By: Alan Forman, President, Altronix Corp.
The Formative Years Leading to the Genesis of Altronix
My career as a professional in the security industry began as a systems installer in the New York tri-state region, which ultimately led me to forming my own company monitoring and servicing residential and commercial end-users. Shortly after, I had the good fortune to connect with a bright electrical engineer, Jonathan Sohnis, and together we founded Altronix. It seems like yesterday, but it was almost 40 years ago that Altronix was established. I’m responsible for sales and marketing, while my partner focuses on engineering and manufacturing.
Initially, we saw an opportunity to enter the professional security industry with a mission to design and manufacture better power products and peripherals with added features and higher reliability. We developed best-in-breed products that gave us the confidence to offer the industry’s first lifetime warranty. Altronix was also the first to introduce a series of off-line power supplies, which vastly increased power efficiency with a substantially smaller footprint.
Altronix’s reputation for quality and reliability spread quickly throughout the industry, and our portfolio continued to evolve beyond just power supply/chargers to include, but not limited to, controllers, PoE switches, and products that integrate with fiber optics. Today, Altronix offers the widest range of power and data transmission solutions for security, surveillance, access control, fire and a myriad of other low-voltage applications.
In order to accelerate market share and exposure, I made the decision from day one to offer our products exclusively through our industry’s distribution channel. Our network of reseller partners has continued to expand over the years both domestically and internationally. As a result, Altronix products can be found in mission-critical security systems around the world – from SMBs and high-end residential installations to multinational organizations located throughout North America the EMEA, LATAM and APAC. Some of these deployments are at the world’s most prominent public and private venues ranging from the Panama Canal to the Super Bowl, the Pentagon, Andrews Air Force Base, King Khalid International Airport, the Kennedy Space Center, and at many of the world’s leading corporations and data centers.
As time went on, other manufacturers within our industry began calling on Altronix to design and manufacture custom products that complement their catalogue. We then began offering configured solutions for specific applications to help our dealer and integration partners increase efficiency, saving time and labor which ultimately contributes to their bottom line.
After 40 years of growth and success in the industry, we still have the mindset of a startup company – always looking to stay ahead of the curve and instill confidence with our global network of customers and technology partners.
Expanding Market Share Through Innovation
Altronix remains relevant to the industry by continually addressing existing and emerging challenges of our customers and technology partners. To meet the increasing global demand for our products, Altronix heavily invests in infrastructure and manufacturing processes. For example, to help further expedite bringing our products to market, we built an in-house lab providing us the capability to perform UL testing on our own products. Altronix’s quality management system was approved by ISO in 2002, and we have sustained this prestigious certification to this day. A true turnkey design and manufacturing operation from the board level up, Altronix’s production capabilities are second to none, boasting the latest advancements in technology across every facet of manufacturing.
Altronix’s state-of-the-art facility currently occupies more than 200,000 square feet of space, and employs over 300 people. To accommodate future growth, we are in the process of expanding with a 35,000 square foot addition.
Now celebrating our 40th anniversary, Altronix has maintained its ability to deliver the exceptional quality, innovation and unparalleled customer support that has earned our company’s reputation as the gold standard in low voltage electronics.
Adapting to Industry Needs to Provide Tangible Solutions
New system technologies are increasingly reliant on intelligent software and devices that bring intelligence to the edge. This is helping to expand the scope and physical coverage capabilities of advanced security and surveillance systems comprised of many different types of conventional and new IoT devices that provide intelligence for the enterprise. Yet all these divergent products have one common denominator – they are reliant on power and data distribution – solutions for which Altronix is widely recognized as the global leader. And as new and upgraded systems continue to grow in physical size and distance, so does the need for better network communications, which we now incorporate into virtually all our products with Altronix LINQ technology.
A Look Into the Industry’s Future
The security industry is strong and will continue to grow to address new and evolving threats to our safety and security, and become more proactive in nature to help detect and prevent events. Once again, power and data distribution solutions provide the foundation for these systems and their ability to scale and be implemented on any infrastructure over greater distances. You can count on Altronix to play an instrumental role in delivering the foundation for the industry to build upon into the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alan Forman is cofounder and president of Altronix Corporation, a global leader in power and data transmission solutions for the professional security industry. Alan was inducted into the Security Sales & Integration Hall of Fame in 2008, and received the prestigious George R. Lippert Memorial Award from the Security Industry Association in 2013. Alan has also been recognized for his philanthropy, notably by receiving the first Mission 500 Humanitarian Award in 2010 for his charitable initiative aimed at improving the lives of children. He has served on numerous boards, and through Altronix, supports a myriad of industry organizations including but not limited to ASIS, SIA ,ESA, TMA, AIEF, and NFPA.
Source: snnonline.com