During ISC West,SDMmet with two new industry leaders who recently took the helms of their respective organizations — Jeremy Hockham, the new president of sales – Americas, at Bosch Security Systems, and Luis Orbegoso, vice president, general manager of Lenel, a UTC Fire & Security Company. Each brings a unique enthusiasm and vision to his position, which they shared withSDM.
Bosch Security’s Hockham is an engineer who entered the security industry in 2001 in the United Kingdom, then joined Bosch in April 2005. In October 2007, he was appointed president.
Hockham stressed his ability and desire as the new president to play Bosch Security’s strengths, which include its private ownership and its commitment to making decisions for the long-term. “We spend more on R&D than anybody else. That comes from the ownership structure. We’re investing between 11 and 12 percent of our revenue in R&D,” Hockham said.
Hockham emphasized that as president he intends to focus on increased support of Bosch Security’s dealers.
“One of the key messages is, we are only a product supplier so the only way to be successful is to make our dealers successful,” Hockham said.
Luis Orbegoso believes that Lenel, an access control solution provider, must be “the best provider of solutions and services in the industry.”
Like Hockham, Lenel’s Orbegoso places a major focus on the company’s VARs or solution providers.
“We’re extremely selective. We would prefer having fewer VARs that are higher quality. It is a rigorous process to evaluate them. If they can’t offer excellent service levels, [then we don’t consider them],” he said. Lenel’s VARs, which number approximately 300, “are very sophisticated, very much in tune with their markets,” Orbegoso related.
“The reason Lenel has been successful is because of the people, the products, and the VARs,” he said. That is why Orbegoso’s plans for Lenel include additional investment in the channel. “I plan on investing a lot of money in giving them more tools so they always know the right products to offer the customer,” he said.
Orbegoso maintained that Lenel’s products are in more than 15,000 installations worldwide. “We see international markets as a huge opportunity for growth, Orbegoso said.