Connected Design

Portal.io, the proposal software & product/pricing database for integrators, announced today they’ve expanded their public API to allow for integration of their popular proposal tool with other industry software solutions. The first partner to launch a full proposal integration is iPoint, the complete business process software tool for integrators. The integration is available now for iPoint dealers. iPoint dealers can now win a job in Portal, push all the products from that job into iPoint, and then manage the project to completion. “We’re excited to expand our API to give dealers more options when it comes to software tools for their business” says Kirk Chisholm, founder and CEO of Portal.  “It’s so important today that software plays well with others, otherwise you’re holding back your customers. Dealers have been begging us to connect our proposal tool to other industry software and we finally decided to do it.”  In 2014, Portal released a limited public API, integrati...

According to   Parks Associates , uncertainty caused by COVID-19 has heightened anxiety about the safety and security of our families and homes. They report that while residential security system adoption held steady from 2014 to 2017, a 10 percent increase moved the needle to 36 percent adoption in 2021. “Smart home and security device adoption is also rising in broadband households, and consumers are embracing standalone devices and DIY home security solutions,” the report says. Essentially, there are two ways to go when it comes to residential home security systems — self-monitored “DIY” devices or systems that are professionally installed and monitored by a third-party. Self-monitored systems require a DIY solution to whatever problem arises because authorities are not automatically dispatched. Which to choose? There is no wrong or right answer as every homeowner is different. In this article, I picked the brains of my friends over at Integration Controls in St. Louis, Level Up...