As Traka marks its 30^th anniversary, Security Journal UK catches up with Tom Smith, the company’s UK Managing Director.

Can you tell us more about your role at Traka?

I oversee the daily running of the Traka UK Business Unit with a Senior Management Team reporting into me that looks after Sales, Project Delivery and Support, Aftersales and all Technical aspects.

The other side to the role is planning and implementing our short and long-term strategy.

You have a very impressive tenure at Traka. Can you share what it is about the company that has kept you there?

Traka has been a great place to learn, grow and develop.

Joining 12 years ago as a Sales Junior, I didn’t imagine I’d now be sitting here as a Managing Director, but Traka has always supported and promoted development and provides a great platform to excel.

We have employees who have been here 10, 20 and 30 years, which speaks volumes about the support and great working atmosphere.

I think specifically about the Newell family, which includes a father and two sons that, between the three of them, have been a part of the company for more than 70 years.

There is no ceiling to the growth you can achieve within Traka and ASSA ABLOY and our employees are the key to our success.

How do you ensure that Traka continues to grow and innovate?

By making sure our customers are heard. Traka isn’t about key cabinets and lockers; it’s about managing processes and how our solutions can improve security, efficiency and health and safety for our customers.

We tailor to suit, whether that’s helping a small institution or a global brand – and we consult with our customers to make sure we understand their needs, rather than supplying an “off the shelf” product. And it doesn’t stop after the initial implementation.

We have regular check-ins to make sure the current solution is still relevant or needs tweaking and, as our customers grow, we enjoy being part of their journey.

That scalability within our customers is an important point to consider. For many of them, implementing either key or asset management technology is a new venture and they may be hesitant to go full-scale with our solutions.

Often, they’ll implement a single cabinet or locker within a section of their operations and use that as almost a case study for its impact.

When they see its success, they’ve established advocates among their workforce who serve as ambassadors for other sectors of the company, thereby easing the adoption and integration process.

How do you support your teams to provide Traka’s customers with excellent service?

We are with them throughout the process, and the team takes a consultative approach, making sure the customer’s needs are really understood so we can provide the best solution process.

We then have a dedicated project team who are with the customer all the way through project delivery and are always on hand to advise and support.

Post-project, we have a team of Account Managers who regularly check in with customers to offer support and additional training, and then relay the voice of the customer back to us.

If issues arise with the solutions, we have a highly experienced Technical Support Team on hand to help those customers as well as a team of engineers spread over the country to get to the site if needed.

An important point to note is that we don’t use a third-party installer or service team when engaging with our customers.

The team that’s answering our customers’ questions is in fact Traka employees – they know the product and have a clear line of communication to all of the parties that have had a touchpoint with that end-user.

We feel that sets us apart, as we value our customers and are committed to growing with them.

Perhaps the best example of this is the customer who helped Traka get started back in 1995.

We maintain a strong relationship with British Airways, which approached us about a key management system for their ground support vehicles. We’ve supported them through service throughout the past 30 years and pride ourselves on that level of service for all of our customers.

What does success mean to you, and more broadly, to Traka?

Happy customers and happy employees.

Everyone wants to grow their business and break revenue records, but most importantly to me is to have a team that enjoys what they do.

That way, you get the best out of them – and in turn, our customers get the best service.

The growth, strategy implementation and enhancements are then so much easier. I strive to create and maintain an environment for employees that is welcoming, fun and fair for all.

How will Traka expand or grow in the near future and what role will you play in this?

As I mentioned earlier, we’re not a product business – we’re a solution business, and we’re forever evolving what solutions we can deliver.

That can be through the development of our own platform or integrating with other third-party solutions to give our existing and new customers the best possible experience.

Those integrations are a clear differentiator for us, because they ease the adoption process for a lot of end-users who may be concerned that new technology won’t be able to communicate with their existing access control ecosystem.

We are constantly evaluating integration partners as we want our solutions to be leveraged in a growing number of industry verticals and businesses. Additionally, we’re collaborating with the ASSA ABLOY network of companies to further address access control issues.

Regarding product specifics, we’re incredibly close to formally launching our new Flexible Asset Detection Locker, which is a game changer in asset management for our customers.

As digital technology continues to advance and be leveraged in a growing number of industries, we want to empower companies to have a real-time view of asset usage throughout the day.

These devices are critical to maintaining operational efficiency and if organisations aren’t managing them properly, they can represent not only a financial risk if they’re misplaced, but also a significant security risk if sensitive information ends up in unauthorised hands.

The Flexible Asset Detection Locker will provide greater visibility into overall asset usage and help instil a sense of accountability within our customers’ workforce.

Ultimately, as we celebrate our 30^th anniversary this year, we continue to expand our team as our business grows, which brings new experience and ideas that I’m always excited about.

I do my best to provide my team with the tools to innovate and grow themselves, thereby promoting a growth mindset throughout the organisation.