Fired: All But One Exacq Rep Firm Now Out

And then there was one.

After firing multiple rep firms in January, Tyco has fired 3 more rep firms to nearly complete the removal of Exacq's rep firms.

In this note, we examine this firing, providing feedback from Tyco and examining the competitive impact.

Rep Firms Fired

Newly fired Exacq reps include REPMS [link no longer available] in NE / NY / NJ, Murphy and Cota [link no longer available] in the Southeast, and Ocom in the central region. Their last date will be April 22, 2015. IMI will replace both REPMS and Murphy and Cota.

Now only one long time Exacq rep is left - ASR Enterprises - in the Mid-Atlantic.

Tyco provided a clear explanation of why this occurred:

"We do believe that we are ‘better when we are together’ as a single selling force, with all brands in the portfolio. A big part of our evaluation centered around each of the rep firms’ business strategy for that entire portfolio. Those who saw the opportunity with the entire IP line (Exacq, VideoEdge and Illustra) were the ones that had the most compelling strategy for us. Our 2015 strategic initiatives are to increase sales of our full video portfolio, create efficiencies in the sales team and simplify customer engagement; the actions taken last week are in alignment with those goals."

To the contrary, most of the Exacq rep firms also represent Arecont, presenting a barrier to Tyco's goal to sell the whole solution including Illustra cameras. While Arecont has its issues, it is still a far bigger and better-known line than Illustra.

The Tyco Solution

As Tyco says, their goal is increase sales of the entire line, something that Exacq is now prominently promoting. Given that Illustra cameras are decent and non-standard, but widely offered, Exacq license discounts for buying the combination, it is a fairly attractive offering, certainly compared to Arecont with no Exacq discounts.

Though these cuts and changes will cause some immediate pains, we do expect it to accelerate uptake of Illustra cameras.

Reps Going to Competitors

Just days before this, CVReps, who was recently fired by Tyco/Exacq, was hired by Milestone. As we noted at that time, Exacq reps are a fairly hot commodity, with many VMS / recorder manufacturers looking to pick them up, given their existing relationships with mid-size security dealers and the desire by incumbents, such as Milestone, to increase their hardware / NVR sales.