USAV Town Hall Meeting: Business Challenges and Business Opportunities
USAV’s recent townhall included virtual breakout groups who collaborated on current topics with an audience comprised of integrators and partners from USAV and PSA.
We discussed the business challenges and business opportunities our integrators and partners faced over the recent months. Breakout groups were randomly selected, and each group had someone from USAV or PSA to help capture the key takeaways from the conversation and then shared-back to the larger group.
The conversations grew organically on one, some or all of the topics and the content of the conversations were captured and shared below:
Business Opportunities
New solutions offerings: managed services, room occupancy software, remote support, plexiglass, PPE
Assessing ‘touchless’ conference rooms
New workplace – as much as possible to be voice activated
Thermal cameras
There is an influx in interest of thermal cameras
Purchases/installations are limited in the Pro AV space
It may not be possible to install due to HIPPA laws, but TBD
Standards and liability are unknown
Solution for the organization that has been vetted and is know to be effective for multiple clients
New vertical markets: telemedicine/healthcare, security/access, workplace safety
The issue is that thee are so many people jumping on the bandwagon.
Some distributors may already reaching out direct, so there is uncertainty where integrators fit in. So far, there is not much expertise within the industry, but there may be opportunity with specialty clients
Using the opportunity to help people audit what worked and what didn’t work.
For example: What tools and investments have you made that worked well. What areas did you think you prepared in but weren’t? Technology questions around digital signage. Not in a traditional way, looking to create mindfulness around better habits in the workplace and make it fun. Creating fun messages.
Value that we bring is the ability to consult the customer to re-enter the office space. A touch of empathy and what people are facing and the signage plays into that.
Looking at lighting that resets when the desk has been clean.
AVaaS can be scaled up as needed and can be a proactive solution. Work with what the customer is facing.
Deep sanitization services can partner with furniture and technology opportunities.
Push to smart devices
Common areas and lobby
Security/access, workplace safety
Reconfiguring medical for response centers so doing a lot of tearing down and building up from a technology standpoint. A lot of command centers and conference rooms with fewer chairs
Growth mindset – pivoting to a virtual setting/workspace/social networking opportunity and experiences to meet the new, increased demand of working from home and less physical gathering in large groups (trade shows, conferences, etc.)
Flexibility in approaches/solutions – extended terms for financing opportunities, consulting/designing projects with the thought of social distancing in mind. Closed office/public spaces can be an opportunity for increased integrator installation
Re-Entry Playbook will uncover
Who picks up the additional costs such ase additional hours to get workers on-site. Or
Changing hours to different shifts (i.e. 2nd or 3rd shift)
Productivity assessment
PPE quotes going forward
Contingencies on each site differing; More project management & coordination
Business Challenges
Not meeting financial metrics; Revenue, net income, etc.
Yes, this is a real challenge
Will there be a summer slump or a summer surplus?
Old projects are finishing up, but there are no new projects
There are a lot of projects that are on pause or postponed. The question is when will they be postponed to? Q4? 2021? A lot of this remains to be seen but one thing is for sure we will bounce back and we will survive.
Workforce Culture and keeping current staff productive
Facing fairly significant furloughs
Trying to get clients to make decisions, but they are uncertain and non-committal
We continue reassuring talks to both clients and employees
Business are hosting daily Zoom/Teams/etc. meetings and check ins with employees to boost morale and update with the latest information
Businesses are acclimating by ensuring that installers are following the latest requirements (daily temp checks, proper forms submitted)
Employees are rying to decide which manufacturer webinars to attend (some are too long, redundant, overly technical)
Integrators prefer short, to the point webinars
Overall lots of outreach and engagement (virtual);
No F2F meetings until employees are safe and office is safe for visitors.
Conversations are different. More time; less distracted; more empathy; engagement is easier.
Everyone is waiting for the “new normal”( Safe environments; touchless conference rooms, Plexi glass, thermal cameras) This is making all of us look at how things are done and thinking is there a better way?
Customer engagement and loyalty
From a business development standpoint, companies are inviting customers to share what they see and best practices on remote calls
There has been an increase in peer-to-peer collaboration, following-up after calls and being a “hub” for information
Creating roundtables for specific veriticals. Information gleaned from calls has helped to pivot.
Some clients want demos to touch and feel product. Sales people are scheduling demos in empty offices. Separating groups and provide masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.
Business models are shifting to meet the demands changing times and a set of ‘best practices” has really been left up the individual vendor/integrator company
There is a lot of uncertainty of the economy re-opening, timing, physical space, employee/workspace protection
There is an increased demand of thermal/PZT types of cameras
Maintaining existing business contacts & customer relationships vs. building new business and finding new business avenues in physically restricted/physically distanced ‘new normal’ business model
Impact of COVID process in regards to estimating in competitive situations raises questions from integrators on: How are you charging back? Change orders? Riders? Projects are competitive and margins are thin.
Miscellaneous consumables cost has increased. Increased cost for PPE. Following GC rules. Hasn’t stopped technicians from entering the sites but are being temp checked on some sites.
On certain jobs if there’s a proximity issue on union jobs a third person may need to be present to keep two employees apart.
Different regions have different rules. Some have extended stay at home orders and some haven’t so different jobs may have different rules. Extending work hours at reduced margins to keep work going. Expect a change order for anything outside the scope of work
In summary there was a lot of energy within the collaboration and the theme seemed to be “more questions than answers.” Which is ok, because it prompts us to think creatively and enter into solutions-mode, which our industry are experts in.