Company Background:
Stephen Caroselli, CEO and Founder of Orion Entrance Control, Inc. began his business of one out of a garage in 2009. By 2021 Orion had grown to 40,000 square feet of manufacturing space and employs 38.
Located in Laconia, New Hampshire Orion Entrance Control is a global provider of optical turnstile solutions for facilities that require security and oversight of the traffic coming in and out of their spaces. They design and manufacture technologically advanced access control products including security SpeedLane turnstiles and automated door access for all types of companies.
“Every aspect of Orion’s turnstiles is customizable to what the customer needs and wants,” said Steve Caroselli. But their relationship does not end once the turnstiles are installed. “We have a cradle to grave business philosophy,” said Caroselli. “That means Orion will be there for the customer from design, manufacture and installation, to service, support, upgrades and beyond.”
Orion Entrance Control turnstiles can be found in high-rise buildings, government centers, education campuses, banks, hospitals, and corporate headquarters, anywhere entrance security is needed.
Situation:
“In 2020 we went into R&D mode and released 5 new turnstiles and a new brand we called Orion Occupant Sensing Solutions,” said Caroselli. “Through OOSS we were able to develop a new product called “Door Guard.””
Around that time Orion also partnered with another company to develop a product using presence sensing radar technology that will work in many real world applications. One of those applications was discrete weapons detection. “But we needed a framework on how to go about researching this opportunity and turn it into a viable product,” said Caroselli.
Solution:
Steve was approached by NH MEP about a new program they offered called TDMI or Technology Driven Market Intelligence. TDMI identifies the benefits and the market impacts related to a company’s technology-based products, and provides customized actionable intelligence. Unlike traditional market research, TDMI considers the technical and market viability of the product and characterizes the associated opportunities and barriers. NH MEP partnered with RTI International to have Orion go through the TDMI program.
For Orion Entrance Control the TDMI program:
- Enabled them to learn about the plans and knowledge of the intended markets and applications for discrete weapons detection related to entrance control related markets.
- They discovered and assessed applications and markets for specific capabilities for both the defense and commercial sectors.
- They compared potential applications using a company developed criteria and then paired down the selections to 1 or 2 applications within the chosen market for further exploration.
- For the 1 – 2 applications selected, they conducted additional primary and secondary research to vet those applications, with a focus on identifying and prioritizing potential customers and partners.
Results:
“I really liked the way they managed the process giving us the information we needed to move forward,” said Caroselli. “They would pull together the research and share it with us to make sure we were going in the right direction. We were provided a ton of detail we would never had been able to gather by ourselves.”
The following results for Orion Entrance Control, Inc. can be credited to having gone through the NH MEP TDMI Program:
- $500,000 in new sales over the last 12 months
- Retained sales of $2,000,000 over the past 12 months that otherwise would have been lost
- Retained 32 jobs over the past 12 months
- Cost savings of $500,000 over the past 12 months
- Increased investment of $620,000 in new products or processes over the past 12 months
- Increased investment of $8,000 in information systems or software over the past 12 months
- Avoided $25,000 of any unnecessary investments or saved on any investments over the past 12 months
Learn more about NH MEP’s Technology Driven Market Intelligence (TDMI) Program.
“It was a real pleasure working with NH MEP and RTI on this project. We learned a lot about the competitive landscape and related technologies both on the market and those being developed in the university sector. The information gleaned through this process and the data provided by the end of the project will continue to help with our technology roadmap as we continue to scale our technology stack here at Orion.”
