Commercial Integrator November 2021 - 40

FINAL THOUGHTS
A Familiar Refrain
About Services
and IT Principles
I WENT DOWN TO ATLANTA for NSCA's Pivot
to Profit event, which was the first pro AV I
went to in nearly two years. I was vaccinated
and masked up for nearly the entire time, and
I was encouraged that most people were also
good about wearing their masks.
I wrote about what I learned on (page 34),
but a lot of the things I heard were things I've
been hearing about since I started covering
the AV industry about two years
ago. Why do we continue to talk
about the same things over and
over just to see the IT industry
pass us by?
Previously, an integrator's
main point of contact at any given
customer was the building
manager, but now integrators
are increasingly working with
an organization's IT staff. That
means AV needs to start speaking
the language of IT, which AV
was supposed to have already
converged with. We learned that some in the
industry have fallen behind this trend.
As part of that, we heard about how AV
for many years offered service-based models
to their clients, including everything from
software licenses like Microsoft 365, computers,
servers and other hardware along with
proactive monitoring and management.
While I've heard these disparate pleas for
the AV industry to adopt service-based models
before, I had not before considered how
doing so requires a deep knowledge of IT,
specifically cloud computing.
Even more important than
Some in the AV
industry are
still talking
about the
convergence of
IT and AV, but
it's clear that
it has already
happened.
that, remotely monitoring and
managing a customer's AV
solution means the integrator
must be just as fluent in cybersecurity
so they aren't introducing
anything malicious into their
customers environment.
As we saw with the July 4
ransomware attacks that leveraged
popular IT management
software provider Kaseya and
its network of managed service
really needs to start taking cybersecurity
seriously, especially as several recent largescale
hacks have brought along new laws and
regulations around reporting breaches and
baseline security standards for government
contractors. Expect to be asked about your
cybersecurity posture, cyber insurance and
penetration test results.
We also heard a lot about service-based
models like AV-as-a-Service, everyone's
favorite topic.
I've watched many webinars about this
topic, and the speaker usually talks about consumer
services like Netflix, Hello Fresh, Spotify
and more - the list is essentially endless.
In order to get this to make sense to the
AV Community, we need only to look at the
managed service provider space, which have
provider customers, third-party service
providers that have access to customer
networks are incredibly valuable targets for
cybercriminals.
Some in the AV industry are still talking
about the convergence of IT and AV, but it's
clear that it already happened - or at least
should have. Consider Zoom's hardwareas-a-service
plan, a Zoom Rooms hardware
offering that bills customers monthly for
relatively simple room setups, bypassing the
integration channel.
The AV integration industry needs to
change or see its customers stolen from the
very software companies it has partnered with
for years. Until we stop getting AV-as-a-Service
drilled into our brains at industry events
and on webinars, let's keep working at it.
Zachary Comeau, Associate Editor
zachary.comeau@emeraldx.com
While there is no one-size-fits-all
description for the hybrid office, there
are technologies that can enable any
given configuration of hybrid that
a company can conceive of. In an
upcoming Commercial Integrator and My
TechDecisions webinar on Wednesday,
November 17th at 2 pm ET, sponsored
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In a hybrid office any given space can
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Attendees will walk away with a clear
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company chooses moving forward.
Commercial Integrator, (USPS 005-160) (ISSN 2165-9850), Vol.11 No. 11, is published monthly by Emerald X, LLC., 100 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, New York 10005, 800-440-2139. Commercial Integrator
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40
Commercial Integrator NOVEMBER 2021
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Commercial Integrator November 2021

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