $10 million in the outfielders making eight $9 million when a guy gets traded. And it’s like, they’re fighting like, like, it’s a barroom brawl. Oh my gosh.They’re rolling over each other and you know, getting crushed I’m takinghis arms, right? Anybody get hurt really badly, or,you know, unfortunately not. But it was scary. And then they need to Major League Baseball needs to put some rules in there that if you throw 100 mile an hour fastball anywhere near somebody’s head, you should be you should be you should be deterred from doing that kind of stuff. Because I mean, people have gotten hurt. And then it got turned on his stalling Marty right in the hip with about 85 mile an hour fastball. And you know, just it’s just like, you know, he can’t he’s just not expect it’s not appropriate for major league professional baseball players, they lose control of everything. Yeah.
And I think that the thing where it relates back to our businesses, man is kind of like that. And the smartphone is control businesses, sort of becoming like a big old brawl, and you stay professional. as we like to say stay relevant. stay in control. And if you’re going to be in control, one of my teachers used to say nothing’s obvious to the uninformed, so you’re at the right place to get informed so you sat on one of those control. Smart voting. me let me laser my life. But Kenny, listen, before we get our first guest teed up, because we got there ready to go. It’s going to be guests, guests heavy This week, we’re not going to talk much. But people have been asking about the control trends, awards, sponsorships, and yet those packages are going to go out. It’s if you’ve been in the last couple of control trends awards, have you been lucky enough to be in you know that it’s great. We’ve had to turn people down because of, you know, space, we got an unbelievable venue BB King, standing, Orlando is going to be our best show yet. It’s going to be a combination to control trends, awards, and the Super Bowl all rolled into one. The way we’re going to do that we’re going to start it an hour early, we get done with the show, bring the big TVs out, it’s going to be festive, there’s going to be cheerleaders, it’s going to be a festive, festive type thing. But BB kings is not as big as some of the venues we’ve had in the past, it’s going to be more intimate. So that basically means that the only way we know to make this fair is you know, first come first serve. We’ve already had some people that have already asked and we’ve they’ve already signed up. So the Platinum sponsorships are going to go out first. So those should go out later this later this week. But encourage you this is something you do not want to set on. If you want to be in it, you need to register right away. And part of the reason you want to do that Kenny is because we have just a cadre, a bunch of people that have not been in the award show before that are wanting to participate. But in fairness to our loyal sponsors, you’re going to get first right of refusal. So we’ll give you about a week to respond. Let us know whether you’re in or not. If you’re not, then we’re going to open up these other people that are lining up wanting to be on the show. So anything you want to say about that?
No, like you said, God, probably this this certainly by the end of the weekend, but the the limitations again are basically venue driven, we’d love to have 100,000 people there because we love it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So what happens is we get put into, you know, like a fishbowl type thing. But what happensis a, b and b, they totally jumped starts we were supposed to get the Hard Rock Cafe again in Orlando, we would have we would have would have been able to have would have been at 10 20,000 people wouldn’t have been a problem. A b&b you’re not allowed to come to our show. Don’t even bother nominating a b&b, you took our venue and Kenny and I man at tables baseball, there be a brawl, whatyou’re doing always says that the nature abhors a vacuum and some door open some other door closes and vice versa. So what happened was we were forced to find a venue now for the combination control trends awards, and the Super Bowl. Better venue right hard Hard Rock Cafe would be good but would have beennot not for what we’re doingthis thing here is going to be everybody’s gonna have access. So it’s 350 seats can see the stage without obstruction. There’s going to be TVs on six on the bottom floor, one or two on the top floor and then to on the main stage once you control trends awards wherever we’re willing the 70 inch TV monitor so it’s going to come go from a very, very important industry event, and it’s going to have the solid the solidness of a control trends awards full blown and then transition immediately into the biggest tailgate party. Hang on.
I’ve solmeness is not the right word. The grander the spectacle of a control trends, awards, the reverence of a control trends awards, then we’ll transition to the best party and Tamba Super Bowl party you’ve ever been to you know, people are already saying Minnesota people for good time call Canon Eric at least on that night, man.
Well, then it’s gonna take on the full trappings of the of the football thing and it may it fell in our laps and we’re grateful for it. But um, you know, we’re going to have a Super Bowl theme. We’re going to have a football environment, obviously, we’re going to transition well, so we will maybe get wild and hooting and hollering Yeah, you can see a lot of people excited about their football teams who knows going to be in the Super Bowl. We already heard some people from colleges that saying you know that they’re their best their favorite football team is a college team. And so we’re going to invite everybody to kind of bring bring somewe got some people from overseas saying that their favorite football team as a soccer team, so hey, it’s okay. It’s we’re politically correct. football, soccer. So all the same desk. I mean, we don’t we don’t we don’t we don’t judge.You just throw in a skit. I gotta write a note down on that one that we’re going to have in the middle of the football thing. As we get ready for the thing. We’ll do something to do with foosball or soccer.
All right, my good friend, listen. Other thing is the nomination balance will be going out in the next week or so. So check your inbox. Yes, that time of year where the control trends awards are going to start ramping up and Kenny, I have a very, very special announcement. And then we’re going to get to our guest Kenny and I promised museum way back when so the bad news is we don’t have a museum. We have either next best thing or some people think even a better thing. The control trends awards.com site has officially launched and it’s a place where we’re capturing every single year’s award with all the highlight videos all the information will continue to add to it. But it is up and going so hey, if you’re Roger even ack or if you’re Admiral one if you are one or buck if you are what’s the backpack guy Hons? Crohn’s tons of guns, you’re going to be able to get your get your new home is a control trends awards. com website, so thatin perpetuity opportunity. Yeah,yeah, it’s the opportunity place. And so it’s officially launch, I encourage you to check that will put a link in this week’s post and we’re going to keep adding to it. But But you know, what is this where you’re going to be immortalized, if you’re lucky enough to be part of.
Right. So we got a great, great show and we’re going to transition to it right now. We we had two announcements basically that we want to review real quick. And that is the save the date Niagara summit 2020 is April 19. To the 21st it’s going to be in Manchester Hyatt San Diego, California. And keep keep coming back to control trends because as tree celebrant updates us that they’re moving all ends of it the sponsors, presenters, everything’s being coordinated right now just like our show, and then automated buildings, Ken St. Clair declared an education emergency. In his August edition, our industry is in shambles. And it’s very difficult to find a necessary connected resources. You gotta check that out can say quit another great job. It is August additional automated
building. Hi, buddy. That’s good stuff. Let’s get to our guests. And speaking of Roger, even at Kenny, I do believe we have him and a buddy on the line. So how about introducing them?
Love to. We have two dynamic individuals. One is the industry stalwart Roger Rebennack. He’s the CEO of Jackson control. And we have Stephen Heckler. He’s the Ohio market leader for Jackson control. And we are live from their opening their grand opening in Cincinnati, Ohio. And welcome to the show, guys.Welcome, guys.
Thank you. Thanks for having us. We’re pretty excited.Yeah, we’re very it’sAugust 2. It’s 82 degrees. It’s sunny. It’s a Cincinnati Reds are playing the night after the big brawl with the Pittsburgh Pirates last week. Did you see that? I suredid. I have that on my phone that we’ve been that was one of the most long prolonged fights I’ve ever seen were not much happened but I’ll tell you what, those guys thrown baseball’s those are those are killer beads, you know, hundred miles an hour trying to people’s heads. That’s that’s got to bestopped. But But how many times have you seen a pitcher charge the opposing dugout, they usually avoidbatter. Right? Listen, I’ll tell you what if I was on Pittsburgh’s team, I’d have been ducking down. Like was a giant and that puke was a giant? I mean, Holy moly.
Well, you know, we’re hearing all this talk about baseball, the major leagues and foul balls going up in the stands. And, you know, there’s always going to be two sides to everything much like our industry, there’s a lot of tradition, you know, and there’s a big change and smart building trends and all this talk about integration and intelligent buildings and the smart rooms and all this good stuff. But you know, just like in baseball, you know, how many years have we had baseball with no nets around the fans? And you know, it’s we’re in the midst of changing the game and now we’re talking about I heard the other day they said after that reds pirates brawl, well, maybe we’re going to have to make some serious penalties if guys pitcher start throwing it.
I’m like, stop changing the game. Well, Roger, hang ona second Roger talking about changing the game, buddy. Now listen, you’re changing the game up man. You came from the manufacturing side for our listeners might not know Raj was with Honeywell for the longest time did a great job with Honeywell introduce most of us to access and security control. He went on he became the first PID Award winner at the control trends awards. So Raj is which is passion, integrity, dedication, Rogers gone on to Jackson controls, and many her accusing you of changing the game thegame. That’s our fear.
So you know, I never thought I would ask him to change baseball and change the game. But as you go forward, and you know, look at the guys today probably, you know, Ty Cobb probably wasn’t throwing 95 miles, you know. So yeah, we’re Jackson control based in Indianapolis is you know, Eric, and we have a, we have an aggressive expansion plan. Stephens been with us now, what, Stephen a year almostabout eight months,eight months. And Stephen is based here in Dayton, Ohio, has been in the contracting world been in the industry for several years. We’re very fortunate to have Steven and April, opening up our Ohio market here and based in Cincinnati.
Well, congratulations, Stephen. What were you doing before you started to work with the man the myth, the legend Roger Reba neck?
Well, I was, I’ve been a car mechanic almost since like, could crawl around in my dad’s garage. So what I did was wrenching on cars, and then, you know, in 2008, kind of economic downturn. So I got into, I went back to school for engineering. And I went to Emerson for a little bit. And then I got into the controls world, and they got in my blood, whatwould make you want to do switch, which I thinkhappens.
What’s good, that’s what as one of the things we’re trying to do is as be attractive as somebody that’s in that kind of a changing mode and looking for new opportunity. So that’s good. That’s great to hear. In fact, we’ll have to go into that a little bit more detail. Because, as Roger and I talked offline, the greatest severity we have right now is talent, and the new new young blood that come into the organization and pick it up so that we can all retire comfortably in the in the very near future. And I’m just kidding. Yeah.
Yeah, but we all talk about that, you know, what is the next generation of the control industry? professional look like, you know, we know software is going to be probably leading everything. We hear all the talk about coming cloud and, you know, edge devices, and these kids are coming out. I mean, I saw on TV last week, that guy a kid that won the, you know, the championship gaming one four and a half million dollars, you know, winning this game.
Was it Novar
Nova? Is that Yeah, yeah, sorry. You know, we’ve got Jackson control have also added some some bright young talent and Riley cast steel, and in Brody Ward, and they’re both, you know, gamers and software guys, and I’ve watched them adapt to what we’re doing. And I think back about how I how long it took me to get to a point where I could even understand the software side of it, you know, in a new the mechanical side, the architecture side, and most importantly, the, the business side of it, right? guys come in, and they just kill it right out of the bat, you show them the workbench, or you show them some sort of, you know, analytic engine, and they just get fired up on Xbox. Yeah. So we’re real excited about that. Doug Darnell joined us this week, couple months ago from Siemens, so he’s going to be one of our Director of Trump building control technology. So we’re adding people Eric, we’re adding people Kenny, we’re opening up branches in Ohio, will be here in the next month or two. Doing this again, live from downtown Chicago.
So using using a baseball parlance, Roger, Jackson Controls and the team are throwing some serious heat.
Yep. And we’re going hard on you, Eric, we’re going yard.
So Raj, Raj, want to talk more about, you know, what you guys are looking for what the what the new sort of HPC smart building controls professional looks like. But before I get there, let’s talk about, you know, how distributors have changed, you know, you’ve come in and done some very innovative things at Jackson control, maybe take our listeners through what a distributor was, because you’ve had the, you know, the opportunity to call them distributors in the past, where you sort of see us now and where you see, distributors need to be in the future to create value.
Yep. So. So my take on it, Eric is, you know, I’ve been in the business about 35 years, I’ve been on the contracting side at the branch. I started in operations years and years ago, before, before the internet sounds so crazy. So then I was, you know, obviously, at the factory with Honeywell and tritium for many years, I fell in love with the Niagara framework, and that whole deal and the connectivity of these buildings. And it’s really, I call it a revolution. And then now I’m at a distributor. So I’ve seen all three sides. And my vision of what a distributor used to be was, you know, hey, it was the think tank, it was where you went when you couldn’t figure something out whether it was a pneumatic thermostat, or whether it was a foot mounted actuator for, you know, for a tamper, but one of the distributors had the head, the expertise, they had the guys and the parts on the shelf, right. But there was no really, there was really no connectivity to it. It was just, you know, old fashioned relationships. And now everything’s on your phone. So I think the distributor of the model is not just going to be a box provider, or fulfillment distributor, you know, in my mind, there’s two types of distributors, fulfillment, and value add. And I think probably, by no stretch of the imagination, there was nothing wrong with being a fulfillment distributor, like, you know, today, that would be Amazon, their fulfillment distributor, how do they add value? Are they the ones came out with Amazon, or Alexa? Is that? Yeah, so how do they add value? Now they’re listening to this conversation. So what we’re going to do at Jackson control was trying to differentiate ourselves through value add services. So we
hope to that point. And Roger, I just happy to be on your website. And I see just everything’s a fresh look, you can see there’s, there’s a new pulse, there’s a new passion that’s running through Jackson. And I just, you know, because we had the history where you did serve as, as Eric said, You opened up our eyes to this real true enterprise integration. I mean, nobody really put it together where security access control, you could badge in and back that point on the network that turned on the lights, and which unoccupied. So now we’re seeing a dream come true. And so so I just wanted to talk about your path, how you followed technology and how you know you’re living the dream, because you predicted that one day security would move from a backseat or a back burner to the front seat of an enterprise because, right and then, and then I want to just bounce real quick about the technology, how you followed it, and how you’ve introduced it into this totally integrated thing to include that new shock detection concept that you’re implementingactive shooters? No, I mean, it’s something I wish we didn’t have to talk about. But it’s a need in the in the industry that we can fulfill. You know, as we look at buildings more holistically, you know, we really have to take the blinders off. I mean, again, changing the game. Do you think for any any reason at all that in 2005 when I left the Honeywell branch as a full time security guy that I would be, you know, I’d be working in building automation know, the game changed for me, the game changed for Honeywell Siemens for Johnson for everyone’s had to change.
Now I hang on Raja disagree. I couldn’t disagree more. Okay. No, no, no, no, Raj, the game didn’t change. You change the game? And I think that’s a key. No, but no, no, but but but but no, but but I think that’s a key distinction. You’re not the only game changes others that have right. That’s a good point. Yeah, but but but what I’m getting at what I want our community to hear loud and clear is don’t wait for the game to change. If you wait for the game to change, change, like you’re to like, change the game. And if you wonder how to change the game, look at people like rod took it to people like Scott Cochran or a bunch of people out there that are changing the game to be accurate.
So that’s a much better way of saying it, Eric, because you’re right, if you sit back and what let something happen, or you can go make it happen. Right. Yeah.Right. Right. Real quick, you bring up something that you again, you brought to the industry that I think, you know, we’ve talked about it before on control trends, but it bears repeating. Okay, we’ll tell people about active shooter, what that is. And I think once you tell them what that is, and how it works, I understand why it’s critical why it’s important,right? So Homeland Security. And, you know, we all have had to live through this this nightmare of active shooters in our communities. It was something that, you know, we I don’t think anyone really anticipated, but now it’s something that we have to address. So, you know, building owners, managers, engineers, and even the law enforcement community are constantly looking for something to do to, you know, stop this. So there’s technology out there now that the military has had for 3035 years been used in Afghanistan, been in military, you know, for years. And in the Afghanistan mountains, they could put this technology out on a hump in the Humber, and could tell exactly where the shots were being fired from. So what they’ve done is brought it to the commercial space. And there’s several manufacturers out there, but they’re basically just, you know, four by four game box sensors that are POV their, their power over the Ethernet, and different ones, you know, the one what we’re standardizing on, will pick up muzzle flash, we’ll pick up the audio sound of anything from a 22 caliber, you know, on up to a bazooka, basically. But Homeland Security has endorsed this, the FBI is endorsed at most law enforcement endorsement. But you got to think about what is the problem that we’re trying to solve? And the biggest problem that first responders have is where is this guy? Right? Where is this guy when this happens? It’s not about minutes. It’s about seconds, right? So the technology was invented and taken out to the market. And it’s been extremely successful without false alarms. And basically, when first responders arrive on the scene, or maybe they’re already on the scene could be that could be the principal of the school, right? They want to know where that last shot was fired. And where is that guy so they can eliminate that threat?Right? And also give people good? Like you always say, you know, a route of escape No, orexactly, do I lock down? Or do I run?Right? Yeah,
well, and here, Raj, here’s a, here’s the piece that I really want to make sure we connect this dot because it’s obvious to us, it might not be obvious to a listener, all this can be integrated through your Jace, right? So our master systems, integrators now can bring this to the market, talk about a way to change the game, take the game out there, because this is a problem, that is not a problem, it’s going to be something that’s going to be a budgetary problem, because if you know this technology exists, and you don’t implement it, and heaven forbid, you have an incident, and it comes out that you knew about this, right? lawyers are gonna have a field day with you. And you know, it’s not that it’s not, I mean, you’re paying more to get it, but the value, I mean, you know,much more,
and much like we did with access control video and building automation, owners don’t want another system, what they want is an easier way to touch and interact with their building, they’re looking for an interactive solution. So that in the inner integration doesn’t always mean because I have, you know, my active shooter type to my VAV, that doesn’t mean the same people can, you know, interact with each one, it’s all user authenticated. So, you know, we really feel like bringing this into a Niagara framework, we have the best first response, you know, notification appliance out there. So we’re building an operational technology, infrastructure is what we’re doing in a building. Now, we’re going in and saying, there’s so many smart devices in the building, let’s get them off your network. Let’s get them off, you know, let’s get the let’s get the clocks, the intrusion, the video, the access the lighting, and now these eight can even be, you know, active shooter sensors. So let’s get all that on one network on one subnet, and how can we make that easier for you? How can that user experience be more, you know, delightful and more interactive? And that’s really what we’re doing. I mean, it came to us, we were asked to find a solution for a large client of ours. And we did. And from there, it’s it’s it’s really taken off, we’ve had a lot of lot of interest in it are
very, very cool.
Well, you know, Roger it. Again, the concepts that you’ve always espoused was the integration of Niagara and making a building smart. And then, and then how the technology is now there. And we always talk about the headwinds, why don’t people like Eric said, even the money’s probably there, if it’s budgeted properly, it’s changing behaviors. And it’s revealing the technology in a modular, scalable way that doesn’t intimidate and users and doesn’t intimidate contracts. So I noticed that you’ve been emphasizing certain things. But really, it’s about like, filtering all the technology and making the applicable technology available to the right people. So you have different messaging going on. You need some port, you need training, and then you need to help these people create the business cases. Why? Why this is going to make money for you in the long run, why it’s going to keep you at 100% occupancy versus 50%. And all those things. So how does Jackson control put that messaging together?
Yeah, good question. So So, you know, Stephen, in the beginning, years ago, what 819 years ago, when we met, we did a large, integrated Niagara security project. And Stephen got on day one, right? And what was some of those owners? You know, we’ve had some large national account clients that come to us in a multi site application and, and they get it they go, Well, can you just tie all this stuff together? Can you tie it all together for me? And I really think we’re the glue in the solution, right? So the messaging that we’re putting out there is that you can buy one, you know, one of everything, or you can have everything on one, right? And really see that day in and day out where that user experience and that costs, you know, that’s cost of scale goes down when you standardize. So my big messages is by many of my colleagues and in the community, as we all need to start helping buyers have make better buying decisions, and that comes to education, standardization, and an interactive solution. And then then they don’t then they can budget these these, if you will, these both on additions to the platform, as their budgets become available, is it? Do we go in every day? and someone says, Yeah, I’ll do my lighting, do my temperature controls do my access to it? No. But what happens is they go down this path, and they end up on a cloverleaf, right. And what we’re trying to do is keep them on the freeway. Right? And so we standard we are messaging, it really begins with a standard, what what would be a, you know, an open standard, you and what does open look like? And then we just know, you know, what is it? What is your highest priority today? And what’s that look like three years from now, today may say, you know what, we’ve got a budget right now for access control. Yeah, we’ve been wanting to do this temperature control for, but we just haven’t, you know, it’s every year, it’s something different. So we really, we just reshaped that obstacle, and get him thinking more about standards? And about what’s the first step? And then what’s the migration path?
Yeah. And and I think the really cool thing, and Raj and I’ve talked about this before, because if you’re one of our listeners out there, if you’re an integrator, if you’re an owner or user, even if you’re a consulting engineer, and you got this active shooter thing sounds really, really good. Here’s great news. All of us know, Raj, and industry can reach out to your local distributor and say, Hey, I’m interested in and I heard Raj and Stephen on control talk now, Roger, work with your local distributor. So, you know, you know, you can still have that Roger help support us support.
I want to add to that a little bit, because there’s some messaging out there. And you know, I’ve traveled United States for the Niagara community and Honeywell and tritium and Biocon now for, you know, about 1214 years. You know, what, when I lay the, when I lay the gauntlet down and, and go to the beach and decided I’m done, I don’t know what that I see. It’s not going to I’m going to look back. And the most valued memories I’m going to have are the people that I met, like, like you guys, and I really cannot tell everyone. You know, how blessed I am to met. Everyone says, to build on that, you know, there’s this, there’s this. There’s this thought out there that Jackson control is trying to go into different communities and take over, I want to set the record straight. That is not what we want to do. I felt like Well, I was, you know, the evangelist, so the Niagara enterprise security, calling on distributors around the country that we had a half big deal. What I meant by that is I could come into Stromquist, I could come into smiles. And we could we could design the system like no other, we could have a better value prop we could have, we had all the name brands to do it. Then I left town and you had to go piecemeal this thing, you had to go to some security distributor, or you had to find some intercom or you had to look for a parking gate. And that really made it clunky for our integrators and our distributors who weren’t really from that arena. To you have an installation. I wouldn’t be real clear about this Jackson control wants to work with all the Niagara distributors around the country. And we want to go back and and finish baking that cake. So in other words, you know what I mean? I want if you are listening to this podcast now and you are an integrator, call your local distributor, I can guarantee you they all know me. Most of them love me a few.
But none of us can ignore him.
My big question is do you love it? Or do you don’t?
If you don’t, let’s help them love me.
Right? What’s all this all love? Right? Well, listen, Stephen, I want to shift back to you real quick. Big, big, big, big news today. You open the Cincinnati location. What can customers Cincinnati area expect from you and your team there in Cincinnati?
Well, they can really I mean, kind of what Roger is saying. And the word we haven’t really said is collaboration. The whole space, the whole space that we set up isn’t like a traditional distributor where you just walk in and you get your box when you walk back out. Now we have special tables where people can sit down and talk about controls and talk about solutions and talk about vision. We got the offices, the rooms behind me. Those are sort of like public rooms where a programmer who’s maybe just needing to hide,don’t get any ideas or to come up with a decision.
They can come sit in these guys. Where’s MikeJackson again? God dang it.Thank you. This is the Apple Store of the smart bill. Yes. Look out there.So I don’t know if you can do guys. Cable Car shelf car showroom are two recliners over, there’s two chairs. recliners sit in and relax. Nice.We have literally coffee shop tables. And you can’t get the camera to the rest of it. But it’s all set up.Stephen was at an ATM machine over there.Yeah, maybe we’ll accept cash. That’nice. Nice. Verynice. Very impressive, really pretty. Oh, yeah.
What we also wanted to do is make this very interesting, very much like what we’re out there in the world, seeing the day, that cable tray, there’s a reason and a message behind that. That’s the operational technology infrastructure pipeline. So in the building now, it’s everything’s going IP, it’s all going to be IP or it’s going to be wireless. It’s going to be an investment TP go to slowly fade. The hardware copper is going to slowly fade for sure. lyst this cable trade represents our smart building technology pipeline. Right?
Was that Andy held I saw in the background?
Hey, here.
Here’s a legend and he’s a bigger legend and Roger Reba neck man.Hey, Andy, how you doing?
36 years Jackson control president Jackson control right here, buddy.
Andy, nice to see you, buddy. How are things going? How how’s right. How’s it How’s it? How’s life under Roger? It’s fun. He’s a fun guy. Any? Yeah, he is a fun guy. For sure. Congratulations on the new location, man.
It’s been turned out great.It was it was a wreck.
Why, Andy? Andy, while you’re there, and Roger is there and Stephens there. You know, we want to let you guys be the first to know as you guys know, Jackson’s always been a great sponsor, the control trends awards. We’ve got a new category this year. And we want to see if you guys are interested letting the control trends committee know that you want to participate in it’s kind of a competitive thing here. And let me start by saying Kenny and I are both disqualifying our companies from this I’d like to say it’s because we’d win, but it’s because it would create all kinds of maybe a dispersion. So the newest category in the control trends awards, this year is going to be the distributor of the year. And wondering if you guys would like to invite our control trans community to nominate you guys.
Yes, please. Ladies and gentlemen.Elevator Pitch
I would like to take this sincere opportunityfor control trends 2019 distributor
Hey Andy and and Roger started that I thought he was gonna start off like Nixon, but I’m not a crook.
job guys. Well, that’s great guys. Well listen, you know, so proud of you guys. Roger just doing a fantastic job. excited about the new location and you got another one coming up in Chicago pretty soon.
One more one more thing before we lose Andy maybe you can introduce April there guys. Where’s
Tommy?
Tommy here and while we’re while we’re talking about that, we I know I’ve spoken to you guys a couple times but you know we have a another office on the campus of Notre Dame in the idea Technology Center. So it’s not your traditional looking distributor either. It’s really going to be where we clone develop and my bring the next generation of young right engineering software minds out of Notre Dame and other and we’re going to bring them in, get them into this industry. Show them how much fun it is and how much fun we have and I’m take this opportunity to introduce April Marshall. Hi, bro. Hi.
Say hi to the controltrends community.
Like the way you did that? Yeah,
nice.
Control in Ohio. Don’t forget April
or May or June or July or August. Right. You guys fell all year round.
Once we got back there, Roger, who else we have
Tommy Heidelberger he’s RI Tommy our office in Notre Dame what we call our mission Ghana region. So a little bit of Michigan and all of Northern Indiana you know, up there in an area that a lot of people don’t have a lot of background on but you know, it’s a hidden gym up there, actually write a little bit about what you’re doing up on our campus in Notre Dame Sure.
So what we’ve done is we’ve opened up an office and we’re trying to go for more of that Apple style type setting where you walk in we’ve got demos you can come in play with it. It’s an opportunity to teach people with what our products areit’s a great campus it’s a great opportunity to bring people in a kind of show off the South Bend area stay in herekeep looking good.
Well listen we just got you know one of our big Stromquist big customerlook at you look at me now look at theseI thinkyou and I need to head on out to the pasturebut we did get a text from one of our customers at UGA their big customers are Stromquist and they just want to let you know that they’re looking forward to the sep tember match with Notre Dame and and and and they did you might want to make sure that the ice makers are working because they’re probably going to be some bumps and bruises appears
Fighting Irish fan and you want to vote for us as distributor of the year we have tickets on the 50 yard line.Let me let me let me segue into our 2019 control trends awards are down in Orlando February 2 Roger and this year is ultra special because we’re going to have a combo we’re gonna have the control trends awards starting at 530 and transition to the biggest Super Bowl tailgate party in Orlando. You’ll be able to bring that Notre Dame game with you
Yes sir.
We’re making our plans now you know will be there will be another platinum sponsor for control changing.
Oh man. There you go. Roger. Thanks so much. We appreciate you guys. Listen, congratulations. I know there’s a website that people go to to get all your locations calm. Jackson, control calm There you go. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, Roger Reba knack and team on control trends team thanks for taking some time to talk to our community. What can I tell you about Roger Reba neck you know, we used to debate the most exciting man in the controls industry now he’s gotten all grown up and seriously would like to be called that anymore. But I gotta tell you, I still think he is the most exciting man and the control and graduations to Raj. And again, you know, distributor years a new category we haven’t even think about at the control trends awards. We’ve got everything from the manufacturers to the products to the people to the systems integrator the year to to the engineer the year and now we’re bringing what we think is the key piece that holds it all together, the distributor the year so the nomination ballots come up. Be sure to nominate your favorite distributor and Kenny and I Stromquist and company and DMS controls. We are not in the competition. Okay. It’s not because we can compete. It’s better. We could compete. We could get gas, but we would probably win and people will go, you know, that’s not fair. So we are graciously stepping back to make room for all the other distributors. There we go.
You’re right. And then the Roger even has a passion. It’s it’s one of a kind. So it’s always good to see it’s always good to talk with Roger, because I tell you come away, you know, with the knowledge to Roger has invested his entire life It seems in the integrated solution and deceit finally come blossom for him in a very professional, personal yet professional ways. Good to see.
I’m glad he’s on our side of the tent right now. Now let’s let’s switch gears a little bit because, you know, one of the things we’re saying in our big baseball brawl and smart building controls is that he may got a lot of new players that are coming onto the field. And we’ve all control trends we tried to introduce you to the ones we think are relevant. Kenny and I met our next guest had real calm I become were blown away with his approach to a major problem we’re all having which is cyber security. So Kenny, how about introducing our next guest?
Love to I’d love to it’s a it’s sad I admin chief Operations Officer for a credo. Thad is going to tell us about some really new exciting developments in cyber security, the top trend to 2019 Welcome to the show. Sowelcome back.
Hey, thanks for having me, guys. Great to be here.
Now, first question we have to ask is Did you ever see the TV show Starsky and Hutch, back in the day? Yeah, absolutely. actor that played and he’s been on some movies and I forget his name, Kenny. But But are you any relation to that actor that he was like in? You know what I’m talking about? Right?
It was Don Johnson one it?
Well, I like the way you roll that. I’ll take I’ll take the Don Johnson. That’s not exactly what I was thinking about.
That’s a good one to Me, too. I’ll take that one too.
Yeah, I gotta pick the handsome on Donna.
I like the way you think man I like the way you think. But
remember that movie that TV show was quite a while ago right? So what
was but he was also on the one with Kevin Spacey. We’re Kevin Spacey was with a politician. He’s been in a bunch of things. But he usually plays a bad guy but far control trans community of you can name that actor I’m thinking of and comments. You’ll get a really swell prize. Okay, so and then we’ll find out bad who the community thinks you’re most likes. So there you go. There you go. But listen, Chad, we’re so excited to have you on we met you for the first time. Welcome. I become a gentleman that I have a lot of respect for Leroy Leroy Walden, call me over to you have got to see this guy’s product. He’s got some it’s going to change the way we do cybersecurity, and, and not only just mobile, and distributed control, talk about your company and your product, and sort of how you guys are rolling with that.
Yeah. So you know, it was a pleasure to meet you. And I be kind as well, and really appreciate how you guys bring new information and, and new products to to the community. I think it’s a it’s really, really valuable for all of us. So so thank you for that.
Yeah, let’s talk a little bit about cyber security. You know,
I thought it was interesting. And I’m sure you were around the same ball. I was around when when the day before I become started. About 350 of the 2500 attendees showed up a day early to talk about cyber city purity. And so you know, I think we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, you know, what’s wrong with this picture? Right? Because we’ve had for years, right, a number of people in the market serving cyber security, whether it’s Cisco, IBM, Symantec, Palo Alto, you know, you can go down the list, and these are all the major corporations. So why is cyber security still a problem? And I think we have to start there with the fundamental question. And from our perspective, the answer to that question is that there’s been a dramatic and fundamental change in the world around us in terms of the kinds of things we have to secure. So what we see and it’s primarily driven by the Internet of Things is that the world is going mobile and distributed. And what that means is that everything’s connecting to everything. And not only are we already having a cyber security problem, but when you think about the advent of 5g, which is going to drive even more more and distributed Internet of Things devices, the security challenge is going to become Astra, astronomical, because there’s about 1 billion enterprise assets of the world today. So servers, laptops, desktops, you know, etc, we’ve had trouble even securing them. Now you add, you know, 50 to 75 billion Internet of Things devices on top of that, and it’s just going to become untenable. So we really have focused on on coming at this entirely new security challenge in a very different way. Because fundamentally, when you get to the base of it, you find out that traditional network security, and and traditional on device security simply don’t effectively work in this environment. In fact, Gartner you know, the leading analyst firm, recently gave a presentation, they had two primary comments, one is, the security products and practices, your today aren’t going to work for Internet of Things. And if you try to solve it with the sort of traditional approaches warmed over, they called it putting putting a fresh coat of paint on old products, you’re going to fail. So so an entirely new approaches is required.
We’ll talk about that new approach the that I was on your website, and it got a chance to do some, some pre interview reading. And I was very impressed. Because it’s kind of a new concept. In fact, you introduce cyber security as an ecosystem. And it sounds as complicated as can be, but how does it ecosystem platform? How does that tell us about the ease of use tell us about the user experience? Are they are the typical big customer and medium customer, little customers? This is scalable, correct?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, we built this for billions of billions of devices. So fundamentally, what we’ve done is we said, okay, network security is not going to work. Because the person that owns the IoT may or may not have any control over that network. So and the second thing is that this whole concept of network segmentation creates such a level of overhead that large companies simply cannot manage it. And the second thing is okay, on device security is not going to work. So what the hell are we going to do, right? So we created this new approach, which we call ecosystem security. And and when we step back, we said, you know, we’ve got to make security work in the way that companies think and operate, and how companies thinking operate our term is ecosystem, people might call it a business process or program or whatever. But it’s a collection of technologies that need to work together to accomplish a business task, right. So if we think about building security, for example, building security has a number of elements, there’s devices, their security, cameras, safety, door access controllers, you know, etc. There’s a set of applications that interact and run these devices. And there’s a set of users that interact with these applications of devices. So to us, this is what we call an ecosystem. It’s a collection of devices, users and applications that need to work together to accomplish a business function. So basically, the way our security works, is the partner or the customer goes on our website, they they, the partners, obviously have different level of access and customers, they create an ecosystem by registering these devices, users and applications together. And once they’re registered, they’re segregated in an isolated network container from everything else. So nothing can get to these devices, users or applications that’s not a part of this segregated. So basically, we’re privatizing what is today a huge, publicly accessible,
a group of assets.
That is pretty awesome. And again, you talk about the credo as being the first security as a utility company. And I thought that was an amazing business proposition and, and how you’re able to give a potential user a trial basis that can really bring bring the vision forward and get them a very concrete idea of what they need and what they need to spend and budget. And and tell us about that a little differences between a humidity sensor versus IoT camp.
Yeah, so when you look at, you know, the concept of a smart building, and and obviously, I’m going to talk in, in broad over simplified terms, right. But we tend to think of it that there are sort of three groups of activities, there’s management of the building itself, there are tenant services, and of course, a lot of new tenant services being driven by by, you know, serious new services being heard, guided by companies like we work, etc. and supply chain. So all the different companies that interact to support and supply things to that to that physical, physical building. And what we have found, in our research, which we did, starting a couple of years ago, when we began development of the platform is that customers told us look, our Internet of Things devices, we absolutely have to protect them, because for two key reasons. One, is there a gateway to our primary network, in many cases. And secondly, because many of our battery operated. So if a hacker sits there and pings that device over and over again, what happens is the 20 year life now goes to four years, and you kind of go replace it. So we’ve got to prevent sort of these operational issues as well. So when we looked at that, what one of the things the customer said is, look, we’re not going to buy IoT security based on a production or per network model, it simply financially doesn’t scale. So we’ve come at this and said, You know, this industry is used to buying things on a usage basis, you buy electricity on usage, you buy water on usage, you buy gas on usage, you pay sewer on usage, everything’s based on the use of spacious, why not offer security on a usage basis, that’s exactly what we do. When you connect your devices into an ecosystem, right? You generate a cost to protect those devices, based on what we call cloud unit set. And basically, a good measure of a cloud unit is bandwidth, right? Everybody knows how much bandwidth they use. And so you pay based on usage. If your usage declines, you pay less. The second thing that’s really interesting is that not only is it a paid for as a utility, but there’s no minimum contract. And what we found is that this opened up a whole series of use cases in the building market, for example, if I am fitting out the 12th floor for a new tenant. During that six month fit out, for example, I’ve got, you know, my architects, my contractors, my electricians, my whatever, who all need building access, they need access to plant so I can form an ecosystem of those participants. And basically, for that period of time, I can provide protection, but I don’t have to sign up for a year, I don’t have to sign up for three years, whatever I use during that period is what I paid for. So it’s an entirely new concept that is, you know, pay for what you use. Your ecosystems can grow and shrink, and you’re going to pay for what you use. And then we’ve eliminated the time element. So there’s no annual license that you have to buy,
Wow, well, I take the marketplaces gotta love that Thad, is what I’m thinking. But let’s just talk a little bit more as a company, you know, you mentioned you’re very channel focused. What specifically is your appeal to potential channel partners?
Well, I think in security,
specifically, it’s been difficult for a number of the channel partners that participate in this industry. So the master integrators, if you if you look at the profiles, you have a lot of companies that are in the three to $10 million revenue range. And it’s very difficult for them to have cyber security experts on staff, right. So how do they actually evaluate what products they want to offer their customers? How do they actually get their staff trained so that they can effectively support these products. So what we basically done is we said, Look, we’re coming at this from an entirely new direction. So the first thing that we enable our partners to do is provide thought leadership, when they walk into their customer, and talk about a entirely new way to secure their assets. That is the most advanced datacenter great security that can cover them for, for the first time, these mobile and distributed assets, and can do so in a simplistic usage based fashion. There is nothing else in the market like this. So they’re going to walk in the door with thought leadership and thought leadership in security is very important. But it’s also very hard to achieve for these these mid market integrator. So we enable them to achieve that as an objective. And I think that’s really important for the industry, we want to support these partners in their ability to create thought leadership, I think the second thing is that we have simplified our product. So we do not require months and months of training. And this releases the system integrator to engage with us because they know that we’re not going to suck up a tremendous amount of their resources, doors on the pathway to generating their first revenue. Right. And I think that’s really, really important. And lastly, courses, we expect to deliver a very attractive, recurring revenue profitable relationship with our partners.Well, that’s a, it’s a Grand Slam, because for one reason, thought leadership comment is very appropriate. And in Eric, and I find ourselves in many ways, kind of responsible, because people are looking for that, that portal, that pivot point to get information and get in and get out. And, and we always run to NIST and IST, you know, because there’s not many private entities that really get it and put it together as a product, let alone be able to, like you said, the simplified process, the utility concept is very, very interesting, because you pay for what you use, you know, so you could, you can isolate those costs and add them to what you’re doing. And if things get to your, if you don’t have the budget or whatever, you can make decisions. So the visibility is very important. But there was something that happened at IB con that was created a lot of excitement about the Microsoft folks showing up in a big way. And one of their specific offerings is is a security platform as part of sphere. How does how does credos product fit in with a Microsoft platform?That’s a great question. We got that a lot. But before I answer that, let me go back to something you just said. Because I think it’s important, which is, when a system integrator walks in with our product to a customer, we’re not asking that customer to rip and replace the security they have where a seamless overlap, right, so and I think that’s an important point, that puts the customer at ease. So we’re adding a capability without requiring the customer to rip and replace something that they that they already have, they can do that over time, as they become familiar with the with our platform. So so on to to Microsoft, I, you know, we always enjoy a bit of the technology business a long time, and everybody always looking for the silver bullet. And, you know, there was a number of conversations at the at the cyber security briefing the day before I become where I heard, you know, a number of people say, you know, finally Microsoft is on the same, they’ve got a security methodology, everything’s going to be okay. So, and it’s a natural reaction, right? The big boys are coming to town, whether it’s Microsoft or Intel, or whatever. And they’re going to they’re going to take this on force. So we actually had a great meeting, and I become with Microsoft, the gentlemen the heads of program was their own side that the sphere program for them. And really, if you dive into sphere, what you find is that they are really promoting and supporting a methodology for device hardening. So the device itself, right, there’s a seven layer model that they are putting forward and really supporting with various technology initiatives. The interesting thing is that when we did a demo of our solution for Microsoft, what we discovered in that process of going through that demo is that we are basically 100% compatible with them. They’re working on hardening the device, that’s not something that we’re focused on. We’re focused on external threats, right, making sure that external threats don’t get to that that device, or if that individual devices hack that that threat does not go to other members of that network. So it’s, it’s an essence a perfect fit. And we’ll expect to be talking about that with Microsoft over the next over the next few months. But we were, we were excited that that our fit is, is is so complimentary with nice.
Very cool. Can you think you got another question for Thad ?
Yeah, well, you know, the thing I say the to elaborate on some of the we should we talked about behavioral changes, how people in these these mid level organizations and businesses that don’t have the ability to throw a whole lot of money into cyber security, they need a solution. And then I think that part of that too, so that that’s the behavioral change. But I don’t think people really understand the nature of the beast. So like you mentioned, network segmentation. And then you mentioned device, you know, I get a kick out of that the own device security, because a lot of manufacturers now believe that’s the answer. They’re encrypting and encrypting across the network from device to device or whatever. Tell us what the shortfalls are those I mean, where’s that? Like? It’s, it’s not the total message that the total solution,right? Well, if you break down security,
and you look at what’s been traditionally called a full stack security model, there are a whole series of functions that have to be performed. So when you’re talking about, you know, identity and encryption, really what you’re talking about is identity and privacy, right? But you’re not talking about security, right? So identity and privacy are two of the things that we do. But they are only two of the many steps that we do to provide full sex security, right? Because you have to look at things like access control, Threat Management, data loss prevention, especially when you talk about machines communicating to machines, things like data loss prevention are going to be very important behavioral analytics based on on how that machine how that device, how that user application is acting today versus how its acted in the past. So when you talk about identity and encryption, which we have, as part both of those as part of our platform, those are only two of the many things that have to be done for a full security review. The other thing you touched on, which I think is, is quite interesting, we had some chuckles on this at at an IB con, we met with one of the major security vendors. There were only a couple there, so and we asked them about their offering. And they said, Well, you know, we we have created this smart building campus. And you know, we’ve done all these things. And one of the main things we’ve done is we’ve gotten the information technology people, the IT people to really connect with the operating technology people, the OT people, so we’ve really got this relationship going. And there were a number of conversations and discussions. And even some presentations that I become about, you know, how we’ve got to get it and OT working together. Honestly, we think that is the biggest bunch of nonsense in the history of mankind. Because the fact of matter is it if you look at the objectives of it, and OT, they are fundamentally different, they really don’t have a need to talk to each other, which is historically why they have it right. OT is interested in driving operations, efficiency, customer service, etc. And it is risk avoidance and all that. And so this concept of getting these two groups of Kumbaya together is absolutely ridiculous. Any people in security will tell you that any security that’s depend on people to execute a process, you’re, you’re already screwed before you even start. So what we’ve done is we’ve come at it in a different way that says, Oh, yeah, we’re going to solve the problem, we’re going to solve the problem of it and ot communications by eliminating the need for them to communicate, right now. Let them be the way they are. So what we’ve done is, if you look at our platform, IT and go back, it goes back to this concept of an ecosystem, right? It can go in and set parameters by which they want the company as a whole, to be secured for these kinds of activities. And then the operating technology professionals can go create their own ecosystems whenever they want, how many ever they want, and they will always be compliant with the it objectives. Right. And so basically, the the, the approach now is the operating technology guy says, Oh, you know, I gotta do an IoT program. I gotta roll out this building, I gotta roll out this tenant service. I gotta roll out whatever. You know, I don’t have time to wait on it to approve everything. Oh, guess what, you don’t need it to prove everything. Go in, create your credo ecosystem. It’s already pre approved. You could do it right now. It will take you 15 minutes. Right,what we’ll try to do? Yeah, so trust me, this is very interesting. And it’s groundbreaking for me, because that has been the thrust is the integration of IITNOT. And having this stuff, they were like two primary choices, you had the enterprise network, and you bring everything all the IP devices, because we’re seeing a radical increase in products going to IP, obviously, MSRP, and all the to wire things that are starting to be, you know, the losing ground to IP based controllers, and all the majors are put one out there EGIO, beginning way back when and Honeywell just introduced the cyber lines, Johnson had him, Siemens has them.Right?So the question became, for us in the master systems integrators and the integrators that we we are familiar with, they had to make a choice of they were going to create a VAS network, and do exactly what you said, created this, dislocate the conversation, and make everything that was BAS on that network, and then take care of that secure that. And let IOT do their own thing on the enterprise network. And then we had some enter, you know, like people Ford and GM talking about they want to supervise anything on any network in their facilities. So they wanted to, you know, you had to abide by their standards. So, but I think what you said is that, you know, that is kind of like, maybe the false step in our in our approach towards the echo system style of cybersecurity where this shouldn’t be a conversation, because each one should be its own. What would you call it, its own set of concerns that don’t necessarily involve the other one.
Right? I think there’s two, probably more than two, but at least a couple of issues you pointed out there. One is that today, when I, when a company starts to look at this challenge, what they see is they have all of these different kinds of devices, and maybe guess networks and other stuff, all commingle together on various networks, right. And so the first thing I look at is, you know, crap, what am I going to do, I’ve got all this stuff on the same network. And I just read that my security cameras are subject to XYZ breach and you know, all this stuff. What we’re saying to them is, look, you’re you’re at point A right now, where everything is all on these various networks, the wrong decision for you the wrong decision, is to start a huge network segmentation project. Because a, it’s going to require a tremendous amount of expense, it’s going to require resources, you don’t have an even when you finish, you’re not going to be finished. Because while you’re doing it, other things are going to be added in, right. So that’s the wrong approach, the right approach is to say, we need to leave these things on the networks they’re on. And we need to understand that these things need to be accessed from outside of our networks by third parties, right? Otis Elevator is going to be accessing IoT devices in those elevators to check them on a on a regular basis, right. And so many, many companies are now using external providers to monitor security after hours. So we have to come to the realization that this isn’t about a building, that’s this, this physical thing and nothing gets in or out. Everything is connected, right. So we have to be able to say, we have to protect any kind of device residing on the network that it sits on today, whether that is a controlled network inside our building with a traditional firewall, etc, etc. Or whether that’s a device that is a mobile device being used by a user at the neighborhood Starbucks to talk to our building control application in Amazon, totally outside our visibility and control, right. So we have to be able to secure the both of these kinds of things together. And the only thing that we have seen that can do it effectively is our ecosystem off, you can’t do it with network security, and you can’t do with on device security. So okay, somebody show me another, another alternative other than what we have, we haven’t seen it yet. Nice,
nice, well, that walk our community to they want to engage your services, sort of walk them through the process, obviously, you know, give them a website or a contact point of contact, and then sort of tell them what to expect next.
So we are, as you know, we’re newly launching, right? We’ve been
developing this platform for 30 months. So when you start talking about connecting anything to anywhere, it’s it’s a big job. But our technical team delivered the FIFA World Cup games for ESPN. So we were very, very attuned with, with those kind of things. Where we, where we are with our partners is we are engaging with partners, what the partner can expect from us is the opportunity, first of all, to create thought leadership. So the first thing that we do with our partners is not dive in and say, Oh, look at this feature, look at this function. Look at this cost structure. Look at this, our first discussion with a partner is are you a group that’s focused on thought leadership, because if you’re not, you’re probably not an appropriate partner for us, we really want people who want to be innovative and thought leaders. So the first thing that we do is, we enable that partner to be a thought leader. And that requires some time, right? Typically myself, our CTO, etc, spend time with the head of biz dev for that partner, sometimes to CEO, and we really walk them through, what is the problem we’re solving? Why is that an important problem? How do we solve it differently? What’s the value we can bring to that customer, because until a partner understands that, it doesn’t make any sense to go through anything else, right. The second thing that we do is we enable the partner to sell the product, right? So and our partners should know that a customer can buy the product on our website, or they can buy it through a partner is the exact same price. So we will always push customers to the partner first. Why? Because customers need partners to help them out with things like device selection, device implementation, Device Management, device support, device monitoring, this is security, this is about one piece of an integrated solution, right? So we will always push customers to partners. And we believe that partners that have the expertise in the smart building market are absolutely our best way to get to these customers they have the trusted relationships with we’re not going to go we do not have a independent sales force that’s going to call on smart building owners and managers, right? We’re really focused on partners. So we have thought leadership, we have the product and that we have technical support. We’re going to teach that partner how to implement one of our ecosystem. And it’s very, very simple. And we have a certification programs at two levels. One is what we call a strategist. So this would be for the business development or salesperson, so they understand what’s the strategy behind what we’re doing. And then we have certification at the technical level. And it’s a very, very quick process for someone who is network, network knowledgeable. They don’t have to be a security expert. They just need to be network knowledgeable, very,
the web best website for them to come to
a credo.io. And there’s a contact for and they can fill that out. And we’ll just say Kevin extension, you get great service there. Listen before Can you ask the last question that we have gotten some responses back about the actor you most look like? Angie Jarvis and several other women say Roger Moore. But But and we got a couple of Bill Murray’s but the correct answer is and Scott Cochran from Cochran supply. I got this right. is Gerald mic rainy, that’s the guy we were going for. So Gerald McCoy, it was the right answer, although the women think you look like Roger Moore. So I’d play that one up.
Hey, what can I say? That’s right, they already
know I just go bond. Thad Bond.
Was that I just wanted to hopefully, we can fit this back in there. But even though you’ve only been developing this technology for 30 months, your breadth of experience is extraordinary. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong, but the your CEO or founder has this is his third person company doing exactly this. So there’s probably just tell us a little bit about that. So we get a better understanding of how deep this this thought process has gone? Or is.Yeah, so it’s interesting. Before we found that a credo, I was actually the president of a managed service provider. And the biggest challenge that we had, we had a number of hospitality clients, the biggest challenge we had was that these hospitality clients had a, a very significant and fast growing fleet of IoT devices. So if you think about a typical hospitality, location, you walk in, there’s video monitors on the wall. They’re all internet connected door access controllers, thermostats, etc, etc. And so we were looking for a solution for Internet of Things security, and I couldn’t find one. About the time Bob Eric past, our CEO and CTO who I’ve known for a number of years called me and said, Hey, fed, you want to invest in my new company says late 2016, I said, What what are you doing is I’m going to do security for the Internet of Things. I just sold my business that is a cloud based platform for security for enterprise assets. But what’s needed is an entirely new kind of platform to support internet of things because of the cost structure, the scalability, the requirement to connect, support, and protect on on any kind of network and any device and you know, etc, etc, much more complex. So I said, Well, yeah, that sounds interesting. Let me come meet with you. So we actually met for about three months. And at the end of the three months, I said, well, not only am I going to invest, and I was the first check into the company, but I’m going to come on board as your COO, we’re going to rock this thing. So now we have Bob back. My partner, this is his third cloud security business he actually has was the innovator behind to Gartner secret categories were now there are 10 or 15 companies in each one, the one was, first one is Casspi cloud access security broker. And the second one is firewall as a service, which was focused on on enterprise asset. So this is his third cloud security company as the primary architect of it. So we have a, you know, a group in Jersey City, and then we have our development center in Cheshire, in Poland, which is close to the German border, and we have, you know, a good group there and that, so we’re often rolling
near there. Okay. Well, that’s a super story. And I tell you, what, what do you think Eric? Very impressive. private security solutions sounds a little bit more friendly. doable.
Yeah. And a little more, a little a little less daunting. Yeah,
yeah. We think you guys gonna do well,
yeah, that for sure. Listen, man, thanks for taking time to be on the show. And we really really appreciate appreciate you telling our community about your product and encourage our community to check you guys out. And with that said, we wish you a great day and Listen, man taking movie star out and bad no bond, bad bond shaken not stirred. I think I go with that ever Djerba? grainy, but that’s just
I think I’m taking the rest of the day off. You’ve mentioned your
brother, you should do it. Hi, man. Thanks again. Hey, thank you. What can I say man? What What were your thoughts?
I am I’m sold. I think that you know, the we’ve seen different products, we see some good products, you know, and that’s just going through, you know, in the conversations were having the cyber security coverage that we have given and the cyber security products that we have, have featured in whatever I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a seamless, all inclusive, scalable, modular, visible solution as a credo so I’m very impressed.
Yeah, me too. Me too and really appreciate what can you smash Listen, man, we gotta get we got to get to it, man. It’s the way can you got smiles time I got Stromquist time and but the one thing I can tell you is man, we appreciate all our viewers. With that. A special thanks to our guests Roger Reba, and Stephen heckler, and without a special thanks to our guests. One and only Roger Reba neck and Stephen heckler from Jackson controls. Congratulations on your Cincinnati location. And to that argument for I credo IO. We appreciate you coming in and introducing your product to our community. And with that Kenny spires. Remember, be bold, stay in control and stay relevant indeed.