Re: More VOIP/Digital Voice

["Roland Moore" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Yes I often ponder the potential evils, political leanings, charity
> contributions, sexual preferences of the manufacturer, doesn't everyone?
GE purchased wholesale many previously independent manufacturers. It is not
unusual that the good will these companies had would still carry over to GE.
The things you mention about political leaning and such aren't important to
me and probably aren't important to anyone but to GE and its shareholders.
What is important are things unique to GE and the GE marketing strategy.
According to GE, when it finished its latest round of purchases it was left
with over 1300 dealers to support. That is the way this industry was
founded, more or less, was with smaller dealers; but GE doesn't want to
offer support to maintaining that marketing structure within this industry.
GE's idea is to knock that 1300 it has down to 200 and then to 100. As one
of the dealers that was unexpectedly chopped off, I can tell you that it did
cause problems. I am not saying that GE was evil, up to no good, etc. I am
just pointing out that to date their actions have had a negative impact,
especially on smaller dealers. The GE marketing plan is important not just
to 100 dealers GE plans to have left standing, it is important to other non
GE dealers because of the way GE plans to support those 100 dealers against
competing dealers supporting other vendors. You can pretend that this would
not ever bother you if you like. I believe it will be something to plan for
on every large job that GE gets involved with as a competitor against you.
Your thought process is 2 dimensional if you think it is just GE with there
box of widgets versus another dealer and his or her box of widgets. The GE
guy is going to compete with you on the price point of the products, further
discounted by the amount of non alarm GE product volume the end user
purchases, and the total financial picture. When the deal is done with a GE
dealer, it might just take a signature with no cash or percentage down, no
draw schedule etc. That GE dealer's effort will be financed end to end and
on both sides by GE, at the same time GE is selling the gear to the dealer
and end user at price points you could only dream about. GE wants its 100
dealers to prosper, and it may be at your expense. When a successful GE
dealer (a.k.a. strategic partner) lands in your backyard how many extra bids
per month are you going to have to do to keep the same level of workload?
How much will your margins have to decrease to meet the competition? How
will your relationship with your bank be changed when you suddenly need a
lot more working capital to offer a GE type deal to customers just to remain
competitive? In short, GE wishes to create a dealer network consisting of
high parts volume dealers, working in protected areas and to integrate those
dealers' efforts into all other product lines GE offers, using aggressive
pricing and financing as the marketing weapons of choice.
> So whats wrong with that? Every company shapes it's industry unless you
> think they are evil......if thats the case they will be knocking on your
> door soon troublemaker
There is nothing wrong with what GE is doing. I don't like being on the very
small end of a David and Goliath type struggle. I don't have to like being
thrown into the fray, nor do I have to support the adversary by continuing
to purchase GE gear. There is nothing wrong with that either.
>And you'll sit there thinking more bogus reasons why it's semi-okay to do
>it
I never said it was semi-okay to do it. Firstly I didn't do it, and secondly
said I would not chose to do it. I did say I thought it was no big deal.
> You seem to be on their sites a lot considering what they supposedly do to
> the industry
I like to eat. I always wonder about guys that try to take my bowl away, or
worse, leave it empty.
> Speaking of massive conglomerates getting into the alarm industry what
> happened to them?
> 1. AT&T (8000...enough said)
> 2. Sprint  (FonSafe anyone?)
> 3. Telcoms (big 0)
> 4. Power companies (late 1990's, caused massive consolidation and more
> business for small companies)
GE is different than any companies you mention. For one it is much larger
than any of these companies you list and two it is involved in many types of
business activities, and it is not focused or identified with just a single
industry. GE is not using a marketing strategy in any way similar to these
companies either. GE has not really taken their marketing effort in this
industry all that seriously just yet, the guys at the top might not even
realize yet that they own a big chunk of the security industry. I am
thankful for that. If they can cause all of this trouble accidentally, I
don't want to be on the other end of the focus of their serious efforts. I
suspect no one that posts here does.
> And if you don't like it you can....you can.....hey go to Napco,
> Honeywell,
> Visonic, DSC, Linear.....did I leave anyone out?
Yes, a bunch. Aleph, Bosch, DMP, Electronics Line, HAI, Inovonics, Potter
Electric, SK and many more.

"Mark Leuck" <m..leuck@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qKSdna-Mk-7BmObYnZ2dnUVZ_qCmnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "Roland Moore" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:bkBeh.3298$qp1.2238@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> I am glad that some here have the luxury of judging products by their
>> technical merits and not by the effects that the parent company has on
>> the
>> rest of the alarm industry.
>
> Yes I often ponder the potential evils, political leanings, charity
> contributions, sexual preferences of the manufacturer, doesn't everyone?
>
>> As a practical matter aren't you guys talking about a panel line that I
>> believe technically doesn't exist anymore? I thought that it is called
>> NetworX since GE put the cash on the table.
>
> True however I will always refer to the GE brands as ITI and Caddx for the
> following reasons
>
> 1. It's easier to sort my pdf documents than to put them into one big GE
> folder
> 2. It easier to provide tech support when they still branded them by the
> old
> names
> 3. I like the names Caddx and ITI, I grew up in the industry with them
> 4.
>
> BTW: I do the same with Honeywell/Apex/Ademco/FBI for the same reason
>
>> You know, the same ones that are
>> doing more to change the industry to the way they want it to be; more
>> than
>> any other big company to date that has bought itself into the business.
>
> So whats wrong with that? Every company shapes it's industry unless you
> think they are evil......if thats the case they will be knocking on your
> door soon troublemaker
>
>> Now
>> if someone needs to post a login in to that site remember their warning.
> You
>> may get sent to bed without dinner again.
>
> And you'll sit there thinking more bogus reasons why it's semi-okay to do
> it
>
>> No wait, I forgot. It is more important for some folks here to nag Bass
>> about some stupid login in rather than look at the big picture and see
> what
>> this monster company is doing to this industry.
>
> Hey another bogus reason!
>
>> It is mostly by accidental
>> blunder so far, but it still looks like a cross between Godzilla loose in
>> Tokyo and Saddam leaving Kuwait. Kind of like their site being so
> unattended
>> and just left with errors and broken links; with a 'if you don't like it,
>> too bad' type attitude.
>
> I haven't seen a broken link on the site in ages, if anything Honeywell
> has
> vastly improved on Ademco's old site (not that it was bad).
>
> You seem to be on their sites a lot considering what they supposedly do to
> the industry
>
>> But if these monster companies ever get serious, as
>> one of Bass' more famous digs at his detractors goes could turn prophetic
>> instead, and we could all end up just being clerks somewhere.
>
> Ahh the infamous Walmart scare tactic, it holds no water.
>
> Speaking of massive conglomerates getting into the alarm industry what
> happened to them?
> 1. AT&T (8000...enough said)
> 2. Sprint  (FonSafe anyone?)
> 3. Telcoms (big 0)
> 4. Power companies (late 1990's, caused massive consolidation and more
> business for small companies)
>
>> Remember to GE all gear is the same. They always say they can do what
> anyone
>> else can. The GE mantra is that the only thing that should matter to you
> as
>> dealer or integrator, as well as the customer, is that they're GE.
>
> And if you don't like it you can....you can.....hey go to Napco,
> Honeywell,
> Visonic, DSC, Linear.....did I leave anyone out?
>
>
>