Continued Company Growth Leads to New Team Members

Open Options, the leader in open platform access control solutions, has recently added several new team members in order to accommodate the company’s continued success and growth in the market.

Earlier this year, David Johnstone and Chris Gouge, sales managers for the Northeast US and Southwest US, respectively, joined the Open Options sales force. Johnstone and Gouge are responsible for driving revenue, cultivating relationships, and recruiting new business in their channels.

New to the software development department is Brad Schmidt. Schmidt comes to Open Options with an extensive development background, and has served in various development roles for companies like T-Mobile, MetroPCS, and National Motor Club. In his role as senior software developer for Open Options, Schmidt will be responsible for developing internal and external tools for the company, and will work to enhance existing products and services while creating new offerings.

Alex Wray joins Open Options as a technical writer, where he will assist the training and education team with various documentation projects. Wray graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of North Texas in Denton in 2014. He was most recently employed as an associate clerk for the Tarrant County district clerk’s office, where he gained experience writing instructional materials and training new employees. Wray has plans to help develop new online training content to better serve our customers and dealers.

We welcome our new team members, and look forward to the success and contributions they will bring to Open Options!

OO’s Annual Vendor Day & Crawfish Boil Huge Successes

Last week we held our second annual vendor partner event, where individuals from eight partner companies had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the Open Options sales and marketing teams. Best sales practices, new product information, and company roadmaps were some of the common points across presentations, but nothing was off limits. We want to thank the following vendor partners for their participation to make this event a great success:

Steve Lucas – Mercury Security
Shep Sheppard – Farpointe Data
Frank Stark – HID
Leroy Garza – ASSA ABLOY
Rob Lydic and Melissa Stenger – ISONAS
Dan Rothrock – Zenitel
Chad Palmquist and Sean Ellison – Milestone Systems
Derek Ommert – Allegion

On Friday afternoon, we held our annual crawfish boil and fish fry. Everyone had a great time enjoying fresh food, cold drinks, and live music from the Jet Poets. Once again, we held a silent auction that benefited Ronald McDonald House charities – this year we raised nearly $1,500! A big thanks to those who placed a bid and to the following companies for donating auction items:

Allegion
ASSA ABLOY
Farpointe Data
ISONAS
Milestone Systems
Zenitel
American Solutions for Business
Addison Cigar Co.
Frisco RoughRiders
The Ginger Man – Dallas
Lehigh Hanson
Peticolas Brewing Company
Scardello
the Skellig
Texas Roadhouse – The Colony

We want to thank everyone who came out, and we’ll see you next year!