If your firm has ever considered tackling large-scale, enterprise integration projects, there’s a world of opportunity in this segment. There are also potential challenges and pitfalls. We’ve spoken to three integrators who’ve handled jobs of this size, and asked them to share the issues they’ve faced — and offer advice on what to know going in. In part one of this two-part series, we talk about managing quality control, subcontracting, and much more.
Our Q&A features:
Kris Mosser, Project Manager, Spinitar
Brandon Sorensen, Vice-President of Sales (West), Rahi
Ryan Blair, CTS-D, CTS-I, Lead AV Designer, IES Communications
When (and why) did you begin taking on large-scale enterprise projects? Is this a focus of your business?
Brandon Sorensen, Rahi: Rahi began taking on large-scale projects in 2018 with the acquisition of Thresher Communications, which had been performing large scale deployments in the Bay Area since 2008. This acquisition allowed Rahi to scale our services to better support the needs of our global customers. Being able to deliver on large-scale projects is critical to Rahi and our growth model.
Ryan Blair, IES Communications: IES began immediately tackling large-scale enterprise projects as a focus of our business due to the demand from our wide range of national customers. IES's depth of expertise and experience allows us to bring new and innovative solutions to our customers on current and future technology solutions to help them choose the most efficient, cost-effective, and technically appropriate solutions for their large-scale enterprise projects.
Kris Mosser, Spinitar: This is a focus of the companies my team works with — large scale enterprise projects that are standardized across floors, buildings, and locations. It isn’t necessarily a focus of our team’s business, but we deliver what our customers are asking for.
What’s the most critical part of these installations?
Blair: IES services many clients who depend on the systems we install to be online as soon as they need them. This makes delivery and uniformity critical. Every project is met with a comprehensive approach focused on understanding the user and their specific needs. This methodology ensures we always provide an intuitive solution for an easy interface across every location in a given space.
Mosser: The critical part is working with the customer to make sure the rooms are simple, easy to use, and scalable for all business units of the various companies. For example, we have a customer who has standardized using Crestron products in their Microsoft Teams rooms. From a conference room in HR to the CEO’s personal office, all rooms are based around the Crestron products. How we integrate cameras and audio into the products vary, but the touch panel and user experience is constant.
Sorensen: In terms of design, it is important to consider the consistency of systems. That’s not to discount the importance of intuitive UX; but consistency between rooms, spaces, and even the user’s desktop and mobile experience is most important.
How did you integrate systems into a variety of geographic locations — did you travel? Subcontract?
Mosser: We’ve accomplished this both ways: We’ve hired subcontractors for projects internationally and in the states, but we’ve sent out our team for projects abroad as well. It’s about being responsive to the needs of the customer.
Sorensen: When working with clients to deploy across multiple locations, we take both a centralized and decentralized approach. This starts with pre-deployment and the kitting process. Depending on the technology deployed, we stage, kit, and test all our devices before leaving our warehouse. This allows for us to test functionality and ensures all equipment is performing to expectations before it ever arrives onsite. From there, our local or subcontracted team can execute the installation much more efficiently to meet the client’s needs.
Blair: IES uses a combination of local branch personnel, traveling remote teams, and subcontractors to guarantee that every job is staffed with the industry's most experienced project and field management teams. Each IES employee is committed to providing the most effective, comprehensive, and advanced solutions for your business.
If you’re not on-site, how do you manage quality control?
Blair: The key to consistent quality control across every project is making it a priority on a national level. IES has a team of over 40 quality assurance personnel deployed across the U.S devoted to ensuring every job meets or exceeds expectations. In addition, IES has a highly stringent onboarding, oversight, and review program to ensure that our subcontractors act in a manner congruent with our professionalism, standard of safety, quality, training, and service excellence.
Sorensen: Quality control starts with pre-sales. We have to define the systems well throughout our project processes, and that starts with how we assemble our BOM, how and when we order, and communicating the design down the line to our drafters, programmers, and ultimately the installation team. Our documentation output is consistent no matter the scale of the project and includes CAD, schematics, and collaborative commissioning documents.
Mosser: We hire only qualified AV integrators through the PSNI Global Alliance. In addition to the standards set forth by PSNI, we create detailed drawings, commissioning documents, training plans, and conduct end user acceptance testing. This ensures that the customer is satisfied, and the hired integrators buy into the success of a project.
What are some of the specific challenges regarding project management that pop up when you’re working at this kind of scale? Any surprises in the mix?
Sorensen: The biggest challenges we see on large scale deployments are usually centered around project schedules and overall coordination with all the different trades involved in the project. If other trades fall behind in their efforts, it impacts our schedule and deliverables. In those cases, our PM team is tasked with adjusting our deployment schedule to stay on schedule and deliver the project as expected.
Mosser: One of the surprise challenges that I’ve encountered as a PM has been the need to get Information Security review and approval for products touching enterprise networks. In AV, we move quickly, but processes for security review sometimes take much longer than we’re accustomed to working.
Blair: Being a systems integrator means working with others towards the client's ultimate goals. It also means that our teams are flexible and expect the unexpected. With over 38 years in the industry, we have faced our fair share of surprises. We have encountered most project roadblocks due to errors from other trades on site. For example, power not being installed where it was supposed to be, finding conduit pathways dedicated for audio visual already full, furniture that was not delivered, missing OFE (Owner Furnished Equipment), and even unresponsive IT personnel. With every project comes a unique experience that we can apply to our ever-evolving processes, procedures, and employee training.
What technologies are easiest to scale? What are the toughest?
Mosser: The answer for me as a PM? The same for both. IP based solutions such as Crestron’s DM NVX products are easy to scale — but tough to get right. These types of devices are more frequently on the customer’s production LAN instead of siloed networks. This leads to an additional integration layer of having to coordinate bandwidth needs, IP ranges, firewall rules, and all the issues that a customer’s network is perhaps not prepared for.
Blair: When it comes to executing large-scale rollouts, calling it easy would be underestimating their difficulty. The most predictable technologies are stable technologies (like flat panel displays) when it comes to scalable solutions. They resolve source and display image characteristic differences through EDID, always making displays plug and play. The integrator merely figures the correct size for the space and mounts the screen. Most challenges in a large rollout are technologies requiring more involvement from other subcontractors or end-users. AV-over-IP poses several possible issues: For instance, a customer's network may not have enough bandwidth or quality of service to manage 4K video distribution effectively.
Click here for Part 2.