2017 CI: State of the Industry Report
Posted on 2016-12-20·By Tom LeBlanc
Backlog is slightly down year-over-year and that can be concerning. Many integration firms have ramped up operations and done some hiring over the last couple of years, NSCA’s Wilson points out. “Backlog is your best predictability tool for labor requirement. Their backlogs are a little bit soft because their capability has increased. They’re cranking out jobs faster.”
The concern over that is that with unpredictable, short-term backlog it’s difficult to address immediate system needs. Backlog should also be diversified. “You want to have a little bit of everything in order to be able to spread out and balance and not have ups and downs in your cashflow and hiring. The message is to incentivize your sales team to look for both short-term and long-term activities to make a healthy spread there.