Technology Systems Integration - What the heck does it mean?

This post is in response to a familiar question I get from clients and partners on a daily basis. The question is:

“What exactly is a Technology Systems Integrator?”

Here is the elevator pitch:

My company is a solutions company. We solve everyday business problems through the use of innovative and sometimes “radical” technology systems.

Of course that being said, the next logical questions is:

What the heck does that mean?!

And now we get to the real meat of my post. My industry (The Audiovisual and Systems Integration industry) is tough to understand. We are literally right in the middle where Audio systems (think churches, stadiums, performing arts centers), Video Systems (Think theaters, Big projection screens, Digital Signage), building technology (think intelligent buildings, automated systems controls, over the top boardrooms) and digital services (think video conferencing, interactive whiteboards) all meet up. It is extremely hard to wrap any one of things under one description, let alone all of them put together. We do so many things for so many different people and industries. Our biggest challenge is educating our partners on what it is we actually do. After all, our firm is a commercial contractor, systems design firm, engineering firm, software development firm and low voltage systems project management firm. On top of that, we work with acoustics, network systems, software systems, audio and video optimization and a variety of one off system types for specialty applications. We represent and sell literally thousands of different products from hundreds of different manufacturers. To further complicate things, we have different solutions and products for a number of different industries including Corporate, Non-Profit, Education, Hospitality, Government, Transportation, and more…

So to wrap things up here, I want to make a point. We are a solutions company. We help our clients increase efficiency, increase profits and increase their competitive advantages through the use of innovative technology solutions. It means something different to every client. It means we aren’t just “technology geeks”. We ask questions, we probe, we dig deep to understand the business our clients are in. We consult. We design. We engineer. We Value Engineer. Often we do this over and over again until we get things just right for our client. Overall while we do work with technology, the business we are in is really about leveraging the core competencies of our clients and amplifying those competencies through the use of intelligent systems.

Keep your eyes on our blog. This is where we will continue to post on Integrated Technology Design & Integration. We welcome feedback and thoughts on how you view our industry and what firms like ours can do to serve you and our other clients best!