Cloud Innovation for Customer Needs: Building AiphoneCloud with Ben Jobrack 

In April of 2024, Ben Jobrack became one of Aiphone’s first product managers outside of Japan, overseeing the product and implementation of AiphoneCloud. Before that, he worked as a sales representative for five years, learning about customer pain points and how to solve them. It was there that he discovered how rewarding it could be to take a customer’s challenge and deliver them a solution that kept them safe. In 2021, his aptitude for problem solving led him to a role change: he transitioned to be a sales engineer. 

Aiphone is growing, so are the needs of customers. Security projects are constantly becoming larger and more complex; and they needed the support of a solutions expert to ensure they were successful. Jobrack was among the first sales engineers at Aiphone, and as a trailblazer in a new role, learned to manage defining the job as well as helping customers. These skills and experiences created a natural transition when Aiphone needed a product manager to oversee the development of its first cloud-based platform: AiphoneCloud.  

Although Jobrack is not interacting with customers as much as he used to, they still drive his vision. He ensures that every aspect of AiphoneCloud is intuitive and easy for users, taking into consideration previous experiences with customer issues. Jobrack is essential to the developmental process: he discovers customers’ needs and translates them to developers to create the solution, ensuring they meet Aiphone’s high standards of quality. “For me, it always comes back to the customer and hearing them say that the solution solved all their problems.” 

Growing, Learning, & Adapting 

The transition to product manager took time, patience, and self-reflection. Jobrack had to learn to be comfortable without being hands on for every single step, every single moment of every single process.  

Everyone on the AiphoneCloud team contributes their own unique strengths, and they’ve learned to grow and blend them together smoothly. They help each other deliver comprehensive and improved features to AiphoneCloud with every release, ensuring the result is exceptional.  

Engineering in America  

When Jobrack stepped into his new role, he brought with him a clear view of how fast technology and consumer needs were changing. Previously, Aiphone’s products were primarily designed in Japan, but as innovation accelerates and demand grows in North America, the necessity to design closer to the customer only becomes clearer. Aiphone is committed to staying competitive and meeting the demand of the industry’s most dynamic market, leading to the creation of its engineering in North America.  

“AiphoneCloud came from a place of the Japanese product not fitting with the US market, we thought we could do so much more if we had a better way of configuring and managing these intercoms,” Jobrack said.  

AiphoneCloud: Built for the Customer 

As Aiphone joins the security industry in the increasing shift towards cloud-based services, Jobrack and his team ensure that they deliver up-to-date technology without compromising any quality. The customer is, and always has been, the motivation and inspiration behind AiphoneCloud.  

The software enables customer relationships to become more than just a one-time interaction, creating a deeper connection. By providing data collected from their systems and consistent access to support from Aiphone, users are empowered to make more informed decisions about their security.  

Integration with AiphoneCloud & the Future 

Another priority of Jobrack’s when building AiphoneCloud is integration. As the service develops, he aims to soothe the process of integrating Aiphone products with our partners’ systems, enhancing your security further. Jobrack emphasizes the need for adaptability and building room for future growth in AiphoneCloud, as well as integrations being a significant part of that future.

The team wants to continue to build AiphoneCloud outward rather than inward. This means expanding relationships with partners across the entire security industry and working with them to deliver better systems for customers. It also points towards less one time in stall, one size fits all solutions; and instead providing customizable solutions that can grow, change, and update with technological advancements and the customer’s needs.

Ben Jobrack will continue leading his team into the future, evolving to meet the constantly rising standards in security technology. And while doing so, he’s not forgetting where it all started: the customer, and the joy he got from solving their problems.