Thomas Grant

By Victória Oliveira

ith over 100 years of excellence in technology solutions globally and just a little over two years working within the self-storage industry in America, Vantiva has created an all-in-one platform and many solutions for problems self-storage operators have been struggling with for years.

Thomas Grant, vice president of IoT sales at Vantiva, who has been working in the technology realm for the past 25 years, with a focus on multifamily technology solutions, joined the company in their new endeavor to bring superior technological solutions to the self-storage space. “This is a new area for me,” he says. “I think it’s exciting and interesting [to realize] both the similarities and the differences in the industries.”

When talking about his career trajectory, Grant likes to refer to his professional timeline in two halves. “One half was focused on the buying and procurement side of technology, working for the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country, Best Buy, where I had many roles, from purchasing to operations, to finance and analysis. I got an excellent understanding of what customers look at and how they consider buying technology and the procurement behind that,” he says. “The second half has been spent on the sales side of technology, working for large companies like Sony and Sonos, Symantec from the cybersecurity space, Arlo Technology from the home security space, as well as organizations like Brilliant Smart Homes, which focus on the builder channel and the multifamily channels.”

His exceptional results in his past positions made him stand out for the vice president opportunity at Vantiva, where he puts his knowledge at the forefront, working with technologies that “help enable people and businesses to be more efficient and effective at finding new revenue streams.”

Working within the self-storage sector, he has found the industry to be a fascinating and perfect match for his experience. “The industry is almost a mix of retail and multifamily. There’s this aspect of having web or walk-up traffic coming to you, and you must try to convert it into a rental. That’s very retail-esque in terms of [the industry’s] approach. I have worked with some operators in the past year that analyze traffic and try to understand customers’ behavior,” he says. “But there is also the multifamily kind of property management approach, for instance when handling leases, getting folks to lease, how to manage rent increases, and all of the pieces that come along with managing a rental property tie into this with, of course, some unique aspects to it.”

However, when it comes to the use of technology in the industry, he is not impressed. He compares the situation to how the multifamily space was 10 to 15 years ago, but he believes that is about to change.

“I feel like the space is on the cusp of making that leap in a very aggressive and meaningful way into technology,” he says, “the same way that multifamily did like 10 years ago. Technology has the opportunity to transform this industry, not only for the operators and owners of these facilities but [also] for their renters and customers alike, especially as we start to see demographics in the millennial and Gen Z groups, as they are very comfortable with and expect technology. So, it is incoming upon anybody serving those demographics to offer solutions that meet those expectations and needs.”

Thinking of that, the company recently released a fully integrated camera called Vantiva Peek, their new effort in furthering smart units in the self-storage business that allows customers of self-storage facilities to take a quick look into their units and belongings whenever they want directly from an app on their phones. The product came to be after a self-conducted survey found customers mostly stopped by facilities to check on their stuff, instead of bringing in more items or picking them up. “The idea [for the product] came from a home automation background,” he says, “and thinking about how people think about their belongings overall. Self-storage, from our perspective, is an extension of our homes. As homes continue to get smaller, and our belongings seem to increase, it creates the situation of being cramped for space. This means the things being put into self-storage are meaningful, not junk. They are either valuable monetarily or sentimentally, and people want to make sure they are secure, and that they can keep an eye on them.”

The product, however beneficial to customers who worry about the state of conservation of their belongings, is only being sold directly to self-storage companies, as Vantiva’s end goal is to provide industry operators with the option to offer their customers an advantage that will ultimately help facilities market and price units with the gadget as “smart units,” which will hopefully have an impactful increase in their revenues. “The idea is the experience the self-storage operator wants to offer their customers,” he adds.

Since its release in July earlier this year, the Vantiva Peek has had an overwhelming response. The market seems incredibly excited, but this doesn’t come as a surprise, as the product is equipped with motion detection, night vision, two-plus years battery life, a built-in magnet for mounting, and configurable image capturing, as well as temperature and humidity sensors. The latter comes with a setup that allows facilities the ability to not disclose the information with customers, avoiding a situation of consternation and concern while still providing a handy service that gives the facility the ability to spot mold and infiltration before it becomes a problem.

Despite the many waves the new product has made in the industry, Vantiva’s backbone within the self- storage community continues to be their Smart Spaces software. “There are a lot of solutions that require a specific gateway to make it work,” he says, “and that’s fine if that’s the only solution you want to deploy, but what happens over time is that the needs change. Technology will change, your business objective as an operator will change, and even consumers’ tastes and preferences will change over time. Part of the business of connectivity solutions is that it needs to be expandable, it needs to be future-proof, and it needs to be technology-agnostic. So, that is one of the key things that our platform does. It’s something that didn’t exist in the market and [allows us the ability] to meet the uniqueness of each business.”

Grant goes on to say, “What we are learning in the [self-storage] space is that different operators have different objectives; and while all of them are valid cases for our solution overall, they start from different points. At some point, they might end up with the same types of solutions, but we want to make sure we are designing a system that meets the needs of the operators at the point and time in which they need it.”

While Vantiva provides a hassle-free, all-in-one platform to businesses that can evolve as they grow with the intent of a more technological self-storage industry tomorrow, Grant mentions that many companies are still at the starting line, and the most common solution for most facilities looking to develop technologically is site-wide connectivity.

“It’s foundational. You have to connect to do reporting and analytics,” he says. “It’s a means to a larger end, which ultimately is the company’s objective, whether it is energy management concerns, predictive maintenance, or enhancing safety and security.”