center at DefendNet in use.
(Tom Croke)
Some of their designs might look like they come straight from the set of “Star Trek,” but the customized command centers built by Constant Technologies are actually from our own backyard — Wickford.
Constant Technologies has designed and built command centers for companies all over the world, including AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MetLife and BMW.
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Vice President of Consulting Services Brad Righi estimated that 25 percent of the company’s work is done in the Northeast, especially the corridor between metro New York and Boston.
“What we offer is kind of unique in that there are a lot of companies that offer audiovisual and a lot that offer custom mill work, but we offer the total turnkey solution,” he said. “It just requires one phone call.”
Owner and president of Constant Technologies, George Mora, started the company in New Jersey in 1982, getting the idea after he rerouted some cable, getting it to “invisibly” cross the room underneath the floor.
“He then started manufacturing small command stations,” said Righi. “He relocated to Wickford seven years ago, but it was still on a small scale, working in a garage.”
Since the move – at which time CT started selling and installing audiovisual equipment as well – Righi said the company has been growing at a pace of 300 percent each year. Today, the company employs 35, including a design staff, audiovisual technicians, furniture builders and sales.
“The biggest challenge is helping clients turn a dream into reality,” Righi said. “And when that happens, you literally watch people’s jaws drop.”
Righi said they begin by evaluating an empty floor plan of the space to be designed, taking into consideration the equipment to be integrated into the room and the number of people who will be using the space. Designers then create as many as a dozen potential renderings for the room, working with the client to determine preferences.
What Constant Technology’s clients have in common, Righi said, is “they have to monitor a network of information and they need a more productive way to manage that information.”
But Righi said there’s a marketing angle to having a slick-looking, high-tech board room or tech center: “They’re using these rooms to generate revenue. They march people into these rooms and dazzle people. It shows how much they have it together. There’s a cheaper way to do it. Folding tables are functional, but there’s a more attractive way to do it.”
But for DefendNet Solutions, a Providence-based managed Internet security service, the company’s customized command center is more about function than form.
“The network operations center (NOC) is really the primary focus of our business,” said Chris Mohn, vice president of operations at DefendNet. “You need this overall command center by which you run your businessIT is the product.”
One of the challenges to the designers of the company’s 3,000 square-foot NOC, Mohn said, was figuring in scalability and the cabling of the room, should more employees be added to the space. Mohn estimated that DefendNet went through 10 to 15 different designs before making a final choice.
“We can double the capacity of that room by simply adding more furniture,” said Mohn.
Mohn said the entire process, from design to finished product took 114 days.
The final product, Mohn said, is visually stimulating as well as functional.
“We bring a lot of companies through here,” he said. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and our NOC is ‘Wow.'”
And by helping other companies get to “Wow,” Righi says he feels that Constant Technologies has earned a niche of its own.
“I think one of the greatest benchmarks we have is that we are recognized,” Righi said. “Once companies like Fidelity and CVS come back, you’re here to stay.”
