PSI January 2022

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EDIT Interview psi jan22_PSI_mar15 23/12/2021 14:25 Page 2

INTERVIEW

Investing in services This month we talk to Mat Brown and Jon Wadman of Qvis about how being a modern security technology distributor is more than just shifting boxes epending on how long you’ve been working in the security sector, you might remember the distributor Qvis in an earlier form, that of Adata which was founded in 2002. The original company migrated from IT into the evolving digital security market, where technologies were converging with the release of digital video recorders, replacing traditional analogue tape based solutions. In 2008 Adata went into partnership with QVIS Labs and this has developed into the Qvis brand as it stands today. This month, PSI took a trip down to the company’s HQ in Havant for a tour of the premises which not only includes a security division with its own ARC, but also lighting and E-bike departments. We spoke to MD Mat Brown and UK Sales Manager Jon Wadman about the company and how the stock and requirements of customers have changed over the years.

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Why does a distributor need its own ARC so much that you made that huge investment? MB: The reason we have a monitoring station is that we saw a gap in the market for a distributor to not only provide hardware, but to offer a service with it. We have developed our ARC into Qvis Monitoring running as a separate company under the Qvis Group banner and it has the ability to monitor not only our devices, but also our competitors’ devices too. It runs on the Sentinel platform and it gives us something different in the marketplace - setting us apart from other distributors. How does it work in practice? Is it only available to those people who buy from you? JW: One of the key things about the monitoring centre for me is that we open the door to every single installer especially as everyone uses an ARC at some point in their career. We are a Tier 1 Dahua distributor so our hardware supply doesn't cover all of the Hikvision customers in the market, but with our monitoring station, we

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can cover every single customer in the UK and offer them a Qvis service. You have the QVIS HQ in Havant, but what is your PureTech branch network all about? MB: PureTech is the leg of the company that's sells to key integrators and from where we provide solutions to our partners with a lot of technology on display in the showrooms, where installers have the ability to learn about and train on products that they might not have seen before or any kit that is new to the market. We hope this approach gives our integrators a boost, so that if they are up against another installer who perhaps isn't as trained up or hasn't seen the latest products, they have got a USP over them. JW: For me, PureTech is offering something different. I know, there are a lot of distributors out there that have a branch network however ours isn't just a trade counter. We've got massive video walls and all of our solutions are on display plus we take the time to train customers, walking them through every aspect and every range that we sell. We also welcome and encourage our installers to bring their customers into the branches as well so that if they want the opportunity to see what they are buying before they do so, they can pop in and we can give them a full demo.

“We have developed our ARC into Qvis Monitoring running as a separate company under the Qvis Group banner and it has the ability to monitor not only our devices, but also our competitors’ devices too”

What's the current state of play regarding your own-brand products? MB: We have a history of developing our own OEM products as well as selling brands from companies we've partnered with including Ajax, Dahua and Visonic. We are continuing to

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