Top 5 Museum Market Integrators of 2016

These innovative, market-leading firms offer advice on how to excel in a market that requires both intricate planning and instant gratification.

Tom LeBlanc

While the focus for integration firms serving many vertical markets is on how to create scale and bring solutions to more customers more quickly and in higher volume, the museum market is much different.

The 2016 Top 5 museum market CI Industry Leaders might take the scalable approach with their customers in other markets, but they know it won’t fly with museum clients looking to stand out with
immersive and customized experiences.

Take Electrosonic, which earned a 2016 CI Integration Award for its work at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for example. The award-winning project required kid gloves.

Electrosonic coordinated relationships with 11 media partners that were involved in the build-out of the museum. There were also challenges related to the building’s unique architectural profile.

The integration firm overcame the obstacles the old-fashioned way—it spent a ton of time with the owners and architects during the two years leading up to the project and then, despite that, rolled with all the redesign required during implementation as the customer’s requirements evolved. That’s how you have to roll in the museum market.

A recent CI Profile on Westbury National explores the Canadian firm’s willingness to own its identity as a “custom integrator.” While many firms are focused on high-volume solutions, Westbury sees its bread-and-butter as remaining custom—a trait that serves it well in the museum market.

“Westbury National focuses on larger and more complex projects requiring our advanced engineering, programming and project-execution experience and expertise,” says Brock McGinnis. “Our focus is meticulous engineering and quality execution.”

Museum projects tend to have extremely long lead times and require a high level of focus. Fewer firms seem to brand themselves as museum integrators than in years past. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Denmark-based Stouenborg has so embraced the museum market that the small firms’ design and consultative services are sought by museums across Europe.

“We help them as advisors and give them the option to purchase the complete integration and advisory from our company, and many museums see the benefits from this model,” says Anders Jorgensen.

“They are able to secure the budget with us, and the market in Denmark is comparable to the Bay Area in California. So if we do one bad job, we are out. Therefore, we play by the book and the key word here is trust. This year we have now seen that this model works in other Nordic countries and we have moved into Sweden. The plan is to extend this into Germany and the Netherlands during the next years.”

Check out the complete report: Meet the 2016 CI Industry Leaders

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