Custom Retailer-Atomoo’s ‘Recovery Package’ for Integrators

There’s no better solution for custom integrators in these economic circumstances than one offering a recurring-revenue opportunity.

That’s what Atomoo’s Dan Newman, vice president of sales and marketing, is calling what his company, Atomoo, is offering.  “It’s an economic recovery package for the industry,” he said. Started late last year by Brian Post, founder of the Illinois-based custom integration operation LouisClark Ltd., the company, whose name means “to bind together” in Greek, offers 24/7 remote network monitoring of every IP-enabled product that can be controlled in a home – A/V, IT and all manner of convergent technologies. The company just announced in mid-March that it will use Microsoft’s Windows Home Server platform as the operating system for its servers and management appliances.

“Being an integration company,” added Post, “we know how costly service calls are. What we do is monitoring, so that the installing company can avoid those kinds of unnecessary calls that hemorrhage money. The service is also a great way to go back to current customers and show that you can offer a value-added service that really is that.”

He pointed out that in commercial IT, managed services of this type have been around for a while because down time in a system can be profoundly damaging financially. “On the residential side, it’s true that it’s not the end of the world if a cable doesn’t work. But to the customer, it’s critical; the customer just wants it to work. Our service is a stress-reliever for the client. It alleviates the pain that comes with a service call by addressing that problem, or even a potential problem before it comes to light, remotely – and then, by giving the customer a ‘feedback report’ after the problem is solved.”