Q: Tell our readers a little about your company. What’s your main line of business?
A: ProtectConnect was founded on the new fresh ideas of Mike Gorman, a drywall contractor who became a spec home builder. He looked at the process of wiring a building and the available hardware and said “there’s a better way to do this.” Mike, now our chairman of the board, has 12 patents and 15 on the way for his “better way.” I joined in early 2002 to form a company and bring these ideas to market.
Q: What was the most significant series of events affecting your company in the past year?
A: The challenge has been to take an industry that has been operating in a very similar way for many decades and get them to look at a new way of doing things. In addition it has been very difficult to take our new paradigm of a revolutionarily new universal, modular wiring system and make it fit into the current standing parameters of the NEC, NEMA, OSHA, UL and CSA.
Q: Did your marketing strategy in the past year provide you the overall position you had projected?
A: After four trying years the market has accepted our new paradigm and the factory is off to the races working overtime to keep up. I believe this is because our system truly solves so many problems that affect the lives and businesses of today’s electrical contractor. Happily we have a manufacturing partner in SMC that has an unlimited capacity to meet the demand.
Q: What distinguishes your products from the competition?
A: Today we have an industry where experienced electricians are of shorter and shorter supply and a construction market that is expanding. Something had to give. Our system allows the experts of the industry to focus on the jobs that require their experience. Our system takes switches, outlets and other wiring devices and makes them part of a “cookie cutter,” universal wiring system. This takes away the limitations of out-sourced pre-fab that can’t keep up with the pace of the expanding markets across the country.
Q: To what do you attribute your company’s success?
A: The original way of parts and pieces assembled in the field requires too much expertise to maintain consistency. Plus, planning is just too much of a burden. Our modular wiring system can be manufactured in any volume because of our universal design, and it nearly eliminates the chance of mistakes in the field. The system also greatly reduces the contingencies that cause call backs because of the built-in adjustability.
Q: Who are your target end-users?
A: With our system the contractor has no planning to worry about. It’s the same box, ring and module for every hole he needs to fill. There is no limitation on production volume because you can rough-in any building with only 10 SKU’s. Also, it’s a distributor’s dream because he only has to stock these same 10 SKU’s and he is ready for any new project that comes up. Since the devices are modular no one has to make the final decisions regarding color, style and such until much later in the construction cycle.
Q: Compare the position of your products and technology against the current market.
A: From beginning to end our system cuts out up to 70% of the planning and field labor required to rough-in any structure. Once the building is complete the modular aspect greatly reduces the long-term maintenance cost for the owner and makes the building much safer by nearly eliminating the chance for electrical shock and fire due to loose terminations. As I see it what we are doing is helping an industry keep up with the realities of the market.
