Commercial Integrator + Security Sales - January/February 2025 - 22

CI ANALYSIS: STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
Which challenges most concern
you heading into 2025?
61% High Costs
76% Talent (i.e., fi nding, onboarding
and retaining key employees)
59% Political Uncertainty
(i.e., uncertainty as regards societal discord and/or
diff erent public policies)
22% Supply Chain
34% Cybersecurity Threats/
Network Vulnerability
20% Legislative Challenges
(i.e., proposed or existing laws that may limit your
ability to conduct business)
10% Legal, Practical and Ethical
Implications of Artifi cial Intelligence
Other
5%
No Time to
Find/Recruit
Candidates
5%
Your biggest
challenge in fi lling
open positions
Candidates'
Salary
Lack of
Qualifi ed
Candidates
54%
None of
These
5%
Installer/
Technician
32%
Hardest type
of role to fi ll
Demands are
Escalating
24%
Insuffi cient
Budget to
Hire New
Employees
12%
" Distributors are also a great place to go
to look for best practices and toolkits and
solutions around this kind of off ering, " he
states. Wargo elaborates further, saying,
" They know what's available out there.
They have the training staff to help you
get up to speed. They can help you do it
contractually. "
Talent-Related
Challenges Persist
We've already alluded to a scarcity
of technical talent and the broader
talent-acquisition and talent-retention
issues that integrators face. We'll now
turn to those, given that, according to
our survey, talent is by far the biggest
concern that respondent integrators have
heading into the new year. Indeed, 76%
of survey takers chose " Talent " as one
of their top three challenges, with the
second-ranking choice ( " High Costs " )
only registering 61%. (Given that we
fi elded the survey during the height of
All of the
Above
15%
Project
Management
5%
Sales
15%
Programming
13%
System
Design/
Engineering
15%
election season, it's no surprise that
" Political Uncertainty " registered in third
place, garnering 59%.) Other prospective
concerns - " Cybersecurity Threats/
Network Vulnerability " (34%), " Supply
Chain " (22%), " Legislative Challenges "
(20%) and " Legal, Practical and Ethical
Implications of Artifi cial Intelligence "
(10%) - are further down the list in
respondent integrators' minds.
Diving deeper into the problem, we
see that " Lack of Qualifi ed Candidates "
was the prime reason that survey-taking
integrators gave (garnering 54% response)
when asked about their biggest challenge
in fi lling open positions. Arguably, part
of the blame lies in the absence of a clear
pathway into the integration industry.
Unfortunately, many high school, college
and vocational school graduates have no
idea of the lucrative and satisfying career
opportunities that our industry could
off er them. Finance-related impediments
are also inhibitors, with 24% choosing
" Candidates' Salary Demands are
Escalating " as their biggest challenge;
meanwhile, 12% lamented " Insuffi cient
Budget to Hire New Employees. " The fi nal
option, " No Time to Find/Recruit Candidates, "
barely registered at 5%.
22 Commercial Integrator+Security Sales & Integration | January/February 2025
Perhaps most troublingly, our survey
data indicates that a lack of qualifi ed
candidates is a widespread problem
across disparate roles. Indeed, although
" Installer/Technician " attracted the
most response (32%) when we asked
survey takers which type of role is
hardest to fi ll, both " Sales " and " System
Design/Engineering " garnered a
substantial 15% response. Right behind
those was " Programming " (13%),
followed by " Project Management "
(5%). Remarkably, 15% of respondents
chose " All of the Above, " meaning those
integration businesses fi nd every one of
those roles hard to fi ll.
Downside Risks
There seems to be little doubt that
talent-related issues, if they aren't mindfully
remediated, represent ongoing
downside risk to the integration industry.
However, according to our industry
analysts, although the overall picture
remains pretty bullish for integrators,
additional downside risks are worth
weighing.
" The biggest risk and opportunity for
integration companies as they enter 2025
is making sure they don't fall behind, "
LeBlanc refl ects. Today's customers are
interested in using technology to create
more dynamic, more engaging, more
productive, more inspiring environments.
Moreover, they're interested in AI
and solutions that live on the network.
LeBlanc notes that many integrators are
struggling with the rapid pace of evolving
technologies and customer demand. If
the integration industry is going to seize
on key growth areas (e.g., IP endpoint
devices, IoT, AI, machine learning,
robotics), we must collectively level-up
our skill set.
This year's survey data paints an
equivocal picture of integrators' level of
training and readiness to tackle IT-centric
installations. Only 35% of survey respondents
said they were " Completely Ready "
for this kind of work, along with 45%
who said they were " Still Working On It. "
More than one-in-10 survey takers (13%)
described themselves as " Not Suffi ciently
Trained. " Perhaps more troublingly, 7%
Commercial Integrator + Security Sales - January/February 2025

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