Strategy in TECH...
Crestron Electronics has launched a handy new Configurator for their Creston Home system that gives integrators the ability to pre-configure systems in-house prior to deployment. This new configurator helps integrators efficiently setup and test their Crestron Home systems configuration and cuts deployment time dramatically.
AVNation, a largely podcasting group of integrators in both the residential and commercial AV space, this week held a somewhat abruptly announced, but ultimately successful online learning event they call their LFH – or Learn From Home – virtual residential event. Essentially an online conference with multiple presentations from a variety of industry experts, the event gave COVID-19 isolated colleagues an opportunity to while away the hours of their isolation…and perhaps learn something in the process.
Now, the group announces it will offer a new LFH event targeted at the commercial channel next week.
This week, Strata-gee launched a survey designed to get a sense of the level of impact on Tech businesses by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic now sweeping across the United States and the globe. Thinking that the timing of this survey was very early in the spread of the epidemic and likely to reveal a calm baseline reading, respondents surprised us with results that are fairly dramatic and showed that many are already feeling the impact.
What if every time you rolled a truck on a service call with a Level 1 tech, you could be fully assured of a complete resolution to the client’s satisfaction no matter how complex or sophisticated the system issue? Does that sound like a dream? No…that sounds like Help Lightning.
Savant Systems LLC held their 2020 Integrator Summit this year in conjunction with the International Builder Show in Las Vegas, NV on January 20-23. At that event, the company unveiled a large array of new products and new strategic partnerships, showing they intend to retain their innovative edge that has attracted so many integrator fans.
By now, most integrators have heard the siren call that they should launch a recurring monthly revenue program (RMR) to add profits and deepen their relationships with their clients. But to many of them, this is an idea that is easy to say…but hard to do. Quite literally, it can be hard to figure out just where to begin.
There are resources within the industry that can step up and help your integration company offer an RMR or service contract program to your clients. Some of them can even offer to take and handle your service calls on a 24×7 basis. However, those services can be fairly expensive. But one service I’ve learned about, MC Group, tells me that they have assisted hundreds of integrators with an affordable program they call “Turnkey RMR.”
Control4 announced today the launch of the Neeo Remote for Control4, the first product from their acquisition of the Swiss company Neeo back in February 2019. This new Neeo remote control is optimized to work seamlessly with Control4’s OS 3 operating system, offering another elegant system control interface.
SnapAV announced today that it will begin distributing Sonos wireless music systems beginning next month in October. The company says it will offer the entire line – including the Sonos Port, Sonos Move, and Sonos One SL – as part of its extensive assortment of gear targeted to the professional custom integrator.
The assimilation of the custom integration industry by the once-reviled, now embraced soundbar is almost complete. And on the advent of another CEDIA Expo, yet another round of announcements of new soundbar products came rolling out. While this fact is now an accepted reality, what is remarkable is that some of these new soundbars are from companies that no reasonable person would have predicted would enter the category just a few short years ago.
Bravas Group, a cooperative of integrators aggregated by Paul Starkey and Steve Firszt of VITAL MGMT, was first put together as part of VITAL MGMT’s consulting practice helping member companies better organize their operations, improve their financial performance, and drive greater profitability. Ultimately, the group’s fifteen members coalesced into one widely-spread unified organization, with over-arching centralized management and plans for the group to be packaged and sold.
Now, in a deal said to be valued at $75 million, Bravas Group has been sold to Presidio Investors, a private equity investment company with offices in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX.
