Commercial Integrator August 2021 - 33

tions Architect/SME, AVI-SPL.
" An integrators place would be to help
the client understand some of the things
that are happening in the industry, especially
right now with shortages on chips and
other technologies, " said Whitesides. " If
someone was getting involved in a largescale
project, they would need information
from the dealer about what's possible
across multiple dealers or multiple manufacturers...we
look for approved software
platforms and things, so that we don't run
into roadblocks midstream in the project. "
At Capitol One, possible solutions are
often beta tested with users before the
company deploys it large scale. " We really
have a grounded experience that is good,
people like, and works well...we kind of
work out all of any defects or bugs or anything
else so we have a really great support
model making sure that when updates
trigger things work right, and they recover
right, so that we're not having to run out to
every room every time we make a change
or an update, but that is truly remotely
supported across the enterprise, so we're
very hands on, we do a lot of work ahead of
commercialintegrator.com
time to ensure that once that gets put out in
the environment, it's just a great product, "
said Wolf.
Manufacturers should be brought on as
partners in the very beginning as well to
provide solutions to the business's needs all
the way through to the deployment process
and even support it after. " You don't just
buy [a product] once and what it does at
that point, that's all it does, " said Wolf.
End users are looking for solutions that can
evolve over time and be incorporated into
their overall road map.
If the communication between end
users, manufacturers, and integrators are
not on the same page, once systems are
installed, it can cost the company time
and money to go back in and re- install the
system again.
" As we're continuing to rethink and
rebuild a lot of our rooms...make sure you
avoid putting technology that maybe going
away in a few years in the space, " said Wolf.
Zach Snook, Sr. Product Manager at
Biamp compared it to a three legged
table, with the table as the project and
the integrator, end user, and manufacturer
as a leg, if one falls short, you're left with a
lopsided table. " Everybody needs to have
their role, the end user needs to be there
to define what they're looking for and be
there to aid the integrator whenever they're
installing, we need network support, we
need interactions with the team on that
end to make sure that we're doing the right
stuff, " said Snook.
Integrators and their customers should
seek manufacturers that don't just sell
products and services, but offer the
support necessary to build their products
and services into an overall system. Manufacturers
can be the backbone of the
working relationship between integrators
and end users. CI
AUGUST 2021 Commercial Integrator 33
INTEGRATOR
END USER
MANUFACTURER
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator August 2021
