Control4: High-Tech Comes Home

Company:

Headquarters: Salt Lake City

Technology Sector: Networking

Key Product: Control4 Platform for the Digital Home

Year Founded: 2003

Number of Channel Partners: 1,400 in North America

Ideal Channel Partner: Digital home integrators

Why You Should Care: Consumers want home electronics devices that work well together and are easy to use. Control4's mission is to give them what they want.

The Lowdown: Control4's been around the digital integration block, and the company sees a lot of houses that could use its total home automation solutions. And the best part for the channel -- the vendor depends heavily on partners to generate business.

"We believe the demand is absolutely there, but maybe the customer isn't fully aware that home-automation technology is here and available. So we see a real need to work with channel partners to get that message out," said Jim Arnold, senior vice president of sales at Control4.

The company's North American custom integrator channel drives about 70 percent of Control4's revenues, he said, with hospitality industry projects and international business making up the remainder of its sales. Arnold said about half of Control4's 1,400 North American partners have IT backgrounds, while the other half come from the audio/video installation space. A partnership with Control4 requires completing a three-day training program in Chicago, Salt Lake City or Charlotte, N.C.

"We find that the IT guys generally have a bit to learn about the A/V side of things, and guys who hang plasma TVs need to get up to speed on the IT," Arnold said.

Home automation might not be the first business one thinks of as coping well with the recession, but Arnold said Control4's solutions are highly competitive pricewise and are attracting customers with less to spend. What's more, Control4 is banking on a repeat of some encouraging trends seen in the last downturn.

"When we face tough economic times, one thing consumers do is spend more time at home. They want that time to be more enjoyable," said Arnold, who worked for DirectTV during the downturn of the early 2000s, during which period the satellite television company enjoyed "banner years."