Andrew

00:00 - 01:03

I'm Andrew Gross. I run our global sales team here at Excite, and I, run our US headquarters here out of our Hoboken office, right on the other side of the Hudson River in New Jersey.

And running global sales at Excite, if you haven't heard of the company, Excite, we do two very interesting things. One, and most importantly, is we provide the world's first managed services platform for integrators, resellers, installers, or really any technology, to start actually delivering on their managed service promise that we've talked so much about.

A signature on a contract is what a managed service promise was. Just the other thing that we do, very well is for hardware manufacturers who make something connected, and they wanna be able to offer a cloud based monitoring and management suite and potential business opportunities around the product, we offer a platform for them to build on top of it.

And what's nice is these two things, they meet in the middle where any hardware manufacturer that works with us directly to build this cloud based revenue generating platform on our foundation is also part of the ecosystem of the managed services platform that we're providing to their channel partners.

Chris

01:03 - 01:11

Yeah. And that kinda leads me into what I was gonna ask you is, what are the end users looking for when it comes to a managed services like solution?

Andrew

01:11 - 02:25

Most of the time and this is across enterprise, education, state, local government. It really doesn't matter.

They're all kinda looking for the same sort of things when it comes down to it. And they're very basic, really.

Right? They're buying technology. Right? There's no doubt that any one of these large consumers of technology, let's just say, you know, media technology in particular, AV, traditionally, but not so much AV, AV, UC, IT.

Over the last five years, especially since the return to office and everything, investments have been through the roof of this type of technology. Right? There's not a classroom or a conference room or a courtroom that you walk into that doesn't have cameras and speakers and microphones and touchpad.

It's crazy. They made this huge investment in physical technology.

They had to. Right? It was how people work nowadays.

But now we're at a point where, okay. Wow.

Great. I've made this great investment.

I now need to, a, get the most out of this investment, and I need to ensure that my return on this investment is actually happening because the it's only my return is only occurring if my technology is working. So that's where we are right now, is these customers are saying, I made this investment.

How do I ensure my return and really ensuring that it's operation that my investment is operational, and they're looking towards services support. From a resource standpoint,.

Chris

02:25 - 02:29

where are the end users in terms of being able to handle this type.

Andrew

02:29 - 02:49

of movement? It's it's minimal if if any at all. Typically have an IT support.

Maybe if you're lucky, you have an AV technician or AV support staff. And we're talking for thousands of rooms and tens of thousands of of tech of pieces of technology.

It it's unsustainable. It just truly is.

That that's what we're hearing the most.

Chris

02:49 - 03:14

When it comes to any data or information out there, as far as, you know, we have data and insights to talent acquisition process. Like, if you don't do this, there's a 60% chance you could be losing this type of talent.

When it comes to managed services and things that come up for the end users, is there any data around that around with, like, inefficiencies because they don't have that resource or that platform in place to let them know, like, what's actually going on with their solution inside?

Andrew

03:14 - 03:47

The majority of the data, that that's readily available because it is so different, but, you know, by install, by technology, by by type of room. But the majority of the data that we're seeing is, percent uptime.

So uptime is massive. Obviously, for a conference room, the last thing you wanna do is book a meeting, walk into a conference room, and the technology is not working.

Five to ten minutes that CEO potentially is taking to just simply find a new room is worth more than the investment in the technology. So we're seeing uptime, you know, upwards of 60% type increases of uptime of your technology.

Chris

03:47 - 03:56

So it's play I actually to be honest, I don't know specifically what that is. So explain that because I'm assuming most people don't know what that term is, uptime.

Andrew

03:56 - 04:01

Uptime pretty much just means the your stuff's working in the room. You know, we have.

Chris

04:01 - 04:33

a big focus and presence within technology integration. Some integrators, you know, have a full blown managed services.

Some have some type of a a piecemeal type thing put together, and they're still anecdotally, I would say, I can't give factual, but anecdotally from conversations, I'd say there's probably about 80 plus percent that don't have any of that offering. What do you think is holding them back? Because they're still focused on that, like, single point of sale, like, install type project, and there's really nothing they can offer from a reoccurring revenue standpoint.

Andrew

04:33 - 06:06

There's a lot to this. And I think in the the majority of the integrators and the integration community, you know, as a whole for any technology, they're looking to ensure their business and grow their business, right? You want to keep the business you have, and you want to grow into new business and new opportunities that you don't have today.

Yeah. And managed services is really one of the only ways to do that in this community.

Right? You're not gonna keep existing business because you install a better TV. Same thing.

You're not gonna win new business because your margin or your cost may be a little bit lower than the guy next year. You need to do more than that, and that's where these managed services come into play.

And I think a lot of great innovators are recognizing that they're using the hardware in this space as a medium to deliver their value add, which is services. So to your point, like, where is this kind of coming to a head? One of that is what you mentioned, which is recurring revenue.

Right? How do I ensure that after or aftermarket sales? How do I ensure that after I sell something, after I do a great job of hanging the display and installing the the speakers, the mics, and and making this technology actually integrated? How do I ensure that I have business and revenue generating opportunities? Day two, day three sixty five, day 1,000 for this one customer because it's just too expensive for myself internally to keep trying to win new customer. I want to be able to get the most out of my customer base that I have today and it's duly beneficial, right? The customer themselves, they benefit from this.

They they want to ensure that they have the greatest working system as time goes up. They don't have to be nickeled and dimed all the time.

Chris

06:06 - 06:23

From a talent perspective, from what you're seeing out there, what type of talent do you think is needed to help integrators make that shift or at least to start selling those options? Are there different industries you would you would say, hey, this is where I would focus or more of the education and training? Is it is it all of it?

Andrew

06:23 - 07:53

I would say two main things. I would implore, first off, integrators, and really just a community that are looking to get into this world is to recognize that it is gonna take a different muscle, which may not be a % trainable, but you may need to find a new salesperson.

And I mean, it's just a fact of the matter. Right? And I think that's where a recruiter, someone who's an expert in this, someone who can the same way you're about to go to a partner sale to your customer as your new way of selling.

You've got to look at that same type of partnership with someone who knows talent in this news. It's a new world.

Right? The second thing I would say, not just like finding a new salesperson. I think that's something that in a obviously, a recruiter can easily help with.

But the second one is even just a new role. And that new role that I'm starting to see pop up is a very traditional role in the SaaS space, as you know, is customer success.

Because now what you're saying is, okay, great. I'm gonna, you know, partner with Chris and we're gonna hire, you know, new salespeople who have this muscle, you know, innate innate to them to sell partnership sales, right, with recurring revenue opportunities and know that.

But now I also may need a new role that's going to manage that client as time goes on, onboard them to the managed service plan, ensure they're getting the most out of your managed service. And that sometimes is done by this customer success style role, which is brand new to this space, right, as you know, but I think can only be really integrated properly into your business if you partner with a recruiter who knows that role.

Chris

07:53 - 07:58

For those who don't take action, what is that road ahead looking like for those organizations?

Andrew

07:58 - 09:20

I'd say if you ask me that question, you know, twenty years ago Yeah. I would say, yeah, it's alright.

You'll something else will come along, and you'll you'll innovate something new, and, you know, you have time. But it's just not the same answer anymore.

You really we would no one really has time. Things are moving too fast.

Hardware and integration and reselling is being commoditized at a rate that we've just never seen in this technology space. And what it's requiring is you to innovate differently thinking more outside the box and how revenues are gonna be coming into your business.

And it's not just raising prices, lowering prices, hiring more people hiring less people, it is actually offering new unique value to your client. Otherwise, you too will be commoditized.

I've seen it too often. For manufacturers, it's no longer just, I made a black box yesterday.

Maybe I'll make a red box tomorrow. And it's the same thing with integrators where you can't just be like, well, tomorrow, we're going to be able to, install your room, five minutes faster than last year.

It has to be bringing tangible business outcomes to your client because that's how they're thinking. We've talked a lot of this of this conversation about language, but you do need to talk their language too from a financial and a procurement standpoint.

Because as much as you're investing in people, as much as you're investing in platform for services, your customer is investing in your support in your company and your technology that you're installing so that they can return their own business.