‘Twas a Great & Lousy Year, Says Daniel Newman

CI columnist Daniel L. Newman argues with himself over what made 2014 a standout or sour year for the integration industry.

Daniel Newman

Commercial Integrator asked some of our industry columnists to articulate short arguments for why 2014 was positive year for the integration industry; and also why it was a negative year.

First, we heard from Chris Neto, AV Helpdesk consultant, about how “business as usual” made 2014 a lousy year, but despite that, collaborative and huddle spaces flourished.

Next, hear from Daniel L. Newman, founder of BroadSuite Consulting. (Read his CI columns here.) Following is Newman’s take on the past year.

Impotence: Why 2014 Was a Lousy Year

Look, make no mistake about it, 2014 had more than its fair share of hurdles for integrators.

Perhaps the most obvious hurdle is the very visible reality that the bread and butter of integration hit an inflection point. There is simply no way that integrators can even hope to survive five years if they don’t flip the switch to a new way of generating revenue.

This means that integrators need to figure out two things. First, how do they make the transition to recurring revenue so they can start to build a steady cash-flow based on regular services?

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Second, how do they become both technically capable and proficient in delivering services that are cloud enabled, mobile driven and more or less not requiring any sort of physical installation?

Perhaps what makes this year the lousiest is that all of this is happening right in front of the integrators’ eyes and they are able to do little about it.

The best and brightest in the industry are plowing ahead, but the majority of the integrators I speak with are lacking both understanding and an executable plan to deal with the transition, making 2014 one lousy year for integrators.

Economy: Why 2014 Was a Great Year

There has to be a good feeling about the strong economic recovery numbers that have come out this past year. With unemployment back to longtime lows and quarterly growth on the way up, a certain amount of confidence must be coming back to integrators.

Many conversations with integrators have yielded a common theme of increases in work and more projects that had been on hold finally getting off of the ground. We all know that kicking off big projects serves as a great way to get the cash flowing and the business humming.

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With projects also comes the opportunity to source new talent, from engineering to sales and even the opportunity to invest in new leadership positions that can help integration companies take their strategies in new directions.

We have all heard the adage that we only look as good as we feel and if the positive economic data is making integrators feel good, the finances and operations may very well be looking good, too.

With all of the indicators in the economy showing that growth should continue and that technology is at the center of the growth, integrators have more than a few reasons to recline in their chairs (if only for a moment) and think to themselves, “2014 was a great year for Integrators!”

READ ON: ‘Twas a Great & Lousy Year, According to Chris Neto

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I am a principal analyst of Futurum Research and CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. I spend my time researching, analyzing and providing the world’s best and brightest companies with insights as to how digital transformation, disruption, innovation and the experience economy are changing how business is done. Bringing together the technology layer with the human layer, I seek to solve the biggest challenges that companies have today; how to grow, scale, change and adapt to a world where technology and media shift at breakneck speed. So what does this mean? It means that I spend my life learning about what drives people to adopt new technology so I can share those secrets with companies that are ready to take their business to the next level. From keynoting on the world’s largest stages to weekly insights on Forbes, MarketWatch and our owned media properties, my goal is to provide our clients with what they need to know to out innovate and turn disruption from threat, into a business model for success.

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