Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

URC To Hone Installers’ Home-Network Skills

Custom-install supplier URC is collaborating with professional-grade network-equipment supplier Luxul to improve its dealers’ home-network skills.

Luxul offers networking products for residential, commercial, industrial and mobile military networks.

“The weakest link in over 75 percent of smart-home systems is the network, especially the wireless network,” said URC marketing director Cat Toomey. “Through mutual collaboration with Luxul that will span every aspect of our custom business, we aim to conquer that obstacle and tame the LAN.”

The collaboration includes the ability for URC’s direct dealers to order Luxul equipment direct from URC via phone, fax, purchase order and URC dealer portal. “We do not sell any other products under URC, so this is significant for us,” she said. “It’s all because we believe so greatly in the need for a proper and robust home network, which lays the foundation for any good, reliable smart-home system.”

Luxul and URC have already begun an extensive program of cross training and collaboration for URC’s direct dealers, said Toomey. As part of the collaboration, “we are going to be offering something we have not done for any other partner — the ability to tie Luxul in on the line live when our support team is helping dealers over the phone by customer service,” she continued. “This is to help dealers get to the issues faster and more efficiently. In many cases with other companies, there can be finger pointing between a control system and the network, which can often be a key reason for system issues — not having the proper networking gear and setup of it.”

In addition, URC plans in the spring to launch a major live cross-country training tour that will include Luxul products and networking topics. “We will also have their information included in our online URC University and webinars that we do each week,” she continued. “We are also in discussions on other joint services.”

Too often, she noted, custom dealers “install a fantastic home system but build it on a networking platform that doesn’t match the grade of the other components of the job. We see this as one of the most critical aspects of any installation for every customer.”
In another recent initiative involving product ordering, URC teamed up with SupplyStream, the online portal that lets dealers place orders 24/7 for products from more than 100 custom brands. URC direct dealers who sell other brands in the SupplyStream system “can place their order all in one place and create proposals in that same place,” Toomey previously said.

Featured

Close