ADI Is Branching Out

Constantine, product manager for wire and structured cabling products at ADI, is one of six product managers responsible for finding new technologies for ADI to bring to dealers. "To keep in pace, we're migrating structured cable into home control and solutions. We still want to sell the residential enclosure, the telephone modules, but now we want to get into home control, lighting, home automation, IP-based systems for the whole house," he says. "I see the market going to whole-house digital where CAT 5 cable will do everything: music, intercom, security."

Security will always be ADI's bread and butter, but the company also recognizes that its contractor base is migrating into professional A/V and other solutions. "We are going along with it. We want to supply everything it takes for that dealer, when he's in that residential system," Constantine says. "We want to be that one-stop shop. We have to be all-encompassing to give these guys everything they need."

For example, ADI developed its Snap-It program to teach dealers how to add different technologies to their portfolios and how to sell those solutions to light commercial customers and residential customers. Snap-It launched earlier this year and includes about 10 manufacturers. Dealers must be nominated by their local branch to qualify.

"Taking the residential premise, you can go to a doctor's office, or a lawyer that has five or six or seven employees. It's the same footprint for that small office," Constantine says. "We're going to train you through our vendor partners, give you marketing materials to enable you to go into small businesses. If you put the telephone system in, you can put in the data network, the sound system now that we're a commercial XM distributor, the security system."

Constantine's desire to help customers goes back years--and even includes being paid in casino poker chips, says Brian Lum, retired president and CEO of X-Blue, a Las Vegas-based telecom company and ADI customer. "When we first started, he was running a telecom company and everybody was trying to get your business. Here in Vegas, everyone runs around with poker chips from the hotels. He'd accept those and later on redeem them and pay the company," Lum says. "He is one of those individuals that would go the extra mile."

Constantine also has a rare ability to put solutions together in his head, Lum says.

"When guys get stuck on the job, they call him," Lum says. "He knows exactly what is needed. He has an innate knowledge of what parts go with what."

ADI's corporate philosophy--and its structure--makes it easier to bring on new technologies, according to Constantine and ADI customers. The company has six product managers, including Constantine, who specialize in different technologies and are responsible for evolving the company's catalog.

"Whether it's CCTV, sound, structured cabling, security, each one of us is an expert and ADI relies on us to know what market trends are taking place. They give us the flexibility as product managers," Constantine says. "Who would have thought five years ago that ADI--the largest security distributor--would be a Pioneer TV distributor? But we had a product manager here with the vision to say, 'We're doing A/V stuff, why not do home theatre?' ADI expects us to stay on top of the category, make suggestions and ideas to stay one step ahead of competitors. We're still the leader with security, but now we can do anything in the house."

For example, ADI's A/V lineup has grown more formidable with the addition of vendors such as Proficient, Russound, Denon, Pioneer and Boston Acoustics.

Customer feedback plays a large role in determining what products to pick up. "When we were doing business with Leviton on their enclosures, our dealers asked, 'Why aren't you carrying digital media?' We went to Leviton and some other people and they said, 'We'll do it,' " he says. "Sometimes we'll take a dealer and tell them they need to move up a step, sometimes they push us."

ADI, a division of Honeywell, strikes the appropriate balance between distributing Honeywell's products and those of competing vendors, executives say. "When that buy went through, there was a lot of concern across their vendor space," says Ian Hendler, director of business development for Leviton's Integrated Networks division. "But it's always been a level playing field. It's been more than fair."

He cited ADI, adding HAI's security products that compete directly against Honeywell. "If the [ADI/Honeywell] relationship is not at arm's length, they would not have been able to do that," Hendler says.

ADI sells 80,000 product lines from 400 vendors and could not do so if it did not try to please everyone, Constantine says. "We try to keep a balance between alternative vendors and Honeywell," he says. "Our main focus is what does our customer want? Honeywell itself has its own program to go after its dealer base to try to spec their product with just Honeywell. They do that independently from ADI. We're an independent distributor. We try to maintain that balance."

ADI is particularly effective reporting performance to vendors, Hendler says. "They set up to watch what's going on in the branches. Ed is a champion of this. They may mandate a certain few items to the branches, but the branches have flexibility to accommodate market conditions. We're one of their Tier 1 vendors and we're put to the same measurements as anyone else. They are able to change what works and what doesn't. I've not seen other big national distributors be as effective in the branches."