Service Works teams for Systems Expo

FARMINGDALE, N.J.--On May 18, Service Works held its third annual Systems Expo, an event that started as a customer appreciation party and morphed this year into an exhibition with roughly 40 vendors and nearly 4,000 end users. The security systems integrator, operating mostly in CCTV, access control and intrusion alarm, also brings in frequent job partners SpeedWire, which handles telecom and networking tasks, and Systems Sales, which specializes in fire, nurse call and sound work, so that customers can piece together the whole team that often tromps in and out of their offices. Oh, and the event is held right here in the company's corporate headquarters. "We gut the entire office that day," laughed Service Works vice president of operations Anthony Iovine. "The computers and desks and chairs--everything gets put on pallets and we open up the entire office for the vendors." Cubes become booths, basically. "There are tents in the parking lot. It's almost like a circus when you get here." Service Works, which started 13 years ago as a business based out of the founding partners' homes, now employs 48 and services a number of national accounts. "We've been kind of gypsies for the first 10 years," said Iovine. "We finally made a decision about four years ago that we'd stop moving and settle in New Jersey and buy the building ... During the year we were building our building, some of our focus might have slipped a bit, so as an appreciation for their being loyal and tolerating us moving, we decided to throw a party for our customers and it grew from there. We wanted to say thanks to them, have them over for a pig roast, and let them meet and greet all the faces behind the phone. That's how it started." After the first event, Service Works decided to add an educational component and looked to their vendors for some demonstrations. The second year, "the customers' response was so huge and so positive," said Iovine, that he almost couldn't help it from getting bigger yet again this year. Vendors included Honeywell, Integral Technologies, Gunnebo, HID, Pelco, AMAG, Assa Abloy, CoVi, Firetide, Edge Integration, OnSSI, Brivo, IQinVision and a number of others. Can it get bigger and stay at the corporate headquarters? "For next year, we've already looked at off-site places to do this," said Iovine, "but we kind of like the idea of doing it here, where we live. It's kind of out in the country a little bit. Our next door neighbor has a farm. He plows the field and we use it for valet parking."