HTSA may technically be one of the smaller buying groups in the custom smart home market, but its members sure did learn a lot about one another at the group’s Fall Conference in Broomfield, Colo.
The sometimes contentious relationship between different entities in this industry can derail projects and ultimately threaten the end user experience. A manufacturer unresponsive to the urgent needs of integrator partners, integrators unwilling to spend time in manufacturer trainings, and a lack of proactive communication between the two can spell disaster.
That’s what HTSA aims to solve at these conferences, offering an open forum for those entities to put these issues on the table to solve together. In fact, the theme of the group’s Fall Conference was “Fusion” and urging both integrator and vendor members, who have a shared end customer, to work in harmony and do more to squash the bad habits that are inherent in many business relationships.
One particularly enlightening activity came on the first day of the conference, when HTSA Chief Learning Architect Keith Esterly challenged integrators and vendors to come up with a list of issues they want to solve in their relationship with one another. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the distinct lists were not very distinct at all.
A survey before the conference found that both parties largely agree on the four key issues, which are training and education, marketing, support and service, and communication and collaboration.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
What then took place in the large ballroom at the Omni Interlocken Hotel just outside of Denver was an open discussion among tables on these issues, with integrators largely clamoring for quick, efficient and effective support on troublesome projects or when devices break. Support calls need to be answered as quickly as possible.
“The single most important thing when it comes to a vendor partner is for them to be a true partner when things go sideways,” one dealer said. “We need you to help our mutual client. This isn’t just [our] client. This is your client as well. We need to get in and get out.”
Similarly, another integrator cited support as the largest issue when dealing with vendors, especially as many of these vendors grow or merge with other companies.
“We need to be collaborating when we have curveballs,” they said. “We need to have a contact at these big, huge, what are cow conglomerates that will help us at the low end of things for very specific situations.”
Speaking of increasing M&A activity in the custom smart home market, the same integrator during the HTSA Fall Conference said those processes must be much more seamless with the best interests of dealers and their end customers in mind.
“I know it’s not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do, but it creates a lot of problems,” the HTSA member said.
From the vendor point of view, members largely wanted clear and proactive communication from dealers on their project pipeline and forecasts to be able to deliver products on time. Similarly, integrators said they need transparency on product shipping times.
While communication and transparency were a key theme heard around the room, both sides said training needs to be done in a more efficient and effective manner. Dealers want training to be more in-depth and hands on, while manufacturers simply want regular attendance at training sessions.
“We want to train and support as much as possible,” one manufacturer said.
Manufacturers should also make resources, documents and knowledge resources available to vendors, several integrators said.
By nature, doing business with other entities can lead to tension when one doesn’t deliver for the other. Ultimately, an integrator that isn’t meeting expectations can impact the end customers’ perception of the hardware, and a manufacturer that fails to be transparent with dealers can tarnish the integrator’s reputation. Both scenarios lead to end customers becoming frustrated with an industry that already struggles with awareness challenges and competition from the web and DIY markets.
“We’re all working for the same goal,” Esterly said. “If we adopt this idea of fusion and getting there and making the quarter, you can’t lose. It’s only when you get afraid and start assuming the other one is not going to [come through] that it falls apart.”
Speaking privately to CE Pro later on during the conference, Esterly said these conversations are designed to help members think about things just a little differently.
“One of the things I get to do is help people look at what they take for grnated from maybe fix degrees off axis,” Esterly told CE Pro. “If you look at those things just a little differently, suddenly you can act and behave differently, and the results you get are radically different thatn what you’re used to.”
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