What’s happening is as manufacturers build their products and brands around mobility, remote manageability and become more software-centric — features that appeal to the emerging group of IT professionals who have tremendous influence over purchasing decisions in end user organizations — they’re increasingly concerned that selling through their AV integration channel might not be putting their best foot forward.
“Manufacturers are looking to roll out these products in the next year and they’re saying, ‘Chuck, where are your guys at in terms of the level of sophistication they need to be the kind of technology solutions provider that we sell through?'” Wilson says. “In many cases when they do their evaluations of the skill set of our members they’re finding that maybe 10 or 20 percent of them are good to go. So they’re wondering how do we beef up that channel? That’s what I’m trying to do.”
InfoComm is also well aware that the increasing complexity of integrated solutions is creating challenges for its members. Labuskes adds this wrinkle: not only are the back ends of systems increasingly complex, but end users increasingly have an expectation of total simplicity in terms of interface and their interaction with technology.
“It’s more and more difficult for our integrators and our end users to understand all of the various components and the communication between those components,” Labuskes says. The flip side of that, he adds, are the “changing equation of expectations from the end user” and the “greater impact of the expectations of things to just work.”
Labuskes says InfoComm has programs committed to helping its membership overcome these challenges.
“Delivering that means that we’re going to continue to invest in certification for individuals and for companies. We’re going to continue to enhance the APEX [Audiovisual Providers of Excellence certification] program. We’re going to continue to look at how we help individuals to certify themselves as experts. We’re going to continue to push for standards. We’re going to continue to enhance our educational offering and our thought-leadership pieces and the work that we’re doing across the globe for the industry.”
Wilson emphasizes that the issue of getting up to speed and in sync with manufacturers is critical, but he’s careful not to lump all firms into that category. “There are the haves and the have nots,” he says. Firms that were quick to focus on network-centric solutions, remote diagnostics and the growing role of IT within their clients’ organizations are doing well, but he says “the vast majority of our members” need to evolve quickly.
An IT director or professional is the most common decision maker within clients’ organizations, according to one-third of survey respondents, far outpacing facilities managers, construction, general contractors and all traditional point persons. In fact, as the role of IT increases, those other parties’ purchasing influence is going down dramatically, Wilson says.
“In order for our dealers to be relevant and not entice the manufacturers to sell their solutions directly to the end users, we’ve got to make sure that our skillsets are on par with the innovation that is taking place out there right now,” Wilson says. “So we’re in a mad dash to align the technology roadmap of our leading manufacturers with that of the vast majority of our integrators.”
One way NSCA is doing that is through a program it hopes to announce and explain at its Business & Leadership Conference, February 25-27 in Dallas. The idea is for NSCA to take the pulse of individual integration firms’ overall readiness for the changing business climate by essentially auditing firms and letting them know how ready they are in several categories, including working with IT and network integration.
NSCA will go so far as to benchmark one company versus the field and grade them on their readiness. If they’re not, it will assess how to get ready, what kind of investment they’re willing to make and how long it will take.
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