Join Tofiq on another Q360 Demo. This demo showcases project profitability and how to continuously monitor project profitability throughout the project lifespan.

Click here to schedule your own demo: https://www.solutions360.com/our-mission-is-to-become-our-customers-most-valued-business-partner/

What does a typical handoff from project to service look like in your integration business?

Is your hand-off more of a drop-off?

Don’t ring the doorbell and run – set your service team up for success!

On this episode of ClearTalk, Brad Malone and Tofiq Indawala discuss how mature integrators see the purpose of any project is to create a long-term service customer that will generate monthly recurring revenue.

A growing number of integrators have adopted the RMR mindset, but the industry still needs to do a lot of work to understand how to deliver successful handoffs.

Projects are transitory and merely the vehicle to get to service. So, is your service team pulling the project towards them?

Integrators should look at service as a key stakeholder in the relationship with the customer.

“Everything should be geared towards handing the customer over to service,” says Malone. “From the inception of the proposal to the way the project is executed, the work breakdown structure, and the documentation at the end of the project. All this information makes services more successful in maintaining the customer relationship.”

“Traditionally, everybody's taught that the stakeholders of your projects are the executives, sales, or the customer, but they completely forget about service, who must take that ownership of the relationship and service it for 10 to 15 years,” says Indawala.

If your service team is still the red-headed stepchild of your integration company, this podcast is for you!

How do you manage pre-sales engineering in your integration business?

Pre-sales engineering is a very important and expensive resource that technology integration companies need to use.
But it’s a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, an integrator is better served when the sales team brings pre-sales engineers into the conversation with the customers. They write a better scope of work, and they do the design upfront.
On the other hand, the more project engineering you do before a contract is sold, the more amount of money you risk losing if you do not win that contract.

When do you stop calling it pre-sales engineering and start calling it project engineering?

We’ll give you one clue –
It's not when the contract is sold.
“It's where you move from maybe a block diagram to a line or where you move from general to specific kind of design. It’s not about when the contract is sold as to when you’re doing project engineering,” says Harris.
“The companies that do it very well achieve balance,” adds Dempsey “There's no clear KPI that we can say, ‘You should be spending X percent of your costs on pre-sales engineers, or you should be converting 70%.’ It really depends, and it's something that needs to be looked at on a regular basis and analyzed by the management team.”
Your percent of win rate will ultimately determine the cost of pre-sales engineering to your sales efforts.
So, this is a very important ratio to maintain and understand - the utilization, and the effective utilization of your pre-sales engineers.

If you are planning on selling your integration business in the future, what are the things you can do today, to drive the maximum valuation?

M&A activity in the integration industry has been rampant over the last few years. Solutions360 sees both a size and scale play driving these acquisitions, coupled with an industry that has owners wanting to sell. As a result, we do not expect integrator M&As to slow down any time soon.

In a previous episode, we defined the internal and external factors that impact the valuation of your company. These are the factors that a potential buyer will look at to determine the value of your business.

On today’s episode, Brad Dempsey and Joel Harris continue that conversation, and drill down on the internal factors. These are the things you can control that will drive maximum valuation for your integration company.

“Internal factors are all about taking risks out of my business. The more risk I eliminate from my business, the more my business is worth.” Joel Harris

3 internal factors that drive maximum valuation for integrators
1. Show steady earnings
You don’t want earnings to bounce all over the place, even if they are, on average, in an upward trend.

2. Higher growth rates equal a higher valuation
Historical growth rates are not a bad thing, but you are selling the future growth of your business, not the past.

3. Demonstrate sustainable growth
This is important because a buyer wants results that are going to be just as predictable as under new ownership. We will talk more about this in a future podcast, but this includes building out an executive leadership team and putting processes in place that enable an integrator to create a sustainable business.

Also on the podcast –

What are some of the things that should cause concern when you’re looking at an integration company to acquire?

Even if you are not interested in selling your integration business, this podcast is for anyone wanting to run an integration business with long-term profitability in mind.

Listen to the podcast for all this and more!

On todays episode - Brad Malone invites first time guest, Patrick Britton from Navigate Management Consulting to discuss the importance of a continuous learning culture, continues process improvement and the model of Kaizen.

Tune in to learn more!

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from your Friends at Solutions360.

On this episode of ClearTalk - Brad Dempsey and Joel Harris discuss acquisitions in the integration industry - What to expect, valuations and how to navigate the process.

On this episode of ClearTalk - Brad Dempsey and Joel Harris discuss collecting deposits for your integration projects. The pair chat about best practices, industry habits and the benefits of collecting cash up front.

On this episode of ClearTalk, Brad Dempsey has the pleasure of introducing the new President of Solutions360 and long time ClearTalk guest - Joel Harris. The pair discuss the fundamental difference between labor capacity and utilization.

Here at Solutions360, we are lucky to have great partners. Working with companies like Presentation Products is the manifestation of our mission; to become our customers most valued business partner. In this video, Orin Knopp, President of Presentation Products, shared his experience using Q360 and the company behind the software, Solutions360.

On this episode of ClearTalk, our very own Tofiq Indawala is joined by Brad Malone from Navigate Management Consulting to talk about problems with Project Management.