We live in a data-driven world. Organizations rely on business data to make decisions. Integrators have unique access to customers’ business data. But for some reason they tend not to share it with their customers.
Why?
Seriously, why?
There is a mutually beneficial opportunity for integrators to provide customers with valuable business analytics gathered from AV, automation and communication system usage as part of a managed services agreement.
So when I find an integration firm that includes business data in managed services offerings, I jump at the chance to discuss it with them.Most integrators aren’t doing that. Only 31 percent of surveyed integrators even sold managed services in the year prior to the release of CI’s 2017 State of the Industry Report.
In CI’s research for the recent “10 Fast-Growing Firms” coverage we learned that Malvern, Pa.-based Cenero includes business data delivery as part of its robust managed services offerings.
I promptly asked CEO Chris Henry if Cenero would be the subject of a CI Profile. He allowed me to include a portion of our interview in which we discuss business analytics as a MyTechDecisions podcast episode for end-user-facing CI sister brand MyTechDecsions.
In the MyTechDecisions podcast, Henry tackles the opportunity from several angles. First and foremost, he agrees that AV integrators are in a unique opportunity to provide this information to customers. Integrators have access to the equipment and the endpoints. They’re “already pulling the information back and forth” Henry says. “It only makes sense to bring that together, aggregate it and present it in digestible bites.”
Meanwhile, while discussing the fact that few integrators are currently doing it, he explained why it is important for Cenero to highlight value for customers. The demand, he says, will increase.
“As what I call the commodity curve continues to move up the ladder in our systems integration business and there’s no reason to expect that it won’t, if not accelerate, it becomes less and less about the equipment and more about the information you’re getting and what you’re doing with that equipment.”
Listen to the podcast for more insight on the business opportunity around data.
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
Leave a Reply