Our Story
Frank Pellkofer owned a small AV integration company in Petaluma, California. He was having lunch with one of his customers, the CIO of a firm based on Sandhill Road, who lamented that he needed a management platform, but the major AV control brands offered software so complicated “only a handful of specialists can actually implement that stuff.”
Frank mused, “What if instead of trying to get management from control, we got control rom management?” That was the impetus for what would later become Utelogy. Frank approached major AV manufacturers, but none were interested in developing new management software that was not tied to hardware.
Left with few options, it was time to “put down some initial keystrokes to see if the concept had legs.”
The idea caught the attention of IT companies, such as Cisco, Logitech, and GBH, that were getting forced into the video space. “When the SVP of Cisco made the trip to visit my
little integration company, that’s when I knew, I got something here.”
Validated, Frank pitched his software idea to the neighboring Santa Rosa Junior College. As they ate Subway sandwiches, the Director of Classroom Technology blessed the endeavor, and the President agreed to fund its development.
With the customer-inspired vision and customer-funded development, Frank started selling the first version of his software to community colleges. Then, consultants started specifying the software and he received termination letters from large traditional AV companies.
While camping at San Clemente State Park. He and a friend were drinking beers and cooking hot dogs, deciding what to do next. They talked about enterprise-grade IT/AV and cloud computing. They decided the software architecture had to be designed for the biggest companies in the world with a footprint in 150 countries; not tying the software to
hardware and not owning the data centers.
Frank sold his integration company in 2008 and incorporated Utelogy in 2009. The name derives from “Ubiquitous like a utility. Simple like a telephone. And “-ogy,” Greek for based on a body of knowledge – in our case, videoconferencing and management.”
Prioritizing security and scalability, Frank focused on robust software development over the next several years.
As Utelogy grew organically to a global brand, Jonathan Mangnall, an industry veteran, joined the team as Managing Director of EMEA. A few years later, in an ironic twist of fate, Frank named Kevin Morrison (former EVP of AMX and Harmon Professional) as CEO.
Frank remains President of Utelogy Corporation and, as always, is looking forward to the next breakthrough.