News
Dedicated Micros closes Canadian office
UK-based security products company
Dedicated Micros Canada has closed its Canadian headquarters and Carlo Di Panfilo, Dedicated Micros’ vice-president in Canada, has left the company.
In mid-December the Dedicated Micros offices, located on Explorer Drive in Mississauga, Ont., closed and the company’s business in this country is now being managed by one Canadian regional sales manager for central Canada and the Maritimes.
January 18, 2010
By
Jennifer Brown
A U.S. company, Gold Line Marketing of Seattle, Washington will handle British Columbia and Alberta. It is unknown at this time if there will be representation announced for Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The Dedicated Micros Canadian Headquarters opened in March 2007 as part of the company’s ongoing initiative to improve service to its Canadian business partners and customer base.
The offices included a training center, demo area, technical customer service and meeting facilities. The technical department was relocated back to the U.S. last year.
On Jan. 4 the parent company of Dedicated Micros, AD Group, issued a news release outlining a sales restructuring plan for Dedicated Micros to better support IP Surveillance products and a number of key personnel changes were outlined, but there was no mention of the Canadian operation.
After several requests by SP&T News for an interview, a statement was provided by Pauline Norstrom, AD Group board director and director of Worldwide Marketing. In the statement she said that after Di Panfilo decided to step down the decision was made not to renew the lease on the Dedicated Micros headquarters. It is also unlikely, she says, the VP position will be replaced.
"We would like to take this opportunity to reassure our Canadian customers that
despite these changes, moving forward, Dedicated Micros, Inc. will continue to
have a sales presence on the ground in Canada and, as before, be working closely with our partners country-wide to meet their specific requirements," Norstrom said.
"We also plan to still offer our extensive range of industry-leading CCTV products through the usual Canadian distribution channels.
We will make further announcements regarding the recruitment of new Canadian personnel in the coming months, however, given our commitment to our Chantilly, Virginia, operation as the center of excellence for Dedicated Micros, Inc. — and AD Network Video — in the Americas, it is unlikely that we will be taking on a direct replacement for the VP position."
As an interim measure all Canadian technical and customer service support will, from this month (January 2010), be delivered from Chantilly, led by VP Customer Support Services and Operations, Tammy Larson. To cope with the anticipated increase in demand the company has put in place an expanded demonstration and training facility at this location which can be made available, on request, to Canadian customers.
"We are determined, at a practical level, that Canadian purchasers of our CCTV
systems should not be inconvenienced by the restructuring of our operations. The decision on the Canadian office was not taken lightly and this remains an
important market for us, a fact aptly demonstrated by the award-winning CCTV
solution, featuring our systems, which now protects Ottawa’s parks and
recreation facilities.," says Norstrom.
"Looking ahead we see a bright future for our business in Canada and as the
economy recovers are determined to deliver renewed growth, specifically, for
Dedicated Micros and through our recently launched AD Network Video arm which brings together IP video and integrated systems products offered by AD Group companies — including Dedicated Micros — for large scale, integrated, video surveillance products."
In further news affecting Dedicated Micros, on Jan. 6 executive vice-president of Dedicated Micro’s USA, Mark Provinsal, went to Vicon Industries Inc., a producer of integrated IP video surveillance and access control systems. Provinsal joins Vicon’s executive ranks as vice-president, marketing and product management. In this newly created position, which reports directly to Vicon’s CEO, Ken Darby, Provinsal will assume responsibility for all company marketing and product management functions.
As vice-president, Marketing and Product Strategy at Dedicated Micros, Provinsal was responsible for marketing and product strategy for the Americas, brand development and strategic consulting for global product development.
