Waltham, MA At the peak of New England’s worst 2018 nor’easter, there were 1.5 million businesses and residences without electricity. More than 900,000 of these were without power for an extended period of time.
When an alarm system is involved in a major storm or an electrical outage, there can be significant trouble conditions. True to the NOREL way, their team adjusted to the demand in service calls during the winter electrical outages to ensure that all of their customer’s alarm systems were back online as swiftly as possible. The company has been providing this type of reliable response for more than 46 years. Their experts, technicians and electricians engage with more than 2,500 commercial, mixed-use, and retail buildings in New England per year.
“NOREL has been especially adaptable to our needs, mainly because they can operate off hours. We’ve had an excellent, relationship with them for over 25 years,” said Bob Hayes, V.P. KeyPoint Partners.
When asked about the success of his company, Tom Norton, president of NOREL Service Company, reflected on his early adopted philosophies of maintaining positive two-way relationships, providing top-notch service, and appreciating employees.
As an entrepreneur, Norton steadily developed his company to a full house of talented technicians, along with a truck fleet to meet the growing customer base. He’s weathered his own storms through three major recessions and two minor ones, the first in 1973 and the most recent one ending in 2009. His endurance is due to his commitment to relationship building as is evidenced by the accumulation of a loyal customer base and devoted employees. Those who know him would add that his relentless energy, real estate knowledge and philanthropic generosity have also contributed to his business success.
About competition, Norton summarizes – we respect them; we just need to provide better service and continue to maintain and develop our relationships.
Challenges & Changes
Norton describes challenges faced through the years as twofold: Internal topics pertaining to managing human resources, and external forces surrounding the fire protection/detection industry.
As the primary driver of the business, Norton provides hands-on expertise and technical oversight, while also managing day-to-day operations. His instinctive leadership skills became refined with the addition of each new employee. Norton has his best group of employees today; he describes them as highly motivated and taking pride in their performance. He admits that through a few hard lessons, he and his team have learned to screen prospective employees for better outcomes and improved longevity. He’s a proponent of recognizing employees through tangible items like birthday gift cards and cookouts and is sure to offer an audible thank you during company-wide meetings.
Per Norton, the external challenges can be pared down to evolution of fire and building code requirements, interpretations of the codes (by AHJs - Authorities Having Jurisdiction, building and/or fire officials, electrical inspectors), and changes in technology.
The evolution of building, electrical, and fire codes have posed challenges with regard to interpretation, staying up to date, and adhering properly to code modifications. Norton’s ongoing response to addressing these issues has been to stay knowledgeable and to become directly involved when possible. To this end, Norton has chaired and/or participated in multiple NFPA committees and served on the NFPA board of directors. He currently resides on multiple trade committees and he is a member of the NFPA Disability Access Review and Advisory Committee (DARAC).
In the early days, NOREL Service was one of only a few companies allowed to test alarms in Boston. They’ve earned their reputation and have worked closely with numerous associated code officials. They pride themselves on providing honest system evaluations and advice. Again, one is reminded of Norton’s commitment to communication through relationship-building.
Highlighting industry changes, Norton points to the revolutionary transformations in communications as having direct impact on fire alarm systems reporting and monitoring. (Norton provided details previously in NEREJ, August 2017, Monitoring for Fire Alarms; Are you ready for change?) The discontinued support for copper telephone lines, the onset of the Internet, and sunsets of 2G and 3G have posed challenges to retrofitting and ensuring best paths for alarm communication.
Given the tentative climate, NOREL instituted and currently maintains its own mesh radio communication network (central station monitoring) in order to provide the most reliable method of quick and accurate responses for customers. For most shopping centers, there is no key contact person on-site in the case of a triggered event. However, with their monitoring techniques, NOREL can identify the problem (alarm trouble or supervisory), determine the correct response, and contact the appropriate person(s).
Norton has used changes in technology to gain a business edge, as well as to give his customers an advantage. He was an early adopter of bar code scanners, breakout technology for improved alarm reporting and record keeping. The use of hand-held scanners gave NOREL’s technicians the ability to retrieve and update corresponding reports for each device. To date, as part of NOREL’s goal to maintain two-way communication, customers have access to these valuable reports at their fingertips either online or via mobile phones.
Looking Ahead/Future Ready
Following the merger of Tyco Fire products and Johnson Controls (JCI), a new distribution network for their new fire alarm control equipment under the Autocall brand was established. Looking towards the future and given their ongoing success predicated on relationships, NOREL seized on the opportunity to partner with Autocall. They were awarded a selective national distributorship.
NOREL’s alignment with Autocall now enables them to retrofit, design and provide a variety of solutions for standalone buildings, as well as multi-faceted and complicated strip malls and retail centers. The exciting new product line, based on legacy systems but built with advanced technology, is highly modular and includes addressable notification, powerful networking capabilities and fire alarm self-testing without disruption. The systems also integrate with Building Management Systems (BMS) using standard protocols such as BACNet and Modbus.
NOREL has undergone sales and technical training on the new Autocall product line and has a pipeline of customers eager to upgrade and install the latest in fire detection technology.
“We’ve had a good eye and feel for the industry for 46 years and we have the unique qualities of longevity and technical expertise. We’re looking forward to many more years serving our customers with the best products and technology available. We’ve already recognized advantages to adding the Autocall line to our product portfolio,” said Norton.
NOREL Service Company is a Top 20 Largest Boston Business Journal Veteran-Owned Company, a Federally Certified Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB), and a Massachusetts Veteran Business Enterprise (VBE).