Re: More VOIP/Digital Voice

["Mark Leuck" <m..leuck@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Roland Moore" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:luIeh.4400$qp1.1903@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > 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,

I don't see how, assuming the above is true those dealers went to other
companies, nature abhores a vacuum.

> 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.

It still doesn't bother me

> 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?

I forgot to mention my company is one of the largest if not THE largest in
the nation, this has nothing to do with my opinion. I deal with GE and
Honeywell on a daily basis and all I can say is your opinion is incorrect

> 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?

We take no working capital from GE

>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.

Well so far they have been doing a miserable job if that is the goal

> 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.

Gee for not seeing anything wrong you sure see a lot of things wrong, do you
have a solid opinion on ANYTHING?

> > 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 what you can't seem to understand is GE like those previously mentioned
companies also faces problems of their own, Big companies like that tend
over a long period of time to misread the market, react slowly and get out
when the going gets tough. GE and Honeywell have a lot of irons in the fire,
security is just one and both companies have a completely different way of
doing business. I deal with them every day

> > 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.

Exactly!