Control4 Corporation has announced the acquisition of the intellectual property and key operating assets of Ihiji, a provider of remote management services for technical integrators servicing connected home customers.
By combining two network and device management solutions – BakPak from Control4 and Invision from Ihiji – into one unified service platform, Control4 will provide integrators with powerful device monitoring and management capability to support connected home customers.
“Connected home opportunities are emerging globally, and their individual performance, reliability, and resilience are foundational to all successful installations,” said Martin Plaehn, Control4 CEO. “By combining Control4’s BakPak, with its strong network management capabilities, and Ihiji’s Invision, with its industry-leading device monitoring and management capabilities, Control4 can provide a set of unified cloud-based services to our dealers to securely and efficiently monitor end-customer systems. Dealers will receive alerts when performance concerns are detected; they can then remotely identify the root cause and initiate resolution actions, all without being on-premise. This will improve homeowner satisfaction through prompt and pre-emptive service, in a time-saving and cost-effective manner.”
The joint team is already developing the unified cloud-based service platform which will be made available in phases to all Control4 and Ihiji dealers and their customers later in the year. The shared goal is to operate a single integrated monitoring and services experience that provides all dealers with complete visibility and control at the network level, which would include over 2,000 third-party products, as well as all Control4 and Pakedge smart home equipment.
“Ihiji and Control4 share the conviction that network and device management capabilities are pivotal to every professional integrator in order to best serve their connected home customers,” said Stuart Rench, CEO, Ihiji. “By providing all dealers with the ability to monitor and manage thousands of devices, we are enabling them to detect and remediate issues remotely often before a customer is aware there is even a problem. By combining with Control4, we can accelerate our plans to deliver more robust capabilities to further drive dealers’ success and end-customer satisfaction.”
The Ihiji product development and support teams are now part of Control4 and are working within the company’s networking group to continue supporting existing Ihiji dealers, and to deliver the new unified management platform later this year.
Control4 acquired certain intellectual property, development and support teams, and inventory of Ihiji on December 22, 2017. The acquisition enhances the network and device management platform of Control4, but is not expected to contribute material direct revenue in 2018. In addition, the company anticipates that the direct operating costs associated with the Ihiji acquisition, (consisting primarily of personnel related expenses for development and support employees), will not be incremental to its forecasted 2018 financial plan. The financial impact of the acquisition was included within the company’s prior public financial guidance.
