Commercial Integrator January 2023 - 27

set up properly - that is, that the company
is protecting its interests, it's creating the
right contracts and it's making the right
service arrangements. One strategy is to
forge a partnership with a recognized organization
and leverage its expertise. LeBlanc
recommends Revenueify, which is part of
NSCA's Member Advisory Council, as a potential
partner. " They work with integrators
on how to sell managed services, " he explains.
Another option is to utilize resources
like " Anatomy of a Successful MSP, " a paper
that NSCA produced in collaboration with
PSA Security Network. " It identifies common
steps that successful recurring-revenue
integrators have taken to put themselves in
that position, " LeBlanc states.
Ultimately, if integrators want to realize
the margin and cashflow benefits of selling
services, they must prepare extensively,
rather than trying to wing it. When integrators
have to pull installers and technicians
off a project to do service work, it can
easily result in projects going over hours
and being inefficient. " You need to get
over that hump or cross that chasm to dial
up a standalone service business, " Wilson
advises. But he strongly believes that the
initial investment of time and effort will pay
huge dividends. " The [integrators] that are
geared up for this love taking service calls, "
Wilson declares, " because they know for
sure the differential between project-based
gross profit and service-based gross profit. "
Final Thoughts
Analyzing D-Tools Cloud data provided
exclusively to CI, D-Tools' CEO, Stearns,
captures the confluence of countervailing
forces here. He says, " At a high level, the
data indicates that systems integrators
remain as active and busy as ever, but that
caution in the marketplace - presumably,
due to economic uncertainty - has slowed
decision making; hence, contract approvals
are down or delayed. This pause in
approvals, however, does not seem to be
impacting proposal activity or pricing levels,
suggesting that projects are not being
halted or suspended as of yet. "
As we look to the year ahead, inflation
seems likely to be the biggest threat to
integrators' financial stability. Thus, LeBlanc
offers some salient advice: " Integrators
commercialintegrator.com
Expected Percentage of 2023 Revenue From Services
2.2%
5.1%
31%-40%
10.9%
21%-30%
29.9%
Less than 5%
41%-50% 2.2%
50%+
21.9%
11%-20%
27.7%
5%-10%
Describe the current overall business climate
35%
29.9%
10.2%
13.9%
5.1%
Good with Room for Improvement
Very Good
Challenging
Good with Growth Slowing
Excellent
0.1% Fair
0.7%
Other
need to forecast and budget appropriately
to stay in sync with inflation. " That means
not only pricing proposals appropriately
and ensuring there's sufficient margin to
ensure profitability but also recognizing
that, to achieve genuine growth this year,
it'll be necessary to grow beyond the rate
of inflation.
Wilson acknowledges that much of
our industry's fate lies outside our hands,
mentioning Federal Reserve policy with
regard to interest rates, the consumer
confidence index, employment numbers,
the chip shortage, etc. But, on balance, he
sees more upside than downside. " If we
have a soft landing from the financial picture
that we're in right now, then I think, a year
from now, we're going to be feeling pretty
darn good, " Wilson says with a smile. And
if integrators - the experience-creators,
memory-makers and smile-generators of
our society - are doing well, that redounds
to the benefit of us all.
It is, indeed, a challenging time to be an
integration business owner, but a great time
to be an integrator. CI
JANUARY 2023 Commercial Integrator 27
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Commercial Integrator January 2023

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