Norris prides itself on working with the top professionals, experts in their field.
Today’s Employee profile focuses on one such individual, Dale Moreau.
NI: What’s your title and included duties at Norris?
DM: My business card says “Systems Integrator.” My job, as I see it, is to work with customers and their design teams to develop cost-effective solutions to their needs relating to our industry.
NI: You are not strictly speaking just sales, right? You work on most of your own installs, too?
DM: Yes, I tend to do all the programming and head-end work, but I do have the techs do the wire pulling and ladder work when needed.
NI: How long have you been at Norris?
DM: Almost 10 Years. I started on January 2, 2010.
NI: Word is that you’re retiring sometime soon. How do feel the industry has changed since you started?
DM: Honestly my role in this industry, which used to be called “sound contracting” has always involved state of the art technology. So in that regard, it hasn’t changed. Traditional sound contractors were primarily supported by the Education and healthcare markets and actually still are. Norris Inc, with Fire Alarm and Security systems, were the other part of the industry, Sound contractors and Security contractors overlapped as communications integrated the two industries. Video Surveillance and Access management were the common thread.
NI: How do you think it will change in the next 10 years?
DM: I do see more “cloud-based” offerings so the security Network which was until recently largely an on-site appliance-based product will evolve very quickly into an ether-based product.
NI: As far as the industry becoming more cloud-based, are there concerns for hacking, cybersecurity and the like for sound contractors?
DM: Of course! When I have very sophisticated systems like the one at LL beans and Bangor airport, I don’t even have remote access due to security concerns. Of course in Healthcare, there are all sorts of legal requirements to ensure patient privacy.
NI: Are the cybersecurity concerns sound contractors face the same as they are for say an access control or surveillance integrator?
DM: I would say so. Hacking is always a concern and as a result, secure connections are a high priority.
NI: What different positions have you held at Norris?
DM: Same one for the entire time I’ve been here.
NI: How has your tenure at Norris prepared you to be successful in life?
DM: It hasn’t I was doing this for 40 years before Norris.
NI: In terms of doing your career for 40 years before Norris, can you tell me how you got your start? Where did you work, what did you do? Where did you gain your expertise?
DM: I started with a strong interest in audio recording and performance sound while in high school and back then you had different school programs that you could be assigned to. So while I started in the “College Prep” track at the end of my sophomore year I switched to the “Vocational” track so I could take electricity/electronics, these were the vacuum tube days, before integrated circuits and even common transistors 1967. My first job out of high school was to work a summer for Canfield systems in 1969 a sound contractor still in business down the street from Norris. After that a few years at an electronics parts distributor and then in 1975 I joined the team at New England Music Company, a Hifi and musical instrument store in Portland. Spent the next 20 years there, then back to Canfield for a couple then joined the IT world for a couple of years. In 2001 I joined the team a Signet in Massachusetts, one of the larger companies doing exactly what Norris does than moved to Norris in 2010.
NI: What do you love most about your job?
DM: Freedom to take care of customers
NI: What frustrates you about your job?
DM: No Comment.
NI: Are you married?
DM: Yes.
NI: Have any children?
DM: 4.
NI: What lessons have you learned throughout your career that you’d like to pass on to your children to help them be successful?
DM: Oh, my kids know very well that honesty and fair play are paramount. I should add that they are all successful in their careers. One daughter is a Producer in NYC for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, another is a successful paralegal in Sarasota FL, one with a PHD in England and one is a structural engineer in Maryland/DC.
NI: Can you talk about one personal goal you have for 2019?
Retiring after 50 years in the business and handing off my customers for a continuation of support.
NI: What do you enjoy doing in your spare/free time?
DM: Photography and woodworking.
NI: When you retire, will you be pursuing your photography and woodworking interests more regularly or in a special way? Marketing any photo projects or lines of hand-made furniture or cabinets?
DM: Nope. That has always been for fun. Once you put a price tag on something it stops being fun because you realize how little you are compensated for your work!. I tend to give it away instead.
NI: How did you end up at Norris?
DM: Honestly, the management team at Signet changed and I did not connect well with my new manager so I made a few phone calls and Brad hired me.
And the rest is history.
What is Norris all about?
Norris, Inc.—a South Portland, Maine-based life-safety and security systems integrator with satellite offices in Bangor, Maine; Lee, New Hampshire; and Burlington, Vermont—was founded nearly 40 years ago by two brothers, Brad and Harty Norris. The brothers remain on the board of directors today and continue to help steer the enterprise toward its goal of advancing life-safety, security, and communications while striving to grow in its status as Northern New England’s leading systems integrator. Norris provides fully integrated life-safety and security solutions, comprising disparate systems including fire alarm, intrusion detection, access control, video surveillance, communications, and emergency notification and total systems integration via the Vigilance Systems Integration Engine and ENS. Want to become part of the Norris family? We’re hiring!
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