DynaPel relocates, begins hiring

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--DynaPel, makers of intelligent video systems, moved into new offices here August 22, relocating its corporate headquarters from Fort Myers, Fla., and in the process quadrupling the size of its facility. The move will coincide with the addition of a dozen in-house staff members. "It's a pretty big initiative," said company vice president Jeff Vollmar, "but in order to get our company where we want to be, it's all about building up our infrastructure ... everything that a manufacturer requires to support its customers." The new facility will include training facilities and enhance distribution capabilities, as Memphis is a hub for Fed Ex, UPS, and other shipping companies. The new facility follows closely on the heels of Dynapel's new dealer program, launched at the beginning of this year. Vollmar said he modeled it after the First Alert program he oversaw during his time at Honeywell, which grew to 500 offices worldwide. "I blended some of the positive elements from that," he said, "and some tweaks that I had wanted to make if I had it all to do over again. I came at it from the standpoint of the dealer: What about it would entice me to want to become a DynaPel dealer as opposed to any one of the other plethora of programs out there?" Like many manufacturers who make products requiring some sophisticated installation(see story on Toshiba's new dealer program on this page ), DynaPel is looking for quality integrators rather than a large quantity of integrators. "We need to make sure that every dealer we bring on is satisfactorily trained," Vollmar said. "We want the service guys and sales guys both to know how you make [the DynaPel system] work the way it's supposed to work. We spend more time with our dealers after they're our dealers than we spend on bringing in new dealers."