TSS unveils Smarter Access

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--TSS International, the executive search firm that has branched into consulting and software development (WeSuite), announced this fall its new Smarter Access Technologies business, the result of an acquisition and a collaboration with former Antar-Com head Isac Tabib. Smarter Access has put forward a new line of IP-based access control products designed to help the integrator spend far less time on installation and service, said John Nemerofsky, president of TSS. This U2Boards line, which includes a universal controller, universal processor, a two-door PoE controller, and a universal power supply, among other things, is being shopped to major manufacturers and Smarter Access hopes to soon announce an OEM partner relationship. “We have two dozen manufacturers calling us now to work with us,” said Nemerofsky in late October. “We think it’s going to do some great things, help integrators and manufacturers make some great profits and help the end user community to work closer with their IT teams.” One of the biggest benefits to the new system, said Tabib, is that the controllers fit into standard 19-inch data racks and because of the many ways they are self-configuring (they discover power needs of the individual doors, are end-of-line resistor agnostic, are compatible with every reader on the market) he said a 72-door configuration and wiring could be done in “three minutes, not three weeks.” So, why has no one else designed such an easy-to-install system before? “Everybody just copied what somebody else has done,” said Tabib. “And that’s because all of the systems that I’m aware of were designed by engineers in a nice air-condition laboratory who never installed anything in their lives. Thus they don’t recognize the challenges that exist in the field.” He and Nemerofsky, formerly a high-level executive at SST, worked with a team of engineers, he said, to solve the particular problems of the installer. “We have tremendous diagnostics built into the unit,” for example, that allow for easier remote service and a better understanding of the situation on site, Tabib said. There are 44 diagnostic LEDs on the controller unit and a display that can allow configuration and troubleshooting without having to connect to the controller with a laptop. Right now, said Nemerofsky, “when you sell a system, the first thing you do is run out to Home Depot to buy some plywood, then paint it, then hang it on the wall, then hang the controllers, then hang a couple of power supplies, then some UPS to keep that backed up ... There are so many inefficiencies in running out to Home Depot and trying to connect boxes that are never in the same spot twice.” Smarter Access hopes to have agreements in place that would allow manufacturers to have re-branded Smarter Access products available for display at ISC West 2009.