On Nov. 14-16, hundreds of professionals gathered in Miami, Fla., for Honeywell’s 2019 Building for the Future event. Featuring presentations, breakout sessions and an innovation showcase, this provided a unique chance for those involved with Honeywell to connect and learn more about what the company is working on — which was particularly interesting since this was the first conference Honeywell held since separating from Resideo in 2018. 

Here, SDM speaks with Vikas Chadha, vice president and general manager for Honeywell Commercial Security, to learn about the highlights of the event, and what it represents for the company’s future.

SDM: What message did Honeywell want to convey at this event?
Vikas Chadha: The main message was that Honeywell Security is focused on the commercial market. We are part of a business that has other meaningful product lines also — such as fire and building management — but I think we have a much bigger focus on our vertical, which we are excited about, and that was the message we wanted to convey to our partners. The second message which we wanted to convey was our strength. We had representation from more than 400 attendees from 30 countries, so they did a lot of talking to each other, interacting. Many of our customers didn’t know very much about the requirements and solutions that could be deployed across the globe, so it’s a great opportunity for our partners to talk to each other and the partners from Latin America, Canada, different parts of Europe and the Middle East, so it’s a great opportunity for all the partners.

SDM: What were some of the highlights? 
VC: We spoke a lot about the new products that we are coming out with, and we had a lot of products for demonstration, and there was a lot of excitement around these. These products are installed using an RMR model, so we explained how that worked. We also have, for the enterprise customers, video management software and access control software, so we showcased the latest versions of this and previewed a new offering which will launch this year: an intelligent command software platform that seamlessly combines the strength of access and video, so its optimized for easier operator control. The platform will allows for easier upgrades and provide a better graphic user interface. We also showed some of our latest cameras and devices that we have. So we put a lot of emphasis on the products we are going to launch and getting the partners familiar with them. I think for the partners there was a lot of respect for Honeywell, and there was a lot of mutual respect from us. They appreciated the effort, not only that we put into the event, but also that we do in the field to support them on a daily basis with customers and installations. They’re an important part of our story, and obviously they share feedback with us, which use to make sure we continuously improve. We also have a very solid end user committee that acts as a voice for us. These end users are actually using the products, and not only interacting with each other to learn the best practices, but also interacting with us, so that was another good dimension of the event.

SDM: What did the Honeywell team learn from the conference?
VC: Everyone had their own set of takeaways, but I would say broadly, there were a couple of takeaways that I’d like to share. There was a lot of discussion around the cloud and IoT offerings taking the center stage, and that’s why there was a lot of interest in our expanded MAXPRO Cloud offerings. We also got feedback from our partners that they recognize we are putting in a lot of effort, and received additional feedback on how to support our partners. 

SDM: What can be expected from next year’s event?
VC: In 2020, we want to make this event more global, so we’re looking to host it in Europe to be more centrally located for partners. We’re hoping to have broader representation from partners from North America, Latin America, Europe, India, China and Korea, so they can join the conversation. We hope to have great representation from all of our partners.