Giving Premium Projects the 'Wow' Factor

Q: How does Mexico fit into the company’s international business strategy?

A: In Mexico, the company focuses on corporate solutions, followed by education and residential. We are entering the hotel industry and recently finished a flagship development in Los Cabos for a new luxury resort. Our products are in over 300 of the project’s units. We also participated in the biggest new financial corporate building providing solutions for more than 400 meeting rooms. We are proud of the fact that the majority of our products are manufactured in Guadalajara. Geographically, we prioritize Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, areas in which end users and corporations are concentrated. But, we do have projects outside of these cities, including Guanajuato, a hub for the automotive industry. Our Mexican office is responsible for Mexico, Central and South America.

Q: What makes Crestron stand out among its peers?

A: Crestron automates and integrates all types of technology through specialized control systems that use a wide range of audiovisual tools. It focuses on the premium and AAA market. We have a reputation for being pioneers in automated systems. We strive to predict new trends and the needs of the incoming generation. For example, we created a unique “all-in-one” system for corporate buildings that has a speaker, microphone and wireless video transmitter that can connect to a wide variety of devices and soft-codecs. We even provide software to international corporations called Crestron Fusion that allows people to use their phone to reserve meeting rooms in different countries. Our solutions help save money and time.

Q: What are the main areas of opportunity Crestron has identified in Mexico’s hotel industry?

A: We are prioritizing the hotel industry, which we consider a main area of opportunity. Several hotels in the country are already using our technology. Our goal is to provide solutions for rooms and conference spaces within hotels. Crestron dominates conference and exposition centers and can easily provide lighting and registration systems, among other elements. Our real challenge is winning entry to the premium-hotel segment because end-users in the segment are particularly demanding. Clients in five-star hotels tend to already have high technology in their homes and everyday life. This makes providing the “wow” factor more difficult. But, we are ready to take on the challenge as many premium hotel users use Crestron in their home. The company covers a large percentage of the residential market. It helps us understand our clients well and their expectations.

We offer basic services such as access cards that can detect the user and offer a welcome statement upon opening the door. In terms of innovation, for the Windsor Hotel in Las Vegas, we installed a voice-recognition system in each room. With this system, users can use their voice to adjust lighting and turn off the television, among other actions. In the hotel industry, we push ourselves to continue surprising clients with new automation systems and tools that provide greater comfort during their vacation experience.

Q: How do you secure contracts with international companies and demanding clients?

A: Our portfolio includes clients such as Coca-Cola, Facebook, Uber and American Express. At a more local level, we serve national companies such as CEMEX and PEMEX. Crestron also collaborates with universities, including UNAM, Ibero, ITESM and BUAP among others. In the residential sector, many of our clients grew up with Crestron technology and use it in their homes when they have a family. They understand the quality of our products and their ability to extend the signal of any space and to integrate systems. We use global contracts to acquire exclusivity with companies like Microsoft. Any time these companies open a new office they take our technology with them. Crestron’s Mexican office focuses on reaching out to national companies or corporations like Pepsi Co that manage their offices regionally and not on a global scale.