From the Desk of David Sullivan
Hello Partners and Customers:
It has been a while since I last wrote and certainly a lot has happened. I apologize in advance for this note’s length.
At the release of this month’s Scoop, I have been in my role for one year, exactly to the date. During this year we have accomplished a great deal, and I wanted to share all the change that has happened. In coming to AMAG I knew that it was an iconic company with a solid product portfolio, both of which were affirmed in my early weeks. Throughout the year as I have learned more and more about AMAG, my belief that we are the leading company in our industry has only increased. That said, we do need to continue to build on this strong foundation and my first focus was to strengthen our leadership team.
First and foremost was our need to establish a stronger operational foundation. With the hire of Ewan Abbott, who is located in our Tewkesbury, England office, I established for the first time a Director of Global Operations. Ewan brings a solid background of lean manufacturing principles, and deep experience in managing factories. Part of our strength comes from our ability to manufacture our own products, where AMAG does not outsource our manufacturing, providing us control over our quality and designs. This became particularly clear during the recent supply chain shortages that we saw develop as a result of COVID, where we were able to maintain our supply to the channel and its end customers. With Ewan coming on board, we are planning to modernize our manufacturing line by investing in new equipment over the coming year. This will allow us to modernize our designs through leveraging the latest in manufacturing technologies and methods. We look forward to this advancement in our factory and manufacturing abilities.
As many of you long-term customers know, AMAG has transformed a great deal over the years, including ownership, leadership, and acquisitions. These changes placed challenges on the Research and Development teams. Note that I pluralize the word team. Yes, we did not operate as a single design and development team, and this fact was likely observed by many of you wondering why we did not bring our solutions development together as one. One of my first observations was in how we both talked about and presented our product solutions. We did not think of it as one singular product portfolio, which meant that we did not develop or sell the overall solution set as one. A consequence of this approach meant that we also did not manage our engineering team through a single methodology or in a unified approach to our product vision. As a result, I felt that we needed to make two important changes to the way we managed our product portfolio. The first change that I made was to internally promote Michael Kobaly to become our first EVP of Global Engineering, providing us with a single R&D leader to bring together a unified approach to our designs. Second, I felt that we needed to manage our product portfolio differently with a more formal approach to Product Management, and as a result, I hired Roland Fournier to become our VP of Global Product Management. He comes with a strong background in product lifecycle management, where with his experience we will bring products to market more professionally, moving to structured releases that will provide firm release dates, well-trained support and sales teams, and clear market messaging. As well, once our products come to the end of their useful life, we will have more thoughtful transitions/migrations to new products, helping you to move to newer technologies and keep your systems up-to-date and modern. With both Mike and Roland located in the same offices, we expect our future product direction to be well received by both our channel partners and end customers. As we near finalizing our new product vision, direction, and road map, we will soon be announcing our next generation of products. I am excited to have both Mike and Roland as a part of our team.
As a technology company, we also need to be technologically advanced. I wanted to make sure that we had a focus on the digital technologies that make us an advanced technology partner to you. Paul Edwards has been a part of AMAG Technology for approximately two decades, and maybe many of you know Paul. Paul has held past roles as our IT leader and as the leader of a couple of our product development teams. Paul’s strength is in his knowledge of technology and how it can be applied to business. At the beginning of this year, I promoted Paul to become our new EVP of Business Technology. In this role, Paul will ensure we will be properly protected from any Cyber threat, and at the same time he will be advancing our technical capabilities. Paul is working to upgrade our company operating platforms and our customer interface tools. Over the coming 18 – 24 months, we will be revolutionizing our partner tools in our coming partner portal, our website, and in the overall digitization of AMAG Technology. As a technology company, we intend to be advanced not only in our products but in how we do business.
In June, Pascal de Zitter joined as our VP of Security and Information Management Solutions. This newly created position will help us to support our channel partners in the more complex delivery of both our Symmetry Control Room PSIM, and our Symmetry CONNECT PIAM. These complex solutions need to be carefully managed to ensure that both AMAG and our channel partners do not get into trouble through improper scoping, and unsuitable support for the installation, configuration and commissioning of these systems. Pascal brings with him the experience from previously being a channel partner of AMAG’s in Europe where he helped us win some very large customer accounts through his understanding of how to properly sell and deploy our Control Room and CONNECT solutions for large security applications. We intend to drive sales of these larger opportunities, bringing our channel partners large customers that we can help sell and support to gain long-term revenue streams. Over the coming years, we will see this department grow in size, and the associated opportunities grow for our channel partners.
A few weeks ago we brought on Kyle Gordon as our EVP of Global Sales, Marketing, and Commercial Excellence. Coming from his sales leadership role at Securitas, Kyle understands what it means to be a channel partner to AMAG. Both his perspective and experience help us to build a stronger sales organization to support our channel partners. We need to strengthen our bonds with our channel, and Kyle is on board to drive our initiative toward this objective. With him being on board for less than a month, I can already see that we are heading in a fantastic direction.
Finally, and by no means the least, two familiar names remain as a part of our leadership team. For many of you, the name Grant Walker may be unfamiliar, however Grant has been a meaningful part of the foundation that makes AMAG so great. As AMAG’s Director of Finance, he has kept us strong financially, and I am proud to say that AMAG is a very sound company, certainly one that will be around for the years to come. Ryan Howarth is likely a name that means more to most of you as he has been in charge of our Global Technical Support team for years. We consistently receive high marks on our technical support and Ryan is the backbone of our success. I have challenged him to step up our support services, and Ryan has met this challenge. He has come to me with additional ideas and approaches to improve our technical support capabilities, and like my statements above, the coming months will show you advances to how we will become the most advanced support company in the industry.
The above is a short summary of what we are doing to transform AMAG over the near future. I could never be able to share with you the amount of positive momentum we have gained in this past year. We are excited about the direction we are heading and are certain that you will be glad you are an AMAG partner. In the coming years, I believe more and more channel partners will want to become AMAG partners. Your loyalty will be rewarded, helping you to keep well ahead of your competition. I am driven to ensure that you will be the leaders of our industry and that others will wish they had followed your path.
I look forward to serving you both now and in the future. If you are at GSX, please do not hesitate to come say hello. I am more than happy to spend a bit of time with my partners.
Dave
SSA Amnesty Program Announced – Renew Your SSA Without Penalty
Do you have an expired Site Support Agreement? Are you concerned about having the best support for your Symmetry System? Now is the time to renew with our new SSA Amnesty Program!
AMAG is waiving the lapsed coverage fee AND the penalty fee for expired SSAs that we receive an order for from September 1 – December 31, 2023. Plus, receive a 5% discount when you buy a 3-year SSA.
Different levels are available depending on your needs.
Gold Level:
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Free software upgrades and patches
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Remote video technical support.
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Free support for all certificated third-party integrations
Platinum Level:
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Dedicated program manager
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System checks to ensure optimal performance
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24/7 technical support, an accelerated path to Tier 3 and site visit escalations
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Free replacement of AMAG-manufactured controllers
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Free database conversions and software upgrades
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Integrated 3rd party product support
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Free end-user classroom training
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Predictable planning for system expense
Save money and renew now to ensure your Symmetry system is operating efficiently. This promotion is valid for sites expired in 2022 or earlier.
Don’t wait! Email ssa@amag.com to renew your SSA.
Migrate your Casi Rusco System to Symmetry SR
Are you ready to replace your Casi system and don’t know where to turn? AMAG’s Symmetry SR Retrofit system is an easy, affordable migration solution.
AMAG has helped customers of all sizes, including large Fortune 500 companies, convert their legacy systems to Symmetry. Our team of experts supports you every step of the way to ensure a smooth transition. Symmetry SR provides:
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Smooth pin-for-pin replacement transition
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Save money on labor costs when you use existing wiring, enclosures, readers and badge populations
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Seamless database conversion creates a smooth transition to Symmetry
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Proven, reliable, powerful, easy-to-use, scalable
Download our brochure to learn more.
AMAG was the first to market with a solution and we are still supporting our customers! Contact your sales representative for more details or for a demo.
Visit AMAG at GSX 2023
AMAG Technology invites you to stop by our booth 4025 at GSX, September 11-13, 2023 at the Kay Baily Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. See what is new!
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Symmetry Control Room – Manage your entire security system from one window!
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Easily migrate your Casi system to the Symmetry SR System
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Integration with SAFR SCAN facial recognition reader for touchless access
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MANY updates in Symmetry CONNECT Identity Management and Symmetry GUEST Visitor Management
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New features in Symmetry CompleteView VMS
Claim $50 off your registration fee when you use our code.
Contact your sales representative for a meeting.
AMAG Professional Services Supports End of Life for Windows Server 2012/R2
Need to upgrade from Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2? AMAG can help! Our ProfessionalServices team is equipped to help you upgrade your server quickly and efficiently. AMAG ProServices will:
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Upgrade your Operating System
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Upgrade Symmetry and all Clients
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Migrate your system to a new server(s)
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Deliver a plan and oversight to execute your project from beginning to end
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Provide implementation and post-implementation support
Don’t wait! Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 support ends October 10, 2023.
Contact ProServices today for a quote on how we can help at proservices@amag.com.
Microsoft® Security Updates & Symmetry Systems Requirements
The Microsoft® Security Update statements are available on the Partner website. Go to Technical Bulletins/Microsoft Security Updates and look for the August 2023 versions. Microsoft Security Updates are available for:
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v8.x
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v9.x
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Hosted Systems
These updates document the Microsoft patches that have been evaluated against supported Windows and Server platforms for Symmetry versions v8.x, v9.x and hosted systems. We are no longer updating the V7.0.1 patch testing due to Microsoft withdrawing free OS support.
Holidays 2023
UK Office
December 25, Christmas Day
December 26, Boxing Day
US Office
September 4, Labor Day
November 23, Thanksgiving
November 24, Day after Thanksgiving
December 25, Christmas Day
