On Failure:
“You’ll fail in the government vertical market if you don’t stay organized and pay attention to the details. Our project managers send out a status report each Friday to everyone involved on the project.
“The information includes what we have accomplished during the week, the status of unresolved issues, and our plan for the coming week. This form has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars, because we have continually documented issues.” —Michael Hester, Chairman and CEO, Beacon Communications
“You must possess vast experience in how the government market works. You need to know how to maneuver through the multiple levels of decision-makers and the associated bureaucracy. Proven strategies to implement cost-effective and reliable solutions for full turnkey AV and VC solutions are a must.” —Kevin McKay, National Sales Manager, Genesis Integration
“We have been challenged to manage our growth successfully. We are working to better choose the project we engage in, instead of taking anything that walks in the door. We have also worked hard to improve our forecasting and management so that we are proactively growing instead of living in a reactive state just trying to put our fires.” —Bill Craig, VP of Business Development, Logic Integration
“From our perspective, red flags for an integration firm that is not likely to be successful is one that does not invest in its people and culture, that does not adopt new technologies and processes to meet customer demand and does not accept and implement change across the organization on a regular basis. Technology is too fluid, and businesses in this industry need to be agile.” —Doug Hall, CEO, Whitlock
“You’ll fail in the government vertical market if you don’t keep looking for new ways to 1) improve the ways that employees work (helping them collaborate), conquer technological complexities that accompany common tech trends (such as BYOD); and 2) keep looking for new outreach/communication avenues for citizen customers.” —Samantha Osowski, VP of Marketing, Yorktel
Click here to download the complete report, “Meet the 2014 CI Industry Leaders.”
