State of the Industry Report

It’s a tale of two markets. Over 80% say the business climate is favorable for integration firms, but positive numbers belie daunting industry challenges that are overwhelming many firms.

The pro AV industry “is growing at a faster rate than the economy,” says InfoComm International executive director David Labuskes.

The global gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3 percent annually over 2012 and 2013, but the global pro AV industry grew 10 percent annually over that time, according to InfoComm and Acclaro Growth Partners’ 2014 AV Market Definition and Strategy Study.

When it comes to actually running an integration business, however, Labuskes is quick to point out, none of these rosy figures matter.

“The reality for our integration members has very little to do with the GDP or macroeconomics. It has to do with how hard is it to do work every day, how challenging is it to keep the doors of your business open or to grow your business. And I think it would be so silly for anybody not to acknowledge and recognize that we have a really hard business. There are an extraordinary number of challenges faced by integrators every day.”

In 2015, there are two integration markets—things are going well for the firms in one group and the reality is much different for the other.

Chuck Wilson, executive director of NSCA, estimates that he talks to 10 integrators per day. “For every two companies that are doing great, there’s one doing badly,” he says. There’s an element of good project-versus-bad project luck involved, but in many ways the integration firms that are benefiting from the market recovery have made their own good fortune, Wilson says.

CI’s annual State of the Industry Report analyzes challenges and opportunities while taking the pulse of the integration industry. Download it now.

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