Somfy is making a strong push to the custom installation market with its motorized solutions for shades and screens. Last year, the company created a new position dubbed Partnerships and CI Channel Manager and hired industry veteran Brittany Mier y Terán to fill the role. Since that time, Mier y Terán has been on a mission to engage more deeply with the channel.

CE Pro caught up with her recently to get an update on Somfy’s enhanced direction, but also find out some of the unique ways motorization is playing a key role in wellness, security and outdoor living to help integrators expand their business.   

Motorized shading can help integrators open up a conversation about wellness because it’s really important to look at the occupant of a space to consider the light. That includes the electric light that we have gotten accustomed to tuning with all the different colors, but also the natural light that comes through the windows or any other glass spaces.

1. What role can motorized shades play in a holistic wellness solution?

Motorized shading can help integrators open up a conversation about wellness because it’s really important to look at the occupant of a space to consider the light. That includes the electric light that we have gotten accustomed to tuning with all the different colors, but also the natural light that comes through the windows or any other glass spaces.

So when you are talking to your customers about wellness, including automated shading is really important.

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 2. How are motorized shades helping to transform outdoor living spaces?

Motorized shades can create dual-purpose rooms. So you can have areas fully enclosed with walls, roof, flat screen… whatever you like. But then those spaces can completely transform. You can have the screens and the pergola flats come up, and all of a sudden you have a shaded outdoor space.

Somfy is seeing a lot of video projection and audio outside as well. Getting those screens outside, especially with exterior-rate motors where you can tuck them away and you don’t have to have a big screen canvas out all the time, can really enhance the space.

3. How can motorized shades be integrated with security solutions?

Motorized shading can be incorporated into integrated security systems in a variety of ways. A home can appear to be occupied with lights going on and off throughout the day, and you can also have the shades moving as if there was somebody there. In other spaces, you can use it for privacy to block off views. We have even seen in commercial applications that during an active shooter situation you can leverage the shades to improve occupant safety by decreasing visibility for the assailant.

4. How is Somfy becoming more engaged with the custom installation channel?

Somfy has started to work directly with integrators on the full scope of what we do. That includes the certified and validated drivers that we have created, but those went through integrators first before going through the certification process.

On the product side, we are utilizing feedback and requests from integrators to create the products that we need to see in this channel to ultimately make our lives easier, make integration easier, and make it a relief for integrators to know that it is going to be easy when you integrate with Somfy.

The response to our increased engagement in the industry has been overwhelmingly positive. It has been fantastic to have conversations with integrators that may have not heard directly from Somfy in the past, or been heard by Somfy. That is what we have been trying to achieve… to hear what this channel needs from us so we can deliver that.

5. Which control brands does Somfy integrate with?

We work directly with a lot of the manufacturers that we see on a day-to-day basis in this space, including Control4, Crestron, Elan, Savant and URC. Those are all platforms we are working directly with right now for both our existing lines and our upcoming lines so when our newest products launch, we already have the drivers available.  

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