I think it’s a wonderful thing that Commercial Integrator — the website you’re on now, and the magazine — highlights the State of the AV Industry early each year: a snapshot of where we are and how things have changed over the past year is a great way to forecast where we should go moving forward.
To that end, I want to provide a State of Commercial Integrator for our readers. I believe in transparency, and I believe in being loyal to an audience that is loyal to you. CI’s audience is one of the most loyal I’ve seen, so let me explain where CI is and where we’d like to go.
Who we are
Commercial Integrator is a business publication first. We write about technology, of course, because the business we’re concerned with is that of technology integration. [related]
However, what we try to provide our audience is information that will help them grow their technology integration businesses – info about technology, info about the industry, new initiatives, new ideas, business management best practices, hiring, training, selling, etc.
That’s not just big businesses, either. There are titans in the industry quickly approaching $1B in annual revenue. We write about them often because they are the beacons, proof that AV can create opportunity as large as any other industry.
However, the vast majority of the AV industry is made up of small and medium businesses (SMBs): organizations making less than $3M in annual revenue. We don’t want to forget about them.
In fact, they made up a bulk of our respondents in this year’s State of the Industry survey, so we know they’re invested in what we do—and we hope they know we’re invested in what they do.
Our newest initiatives: SMBs & MSPs
That’s why we’ve launched the SMB Insight department this month. This monthly spotlight will focus specifically on the business needs of SMB integration firms. We’ll talk about contracting employees, winning bids, scaling up as you grow, and more.
Traditionally we’ve focused on the AV industry. That focus will not change—we are wholly dedicated to the channel and will spend the same time and resources helping the AV industry grow.
However, when CI was first created, the idea was a three-pronged approach: AV, security, and IT.
We’ve done well covering AV and we’ve covered security along with our sister publication Security Sales & Integration. Now we’d like to better cover the MSP industry.
Listen: We Round Up the Year in Pro AV in this 2019 Look-Back: Episode 86 of AV+
IT providers are just as much a part of technology integration as anyone else, and in the new converged world we all need to work together to provide solutions to our customers.
MSPs will notice more coverage in that area moving forward, including a monthly department called The Service Desk written by MSPs. We hope that CI can help bridge the gap and provide information on how AV integrators and IT providers can work together moving forward.
Other than that, it’s business as usual. We’ll try to help all of our readers run better businesses. We’ll alert you about new technology. We’ll highlight your products. The future is bright for CI and for technology integrators alike.
