Welcome to The PERS Insider Profile of Climax.
Below you’ll find a quick snapshot overview of the company and hear from Climax in their own words as they discuss supply chain issues, products, the 3G transition, and overall opportunities and challenges within the industry.
Below you’ll find a quick snapshot overview of the company and hear from Climax in their own words as they discuss supply chain issues, products, the 3G transition, and overall opportunities and challenges within the industry.
Climax Technologies Snapshot:
History:
Michael Chang founded privately held Climax Technologies, Inc. in 1985 in Taipei, Taiwan, where it remains headquartered. Operations are also located in the United States, Norway, and Argentina. The company is an original equipment manufacturer/original design manufacturer (OEM/ODM) that designs and manufacturers its solutions, which include not only PERS but home security and DIY products as well.
Size:
Climax has over 500 employees in its Taiwan facility, plus ancillary staff in its other facilities throughout the world. All production and integration take place in Taiwan.
Location:
Headquarters are in Taipei, Taiwan.
Customer support facility in the United States office in Carlsbad, CA.
Website: Climax Technologies
Products and Services:
Using its 36 years of experience, Climax specializes in working with its partners to help them expand business opportunities and their footprints in the PERS industry. The company works with over 150 companies that purchase PERS equipment in the United States.
Climax provides all of the standard PERS landline, GSM and mobile devices, and also a host of other products that augment its standard offerings. For example, the company’s Smart Home Security Gateway Solutions offers an end-to-end solution that integrates security monitoring, home automation, energy management, environmental monitoring, senior care all in one.
Due to customer demand, Climax combines telehealth monitoring for conditions like high blood pressure and/or high blood sugar with voice recognition control. PERS uses smart automation and combines it all in its Smart Care Solutions package.
Additionally, Climax works with medical facilities and central monitoring stations on data integration, allowing users and caregivers to easily upload health data and reading for remote monitoring.
Customers include:
VRI, Guardian Alarm, and Abode, among others.
Leadership Team/Key People You Should Know in the U.S. Office:
Shirley Chiang, branch manager, Climax International Corporation
Scot McGehee, vice president of U.S. operations
History:
Michael Chang founded privately held Climax Technologies, Inc. in 1985 in Taipei, Taiwan, where it remains headquartered. Operations are also located in the United States, Norway, and Argentina. The company is an original equipment manufacturer/original design manufacturer (OEM/ODM) that designs and manufacturers its solutions, which include not only PERS but home security and DIY products as well.
Size:
Climax has over 500 employees in its Taiwan facility, plus ancillary staff in its other facilities throughout the world. All production and integration take place in Taiwan.
Location:
Headquarters are in Taipei, Taiwan.
Customer support facility in the United States office in Carlsbad, CA.
Website: Climax Technologies
Products and Services:
Using its 36 years of experience, Climax specializes in working with its partners to help them expand business opportunities and their footprints in the PERS industry. The company works with over 150 companies that purchase PERS equipment in the United States.
Climax provides all of the standard PERS landline, GSM and mobile devices, and also a host of other products that augment its standard offerings. For example, the company’s Smart Home Security Gateway Solutions offers an end-to-end solution that integrates security monitoring, home automation, energy management, environmental monitoring, senior care all in one.
Due to customer demand, Climax combines telehealth monitoring for conditions like high blood pressure and/or high blood sugar with voice recognition control. PERS uses smart automation and combines it all in its Smart Care Solutions package.
Additionally, Climax works with medical facilities and central monitoring stations on data integration, allowing users and caregivers to easily upload health data and reading for remote monitoring.
Customers include:
VRI, Guardian Alarm, and Abode, among others.
Leadership Team/Key People You Should Know in the U.S. Office:
Shirley Chiang, branch manager, Climax International Corporation
Scot McGehee, vice president of U.S. operations
Climax in its Own Words:
PERS Insider interviewed Climax’s vice president of U.S. operations, Scot McGehee, to learn about the company’s successes, challenges, expansion, and everything in between.
When McGehee offers up Climax’s elevator pitch, he has this to say:
“Climax is a company that specializes in PERS, security, and also the DIY market. We work with a wide variety of customers and integrate their ideas into our innovations and R & D. This is helpful for us and our customers because our greatest recommendations come from dealers.”
“A great example is our do-it-yourself kits, which are very common in the EU market, and allow customers to order and put their own products together via Amazon. This is also a good example of our original design manufacturing (ODM), also referred to as private label.”
On facing supply chain interruptions:
“Climax manufactures it products in-house and purchase our components from very reputable manufacturers worldwide. We have been working with our suppliers to ensure ample on-hand quantities of required components for our equipment lineup.
During Q4 of 2020, we did see a slow up in component availability for many products in our industry. Again, we’ve been working tirelessly with our suppliers to ensure product availability so that our customers can conduct business as usual.
Our procurement department at the factory has put in place new policies to increase inventory levels so that our production efforts are not having to endure unnecessary obstacles.
Due to increased demand over the past five years, our factory built an additional building in 2020 for the purpose of Increasing our production to meet supply demand.”
Tell us something about your products and how they serve your customers that people might find surprising:
“We’re in the midst of both exciting and challenging times with the aging in place trend of the 21st century, a rapidly aging population, and high healthcare costs. These create a growing demand for care at home, especially for seniors with long-term health conditions. Home care is moving towards telehealth monitoring and telemedicine, including video conferencing and remote monitoring technology to help increase caregiver efficiency, while still providing constant convenience to the patients. Living independently and aging gracefully are the ideals that every individual seeks to pursue, and the challenge is to ensure that all people can age with dignity and security.
Climax’s GX Cubic Smart Care Medical Alarm is an all-in-one wellness and personal safety medical alarm solution, designed to help the elderly manage their long-term health conditions. This bridges medical health monitoring information to care providers and hospitals and creates points of care to keep them safe in their own homes.
Voice is the best control interface for seniors. Voice recognition has innovated over time, and continues to advance, allowing products to become even more intuitive and easier to use. GX Cubic has built-in voice recognition and can activate an emergency call to a care provider or central monitoring center by preset vocal commands or keywords. This allows seniors to receive emergency attention even in situations where they are immobilized or cannot manually reach the panic button.
Working with the leading voice ecosystems Amazon Alexa and Google Home via cloud, GX Cubic also features voice control to activate home electronic devices, complete daily tasks, and seek help during emergencies.”
On managing the 3G to 4G transition:
With the impending sunset of the 3G network, we have been working with many of our partners to ensure they are able to seamlessly make the transition to the LTE networks. With some of our partners, we began the transition process in 2019 and continued throughout 2020.
Name three things unique about Climax:
What’s the most exciting development in the PERS industry and what is its biggest challenge:
One of the most exciting developments in the industry is the awareness that this past year has brought to our business. PERS was still a relatively small category, and while it still has much room to grow, the pandemic clearly made people realize that today they may be able to see their loved ones, and tomorrow, they may not.
That being said, Having connected/personal safety devices has become even more of a forethought for people with aging loved ones. With that, comes the challenge of being able to keep up with this new surge in demand. As we see even in many major industries like car manufacturers and computer manufacturers, shortages of electronic components and processors continues. It is challenging for manufacturers to find some of the most basic components. Having multiple outlets/multiple sources to get things from has proven helpful for Climax.
What customer VRI has to say about Climax:
"We’ve been working with Climax for more than 10 years. As a device agnostic organization, VRI evaluates dozens of new products from a multitude of manufacturers. We actively work with several companies to ensure we meet the needs of the parents and grandparents we serve. We appreciate Climax’s dedication to providing a high quality and durable product, listening to their customers, incorporating our feedback into their products, and supporting replacement parts that help keep costs down for our dealers."
– Kinsey Oganowski, vice president of employee and customer experience, VRI
PERS Insider interviewed Climax’s vice president of U.S. operations, Scot McGehee, to learn about the company’s successes, challenges, expansion, and everything in between.
When McGehee offers up Climax’s elevator pitch, he has this to say:
“Climax is a company that specializes in PERS, security, and also the DIY market. We work with a wide variety of customers and integrate their ideas into our innovations and R & D. This is helpful for us and our customers because our greatest recommendations come from dealers.”
“A great example is our do-it-yourself kits, which are very common in the EU market, and allow customers to order and put their own products together via Amazon. This is also a good example of our original design manufacturing (ODM), also referred to as private label.”
On facing supply chain interruptions:
“Climax manufactures it products in-house and purchase our components from very reputable manufacturers worldwide. We have been working with our suppliers to ensure ample on-hand quantities of required components for our equipment lineup.
During Q4 of 2020, we did see a slow up in component availability for many products in our industry. Again, we’ve been working tirelessly with our suppliers to ensure product availability so that our customers can conduct business as usual.
Our procurement department at the factory has put in place new policies to increase inventory levels so that our production efforts are not having to endure unnecessary obstacles.
Due to increased demand over the past five years, our factory built an additional building in 2020 for the purpose of Increasing our production to meet supply demand.”
Tell us something about your products and how they serve your customers that people might find surprising:
“We’re in the midst of both exciting and challenging times with the aging in place trend of the 21st century, a rapidly aging population, and high healthcare costs. These create a growing demand for care at home, especially for seniors with long-term health conditions. Home care is moving towards telehealth monitoring and telemedicine, including video conferencing and remote monitoring technology to help increase caregiver efficiency, while still providing constant convenience to the patients. Living independently and aging gracefully are the ideals that every individual seeks to pursue, and the challenge is to ensure that all people can age with dignity and security.
Climax’s GX Cubic Smart Care Medical Alarm is an all-in-one wellness and personal safety medical alarm solution, designed to help the elderly manage their long-term health conditions. This bridges medical health monitoring information to care providers and hospitals and creates points of care to keep them safe in their own homes.
Voice is the best control interface for seniors. Voice recognition has innovated over time, and continues to advance, allowing products to become even more intuitive and easier to use. GX Cubic has built-in voice recognition and can activate an emergency call to a care provider or central monitoring center by preset vocal commands or keywords. This allows seniors to receive emergency attention even in situations where they are immobilized or cannot manually reach the panic button.
Working with the leading voice ecosystems Amazon Alexa and Google Home via cloud, GX Cubic also features voice control to activate home electronic devices, complete daily tasks, and seek help during emergencies.”
On managing the 3G to 4G transition:
With the impending sunset of the 3G network, we have been working with many of our partners to ensure they are able to seamlessly make the transition to the LTE networks. With some of our partners, we began the transition process in 2019 and continued throughout 2020.
Name three things unique about Climax:
- Not only do we specialize in PERS/ Security/ Assisted Living/ Nursing Home industries, but we also work closely with our customers to assist them in becoming successful in the DIY retail market (Amazon Best Seller)
- Customer Service: we always try to work with our customers on innovation and working with their ideas on how they can have a positive impact on the PERS Industry.
- Heavily invested in RD, building any product that customer has in mind.
What’s the most exciting development in the PERS industry and what is its biggest challenge:
One of the most exciting developments in the industry is the awareness that this past year has brought to our business. PERS was still a relatively small category, and while it still has much room to grow, the pandemic clearly made people realize that today they may be able to see their loved ones, and tomorrow, they may not.
That being said, Having connected/personal safety devices has become even more of a forethought for people with aging loved ones. With that, comes the challenge of being able to keep up with this new surge in demand. As we see even in many major industries like car manufacturers and computer manufacturers, shortages of electronic components and processors continues. It is challenging for manufacturers to find some of the most basic components. Having multiple outlets/multiple sources to get things from has proven helpful for Climax.
What customer VRI has to say about Climax:
"We’ve been working with Climax for more than 10 years. As a device agnostic organization, VRI evaluates dozens of new products from a multitude of manufacturers. We actively work with several companies to ensure we meet the needs of the parents and grandparents we serve. We appreciate Climax’s dedication to providing a high quality and durable product, listening to their customers, incorporating our feedback into their products, and supporting replacement parts that help keep costs down for our dealers."
– Kinsey Oganowski, vice president of employee and customer experience, VRI
PERS Insider
