Commercial Integrator January 2022 - 20

2022 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
Expected percentage of revenues from services in 2022.
3.4%
2.7%
31% to 40%
41% to 50%
More than 50%
13.5%
21% to 30%
16.2%
11% to
20%
23.6%
5% to
10%
On a positive
note, integrator
10.1%
than 5%
30.4%
Less
respondents clearly
intend to ramp up
their services focus
in the new year.
recovery from last year's pandemic-related
declines, " he observes.
To some extent, AVIXA's independent
acknowledges. " It's not as easy as flipping
a switch. " But just because it's challenging
doesn't mean it's impossible. Wilson says
that roughly half the industry has made a
real shift to becoming as-a-service or managed-services
type companies. " They're
building the structure of their company
and making investments to refocus on a
monthly payment...a monthly service...service
contracting, " he observes. " And those
companies are doing really, really well. "
Leveling Up on IT Knowledge
As noted, one reason that the services
model has become so powerful is that it
is IT professionals' native language, and
our people are working with IT professionals
more than ever. In our survey, we
asked about staffers' readiness for IT and
security-system installations as a proxy for
measuring integrators' preparedness for
speaking the language of IT. Nearly 35% of
respondents described themselves as completely
ready to jump into those projects;
that marks a nearly six-percentage-point
jump from our previous survey. Conversely,
this time, only 12% described themselves
as not sufficiently trained; in the previous
survey, that was 25.4%, thus shaving away
more than 13 percentage points.
NSCA's LeBlanc, when asked to explain
AV integrators' increasing IT savviness,
indicates that it is likely a client-driven phenomenon.
" Customers are driving that shift,
in large part, for integrators, " he says. " Customers
are increasingly concerned about
20
cybersecurity. For an integrator to work on
their network, they want to feel that confidence. "
Integrators, therefore, are reacting
to the new reality by making sure they're
bringing their teams up to speed. Logic Integration's
Hansson is working to leverage
best practices in his own firm. " We always
consult with the IT manager for the facility
anytime we're touching the network, " he
states. " Each job site and customer get their
own unique, newly generated password.
This has helped, but it's definitely not bulletproof. "
Hansson adds, " Security is a very
big concern in the world today, and we're
always learning how to better our team and
projects. " Having an unquenchable thirst
for IT knowledge
may be a point
of differentiation
among integrators
moving forward.
Vertical Markets
Commercial AV is organized
around vertical markets, so it's
always instructive to get a sense
of which are thriving and which lag.
AVIXA's Labuskes, drawing on the association's
own research, pinpoints
corporate, retail and hospitality
as the markets in which
the highest percentage of
companies are planning to
increase their spending. " This
is consistent with broader
data showing these markets in
Commercial Integrator JANUARY 2022
commercialintegrator.com
research echoes CI's own survey. For
example, when respondents were asked
to forecast installation growth in various
verticals this year, only 2.1% indicated they
expect the corporate market to shrink, and
just 16.2% more indicated they expect it to
be flat. Meanwhile, 40.8% of survey takers
forecast installation growth in the corporate
market of 7% or more. Our survey, however,
spotlighted other verticals as potential
growth hubs - namely, education, government
and healthcare. Percentages of survey
takers forecasting 7% or more installation
growth in those markets were 34%, 29.7%
and 28%, respectively. (By contrast, for retail
and bars/clubs/restaurants, our survey
indicated that 14.8% and 14.7% of respondents,
respectively, forecast 7% or more
installation growth.)
For its part, NSCA research shows a commercial
AV industry that is bouncing back
from pandemic-related woes, with demand
increasing across the board. According to
Wilson, " Our data shows that every one of
our verticals are going to be up from this
past year. "
Having an
unquenchable thirst for
IT knowledge may be a
point of differentiation
among integrators.
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Commercial Integrator January 2022

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