Stay Away From Proprietary Systems

There are many different products available that will give you everything you are looking for in a system. Most products ultimately offer the same features just in different formats. What we at Advanced Tech Systems & Automation think is most important when choosing a product is that you stay away from “proprietary” or “dealer protected” products. A proprietary or dealer protected product limits who is allowed to sell and install a particular system. There is typically nothing wrong with the actual product itself as far as functionality. The problem comes on the back end or service side after the product has been purchased and installed.

When you limit the number of companies that can sell and install products you limit the availability for service and parts. This keeps the competition down ultimately allowing the installation company to dictate prices and service schedule. The types of products being installed sometimes need to be added to, sometimes fail, and need to be serviced regularly. More often than not the costs of these services on Proprietary equipment is much more expensive than non proprietary companies. It is also much too costly to take out the current Proprietary system and replace it with a non Proprietary system; however, a few clients take the hit and pay for a new system all together. For example, a client had previously purchased a proprietary system for over $21,000 and was waiting for weeks to get service with multiple no shows on scheduled appointments. Advanced Tech was called in to help with the situation; however, the resolved was to rip out what was there and replace it fully with another system. As you can see this was a very expensive lesson to learn.

The best way to combat this type of installation is to simply ask if the product being offered is either proprietary or dealer protected. Ask them bluntly “If we don’t like your service, are we able to get any other company to service what you have installed?”. In the end it benefits the installation company to only offer proprietary products; however, it doesn’t benefit the client. At Advanced Tech Systems & Automation, Inc. we have built our business with the motto “If we can’t earn your business, we don’t deserve your business.” Please visit us at www.advancedtech-systems.com.