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Wired In: Kontek Conversations is for leaders who want to get technology right. From universities and healthcare systems to corporate enterprises, each episode delivers practical insights to help you navigate complex projects, avoid costly missteps, and design environments that truly connect people.
Through candid conversations with Kontek executives and industry experts, you’ll discover why projects succeed or fail, how to balance innovation with usability, and how bold ideas become reality. Along the way, we share perspectives on the evolution of AV technology, the impact of employee ownership, and the culture of accountability that drives lasting results.
With almost four decades of expertise, Kontek invites you to think bigger, dream bolder, and imagine what’s possible when technology and vision come together.
Brandon Giella: Today we are talking
about the importance and value of support
because as we know, we don't wanna
just install something and disappear.
We actually need human beings to
help us bring our dreams to life
and keep those dreams going, and
that's where context steps in.
So Marcus, I'll turn it to
you first and then I will turn
it to our very special guest.
Brandon Patton, a support
technician with Conec.
I'm excited to have you on the show.
Thank you for joining.
So, Marcus, up first tell, talk
to me a little bit about the
value of support in general.
How do you think about support and
then why is this such a, a, a strong
emphasis or value to you when you think
about what you guys offer with conec?
Marques Manning: Absolutely.
Um, support to us is mission critical
for a system, and it's something
that should be thought about,
you know, around the same time
you're doing your implementation.
So what ends up happening is, you
know, we said we had AV and IT
convergence years ago, and so it's no
longer, okay, I've got AV over here.
I've got it over here.
Many of the skill sets that you
see in your top end audio visual
technicians, they're straight
outta the IT world, right?
They're protocols, there's networking.
Everything we're dealing with
almost is on a network nowadays.
And the inverse of that
though is not true.
So an AV technician has gathered
all this IT skill oftentimes.
When you're doing IT training,
there's no mention of AV anywhere.
I feel confident saying that because some
of my background came from the IT space.
There was no mention of AV at any
point in time, although some of
those protocols are overlapping.
And so once you implement one of
these systems, what happens next?
I have something happening.
Who do I call?
If I'm a user?
Whether I'm in a school, I'm in
a corporate environment, I'm in
a hospital, what happens next?
Do I just call facilities?
Do I call it?
Do I.
You know, run in the hall
and say, Hey, I need help.
Like what is supposed to happen?
And then what is the person that shows up?
What do they know how to do?
Do they understand the system?
Do they know how it works?
You know, do they have any idea of
how to begin to troubleshoot it?
Right.
Otherwise,
now you're back to, wait.
We're spending all this time.
The room is still down,
the room is offline.
Class isn't starting.
My meeting can't start.
What's going on?
So.
Brandon Patton: so.
Marques Manning: one area when
you're talking about immediate need.
But then when you're talking about
long term, you know you want a support
team that's gonna come in and do what's
called preventative maintenance, right?
We're gonna check your system out,
see what's going on, what's the
lifecycle, you know, where are you at
in the lifecycle of these products?
Cleaning filters.
People think that's not a big deal.
We've seen projectors go offline
because the filter was clogged.
It was a dusty environment.
No one thought about it.
So really, you want that support
team that's gonna be a partner.
They're gonna advise you about things that
need to be replaced that are coming up,
you know, maybe end of life is what we
typically refer to it as, or just things
that we're seeing that are beginning
to fail at a higher clip and we may
need to deal with, you know, a warranty
issue, reach out to a manufacturer.
So then those are all things that,
you know, you need really a dedicated
person for that, because otherwise,
again, you're stealing hours.
So when you look at the total cost, you
know, long term when you're stealing
these hours from, from employees.
How much time is being wasted by
teams that really aren't meant
to handle this kind of a problem.
So that's why I say, you know,
to anyone out there, if you're
dealing with AV systems,
especially when you get to larger
scales, you absolutely should have
some kind of support partner that's
gonna be dedicated to you and be able
to help you in your time of need.
Brandon Giella: Yeah, that sounds right.
We, we've got another episode on total
cost of ownership, where we talk about
like having your, you know, for, for
example, your clients having their
IT person having to juggle all these
things, having somebody run around
to all the different rooms, make sure
everything's set up well, that starts
to get really expensive over time.
So having.
Good dedicated support can alleviate
that total cost of ownership.
Um, but I, but I like how
you were talking about it.
It is a, a very broad set of knowledge and
it also is a long-term set of knowledge.
You know, wisdom and experience have
been doing this for so many years.
It's like, Hey, I should check
the filter on that projector.
'cause I've seen this
fail a bunch of times.
Um, yeah.
So that, that checks out.
And of course, everybody's always
having the experience of like, I've
got a call, for example, for a trip.
I've gotta call a major airline to
talk about our seating arrangements.
And I know I'm gonna dedicate two hours
of my afternoon to go through that.
And it would be rerouted to like
three different departments.
Or you have what my, uh, wife just
experienced with our doctor's office
where they want you to fill out something
online and then, uh, you get to a certain
point and then it says, oh, you should
call this number to do it in person.
So you call that person and then they say,
oh, no, no, you gotta fill it out online.
And it's like, oh, no, no.
But they just told me to call you
and then you get this run around.
So it's like you want a good experience,
but you also need to be talking to
people who know what they're doing
and can resolve your issue, uh, very
quickly, which is where our dear friend
Brandon Patton joins us on this call.
Brandon, talk to me about, uh,
you had mentioned something
before we started recording about
coming behind other integrators.
Um, that may not have this kind of
support capability that you have.
And so you see this experience with
people that do get the installation,
but then need the support on the
backend and it may not be there.
And so you guys have a good process of how
you go about doing your support, even when
it's other folks installations or designs.
So talk to me a little bit about
that and then we'll talk about the
process of support on your end.
Brandon Patton: Absolutely.
I mean, that's, um, I mean, you
hit the nail on the hill that is.
Essentially, there are a lot of times
that we come behind another integrator
that maybe, um, you know, they have really
good equipment that they would respect
for that space and, um, you know, is
absolutely, has good bones and good, um,
you know, uh, capabilities or, but may
not necessarily be functioning optimally.
Based off of either previous
configuration or what have you.
And so the end user obviously
could be frustrated and trying
to reach out to that integrator.
And there've been a lot of times where
those integrators either a, don't have
the support team available in that area.
Um, and so we've seen where they may end
up having to fly in a support team member
from a different state for some reason.
To try to resolve an issue.
And sometimes that just the communication
between that, obviously that's very,
very slow to be able to do, uh, support
remotely, and I say remotely, but
from a different, completely different
region for here, somewhere here locally.
And so we've seen issues where,
um, you know, sometimes the support
departments, they do exist, but
they may not necessarily have the
skillset or the knowledge base
required to do that well and.
I think that's one of the biggest
things where, uh, our company can
shine is we actually, uh, have an, I
think a combined knowledge just in our
department alone is almost a hundred
years worth of av uh, experience.
So it's, it's a, um, it know having
that much repertoire like in kind of
in your back pocket to be able to walk
into a space you've never seen before,
because to be able to support like
a system that we've designed and we.
Have ins, uh, installed and integrated.
Obviously we already have all the, the
bells and whistles and the tricks kind
of understood because we designed it.
But when we come in behind another
integrator that we have no information, a
lot of times we don't get line drawings.
A lot of times we don't get configuration
files, so we have to be able to walk
into a space blind and understand
what the client's needs are, and
then understand how to resolve
the issues that they're having.
And that's kind of.
Uh, that's a, we're seeing a very,
unfortunately, a very commonality across
multiple in installations across multiple
integrators that we tend to come behind
as either something's not fully configured
or it's just not, uh, functional the
way the client had thought it could be.
Uh, which a lot of times ends
up being capable of doing that.
It just needs to be configured to do so.
So there are all kinds of ways
that we support, um, you know.
Uh, our clients from former
integrators that, um, you know, may
come in, they'll install a space
and then they completely disappear.
You know, they may try to reach out
and contact, uh, the integrator.
The client may try to contact the
integrator, however, you know, for
some reason they either don't reply or
they're slow to respond, you know, ends
up leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
So, um, yeah, that's, that's,
that's kind of where we come in.
Brandon Giella: Yeah, it makes sense
because there's so many variables.
Marcus and I have talked quite
a lot about just the, the.
The technical details that you have to
get right, which leads to his emphasis
of, Hey, bring us in as early as possible.
'cause you gotta get the architecture,
the the sounds, the, the mics.
You know, we, we talked a lot about all
the different like math that's involved.
Um, and so being able to get all that
right, especially when you're just walking
in blind on a, on a, you know, a new.
Um, support request, if you will.
That's gotta be really challenging.
So what is the process of, uh, when
you come into a new space or you're
working with a, a client from the
initial dream all the way now to
the implementation and support, what
does that process look like for you?
Like, in other words, what does good
support look like from your perspective?
Brandon Patton: Absolutely.
Um, I mean, obviously it.
One of the best ways is early on, so
when the integration is, is, uh, fully
complete and turned on, it's already
having, you know, uh, quality equipment
already having quality configuration
and integration to the space.
And good support means you don't have to
know us on a first name basis 'cause you
shouldn't have to see us consistently.
You know, obviously there are
always gonna, it's technology in
some fashion, it's going to fail.
Um, so the best support, honestly,
is upfront before it ever gets to our
department, you know, by the rest of our
teams that are of extremely high quality.
Um, but in the event that it does have to
come to us, we, you know, we are a, uh,
fairly well versed group of team members.
That are fairly dynamic and
incapable of, um, of arriving on
site and identifying, you know,
issues, uh, fairly expeditiously.
And then also understanding what
needs to be done to resolve that.
So, uh, again, as I mentioned earlier,
just due to the significant amount of
experience that is in our department,
uh, you know that a lot of, uh, speed
and reliability comes back to that.
Uh, for example, we have.
Clients that we even support, uh,
remotely, which is, which is a, uh,
getting to be a larger and larger
portion of, uh, of our business.
Because being able for us to see
an issue happen before the client's
ever aware that it's an issue, we
can contact that client, and say,
we just noticed this thing happened.
We can resolve this.
However, sometimes it may require for
us to show up on site, for example.
Which Which has happened.
I mean, we have a ton of remote
capabilities where some things we
can actually resolve remotely, but
in the event where we notice an, an
issue that pops up and to be able
to reach out to the client and say,
Hey, by the way, this, this thing
is, is broken, is not going to work.
And the client's like, I,
I didn't even realize that.
You know, how, how did you, you
know, it's like a whole lot of, uh,
well, we can fix that right now.
Do you have some availability that we can
send someone over and actually get this?
You know, back up and running and
they're like, man, we've got a
meeting in here this afternoon.
That's perfect.
You could do that.
You know, and so we've run into those
instances where providing good support is
being proactive as opposed to reactive.
When, uh, we can, for example,
you mentioned earlier about
cleaning filters and projectors.
That's a, that's a legitimate thing
that we have come across where.
Because somebody's not, uh, you know,
actually keeping and maintaining their
equipment, it goes into a thermal
shutdown and they're like, I don't know
why my projector keeps cutting off.
Well, it's because, you know,
the internal temperature has just
skyrocketed because it can't breathe.
You know, simple things like cleaning
a projector filter, you know, on a very
consistent basis, um, makes a massive
difference in the long-term performance of
the equipment as well as the performance,
you know, the, um, experience in the room.
Marques Manning: I'll just add one
thing really quick as far as, you
know, good support in, in this vein.
You know, I don't like tooting our
own horn, but I'm going to briefly,
you know, really great support.
If this is any organization, there's
a human element to this, right?
And I think that's one thing
that every team should know, and
every client should expect it.
When we're getting called in on a
support call, someone is under stress,
something is not working, you know it.
It's usually last minute, you know,
because it's gonna be fine.
My meeting is tomorrow.
You show up that day, you connect.
It's not fine.
All of a sudden it's not fine.
You're human, your stress levels are
gonna start to rocket, especially if
you have a CEO meeting, you have a
president, something is happening.
Um, there's a lot of higher
power individuals, you know,
coming to use that space.
Completely natural.
So one of the things, you know, from
a support standpoint is yes, I have
to have, you know, a high level of
knowledge and skill and a wide breadth
of ability to deal with all these spaces.
Most importantly, when I encounter,
you know, my client, how are they?
Can I make sure they're calm?
Can I calm them down?
'cause you'll go in and, you
know, someone is, is again, a
heightened sense of urgency.
They may not know they're yelling and
they're kinda yelling, can you keep
your cool, can you be levelheaded?
Can you help them to relax
and reassure them that, hey,
no matter what, don't worry.
We've got you.
We wanna take care of it.
And one of the things I'm always impressed
by is the reception, you know, within
our team, and I'm sure in other teams
as well, that, you know, it's like a, a
Long long-term friend or family member.
We have some, uh, clients that when
you show up, you know, our team
are, they're being hugged like,
oh, it's so good to see you again.
And you know, to me that's great.
That's the, that's the
overall experience, right?
Because we want it from start to finish.
We want, when we say we're gonna be there
for you, we're gonna take care of it.
That's not meant to be lip
service, it's not meant to be
marketing or in a sales brochure.
We really do wanna be a partner.
And that partner goes from the
very beginning of our process with
our account managers all the way
through our support team coming in.
Helping maintain your space,
helping calm things down.
You know, if everything's, you know,
it feels like everything's on fire.
Like, nope, it's not usually maybe
every once in a while, extreme cases.
But, um, I think that's a really
important part for any support
partner is are you calm, are you cool?
Levelheaded under pressure?
And do you always remember it's not just
the technology you're dealing with people.
Brandon Giella: I think that's
such an important emphasis.
Great word.
Because like Brandon was talking
about, the proactivity is so important.
'cause I can imagine if I'm.
Head of multiple different things
at an organization, like some of
the clients that you guys work with.
Uh, I don't have time
to be thinking about.
The filters and replacing those on
my projectors, that is not anything
that is ever gonna cross my mind.
So having the pro productivity that
you guys do, that you can think
about these things ahead of time on
behalf of the client, huge value.
But then also to your point, Marcus, it
brings down that stress level so that if I
do have that big meeting, there's actually
things that have been happening along
the way so that that meeting's coming up
and it's actually gonna go off without a
hitch and I don't have to have this call.
Where I was just having this call,
uh, with somebody yesterday where,
uh, it's like a billing issue for
a hospital, and he was like, I hope
you never have to talk to me again.
And I was like, I hope I never
have to talk to you again either.
We both laughed and enjoyed each
other's company, but it's that
kind of thing, like, I don't want
to talk to support right now.
I've got this meeting I'm preparing for.
So I can imagine both of those things
are actually super, super helpful.
The proactivity, lowering that stress and
like, Hey, we are all in this together.
We are gonna have a great time.
This is important.
We're gonna get you taken care of.
And that just makes it feel like
we're a partner and we're doing
this together and we're, we're
building our businesses together.
And I think that's such a beautiful thing.
So Brandon, talk to me a little bit
about, um, there's uh, some specific
things that I think you guys, work through
with your call it support relationship.
You mentioned, uh, the
remote monitoring, proactive
maintenance and things like that.
But talk to me about like.
There's training, so if you guys are
working with a client, there's training
involved and that you guys have a, a
really, you know, if I can say like
kind of long-term orientation to the
relationship that you have with folks.
Why, why is that important when
you're thinking about support?
Brandon Patton: So all of our.
Support agreement, contract holders,
they actually have unlimited
to training available to them.
And the reason that's fairly important,
honestly, is because just like most
businesses, people come and they may stay
in a, in a workforce area for, you know,
10, 15 years, but maybe 30 years, uh,
you know, and if they end up retiring,
all of that knowledge base goes away with
them for how that space may be operating.
If you have a new hire come
in and they have no clue how
that space should operate.
You know, the cool thing about having
a support agreement contract is you
have unlimited amount of training.
And so you can ask for us to come in
on site, demonstrate how the space,
uh, functions, how to control it,
how to turn things on and off, and,
uh, change sources and uh, you know,
adjust mic levels and all those things.
You can, you can bring in your,
your groups or teams of people
maybe that may, might be using
the space on a consistent basis.
Like, uh, I give you for instance
at universities where they have
different professors, professors
that come in and use the space.
They may be unfamiliar, for
example, with a new integration.
And we can come in and actually
demonstrate how those spaces function.
Um, you know, how kinda essentially
just putting them at ease
and giving them familiarity.
Of the new space effectively,
or even of a space that is
just technically new to them.
It may be four, you know, 3, 4, 5
years old, but they're new to the
area and maybe have just gotten hired.
So it might be, um, it definitely
is worth, uh, taking some time to
be familiar with the spaces that
they're going to be, you know, using.
And so we tend to, you know, work
with our clients to be able to.
Give them that, that comfort so
that when they come into to the
space to teach a class, they're
not concerned with how they're
going to control all the equipment.
That should be one of the last
things in the back of their mind.
And it honestly should
just be muscle memory.
Uh, you know, one of the things
that we wholeheartedly believe is
that, you know, technology should
be a help, not a hindrance for.
Uh, you know, what, for the spaces, for
the people that come in to use those,
uh, different types of equipment.
So, um, having good training obviously
will set the foundation for, for
that help, um, kind of mentality.
So when they come into a space,
it should emphasize whatever it is
they're, they're teaching or, uh,
they could be, you know, recording or.
Um, you know, depending on the space or
the application, if it's a conference
call or for a conference room, you
know, they can come in, connect into the
space, for example, and have a successful
conference call with any number of
people without having to worry about,
you know, is this thing functioning?
Am I going to be able to be
heard with this microphone?
Is the camera going to be able to see me?
Is it going to be, you know, um,
will we have everybody in the shot?
That kind of thing.
Uh, so.
It's, um, that's a, that's
a massive, you know, part.
And honestly, again, uh, the cool
thing for the folks that have a support
agreement contract is they can reach
out to us at any time and say, Hey, can
we schedule some time to do training?
In fact, I was actually
doing that two days ago.
Uh, one of our clients with a few of
the new professors that they had just
hired, and they were like, these, uh, you
know, they're, they're new to the space,
they'd like to be familiarized with it.
And we spent, you know, 30, 45 minutes
walking through the different spaces.
And, um, you know, really gave them
a lot of confidence so that they
could walk in and, and be able to use
the system, uh, without any issues.
Brandon Giella: Mm mm I love that
it's, uh, it's, it's the new SaaS,
you know, just service as a service.
It sounds, it sounds really lovely.
Um, Marcus, I'm, I'm curious, uh,
something we talked about before
is how you guys think about, um,
the evolution of, of different
technologies that you've installed.
Like we, we mentioned kind of kind.
A, I guess, paradigm to be thinking about
as sort of like an iPhone upgrade, like
every two years you gotta upgrade that
iPhone 'cause that stuff's degrading,
you know, you can get on this plan.
Um, so Brandon, both of you and Marcus.
So, um, how do you guys think about when
you're installing that technology and
knowing that you need to upgrade it?
Over time or at least be thinking
about that, what that depreciation
might be or how you guys go about
monitoring and evaluating that, making
recommendations to your clients.
'cause I, I know that's gotta be
an important thing to be thinking
about, like to be this partnership
with this long-term orientation.
You're gonna need to reinstall these
things in five years, 10 years, 15 years,
depending on the life of the machine.
So what does that look like and
how do you guys approach that?
Marques Manning: Yeah, absolutely.
That is a point of, you know,
constant communication and
really just education on things.
Right.
It's, it's something that you see it a
lot of times being taken for granted.
You know, if you're issued a
computer by your workforce, by your
workplace, typically you'll have it,
you know, three to five years maybe.
Then it's recycled out.
Almost every enterprise I know
of operates on, you know, a
three to five year refresh cycle.
Um, in part because yes, that's the
optimal life of the machine, but also
you don't wanna lose productivity
because now you're fighting issues
that are pretty common that occur,
you know, throughout that life cycle.
Audio visual components are purpose-built
computers in most cases, right?
There's, it's a computer that controls
this microphone that makes sure that
audio goes out over the internet,
so you can hear me correctly.
And so we think about it in that same vein
of, okay, we're typically gonna target
around, you know, five years and it's
different across, you know, components.
Speakers may last for
15, you know, who knows.
But what happens with the support team is
I can say, okay, here's the overall build.
So we do know you're probably gonna wanna
refresh and say five to seven years.
So the technology and the
capabilities of cameras, right?
They've changed so much.
Now, I won't say AI all the time,
some of it is just algorithms of
things that were already there.
But you know, that's a whole
nother topic of conversation.
But in terms of tracking capabilities
and framing and all these things, right?
If you roll the clock back 10 years ago,
a lot of cameras didn't really have that,
or it's just coming out, or it's pretty
choppy, so you weren't enabling it.
Nowadays, I mean, it's fairly common
for us to activate auto tracking.
So a professor may stand up in the
front of a room a camera locks on.
He can walk back and forth.
You know, he or she can
walk back and forth.
They're always in the picture.
Same thing with auto framing.
I don't know that we've seen a camera
that doesn't have auto framing now.
So once a speaker begins, you
know, at a large conference table,
the camera's automatically doing
the work to reframe that shot.
Pick that person up, right?
So That's
not something that.
You know, we
always advise, we're not going to tell
you to do an upgrade because there's a
new feature set, but we will tell you,
Hey, it's time to upgrade because this
hardware is getting to the end of life.
So now the manufacturer's
not supporting it.
You know, we're gonna start
to see enhanced failures.
If you have a camera that runs
all day long, every day for
years, it's just what happens.
You know, there are mechanical
pieces in there, they wear out.
And so what we do is, as we're
doing preventative maintenance
and things like that, we just keep
you abreast of what's happening.
Say, Hey, this camera is at,
you know, year three, or.
This, uh, this control processors at
year five, we might wanna think about,
you know, upgrading this and typically
what all, what we really see and what
drives some of this as well, is the
use case of the room changes, right?
As we go further along this conference
room, we used to all meet in here
and just give a presentation.
Okay, well fast forward, no, we have
to be able to do web conferencing now.
So now that capability has changed.
Will those components, you know,
be serviceable and reusable in
a new, uh, overall environment?
Maybe that's something we'll
look at, um, and evaluate.
But it's just one of those things where
there's the evolution of the technology.
Then there's also the evolution
of the use case, and then you're
also managing and monitoring just
overall lifecycle of that equipment.
'cause again, you don't want, you
know, your room going down because you
have a 10-year-old piece of equipment
that everyone knew was 10 years old,
and everyone knew it was time to, you
know, cycle that thing out and we warn
you like, Hey, this is going to happen.
It's been, you know, going for so long.
It'll start to drop out or
start, it'll start to fail.
Is that what you want in your environment?
Some people they can live with that
and other most cases it's a no.
Like once it starts having those
failures, because again, now you're
losing that trust in the space, trust
in the technology, um, that comfort of
knowing it's going to work and you get
the whole, you know, episode where you
have multiple rooms, oh, we don't wanna
use that room 'cause it never works.
Let's go to this other room.
Or I'll just work at my
desk.
Things like that.
So that's how we try to manage, you
know, the entire life cycle and keep
people pulled into the conversation.
Updated on, you know, where their
components are, where the room is overall,
and if there really is something that's
launched or something that's come out,
and from how we see them using the
space, it can enhance their experience.
Then we start talking about, you know,
there's new capabilities as well, and
we bring that into the discussion.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
That's a ton to keep track of.
But you know, like I said earlier,
if I'm, you know, the leader of this
space, I don't have any bandwidth for
thinking through all that kind of stuff.
Like if a manufacturing, you know,
deprecates a, a feature or machine or,
you know, just, just there's so much
to be thinking about the trends in av,
what's changing, how AI is gonna be
incorporated into it or not, or whatever.
Uh, it's just a ton to keep up with.
Brandon Patton: yeah, I will say,
uh, you know, long term speaking,
especially if you just got into a
space with a completely brand new
integration, you, you basically have
a decent baseline to, uh, to know.
is effectively the amount of money
that was spent on this space in,
you know, five to seven years.
You should expect to spend
around that same ballpark.
If the needs don't drastically
change in the space, you should.
You can start budgeting for that now.
And so knowing what kind of like target
value you should be hitting towards
in five to seven years from now, you
know, that's one of the, the things
that we, uh, you know, tend to, to
do is kind of give a thermometer.
To, for our clients to know, okay,
well this space is five years old.
This one's, you know, seven years old.
This one's getting close to 10.
You, you definitely need to be, this needs
to be the highest priority in getting,
uh, you know, this space refreshed.
You know, this guy that's only
five years old, you've got a little
bit more life left in that area.
You know, so it may not necessarily
be, uh, time to update or to upgrade
in that space right now, especially
when you've got this 10-year-old room
that is, you know, potentially failing.
Fairly quickly.
Again, as Marcus mentioned, you
know, equipment going end of life,
you know, where a manufacturer may
not necessarily support a specific
piece of equipment any longer.
They no longer manufacture parts for it.
For example.
Um, you know, those kinds of, uh,
you know, gauges that we can provide
to help our clients know, uh, where
their entire facility, if they have a
multi-building, you know, campus for
example, uh, they have a really good
understanding where, uh, you know.
Certain phases need to happen along the
way so that they can budget appropriately
for those projects to come out.
And then that way, when it's comes time
to actually upgrade those projects,
they have the resources and assets.
It's not a surprise anymore.
Now they've got this, we've been planning
to do this over a certain amount of
time, and they actually have the, the
necessary resources to apply to that
space to have it done well so that it
can last another 10 years, you know,
or, or seven years or what have you.
Again, assuming the, the use
cases don't drastically change as
we've seen happen in a few places.
So, um, you know, that's, that's
a huge portion of it, especially
from a finance perspective, is,
is being able to plan properly.
And that's one of the things we
have in our support agreement
contract, that we are constantly
doing preventative maintenance on the
different, uh, spaces that are covered.
And so we can gauge and
understand and know.
And provide recommendations on
the spaces that that should be
considered for, for an update, you
know, in a certain amount of time.
Uh, so we, you know, and that's a fairly
regular thing that, that we do and that I
think, um, you know, a lot of our clients
have taken advantage of because now we're,
um, you know, we start to see this kind
of repetitive, like, okay, so now we're
attacking, you know, these, these hotspots
that have been up and running for so long.
That, uh, those spaces
are getting refreshed.
And so you kinda are in
this ever living cycle.
It's not typically, like for some reason,
I think a lot of people get, uh, they
kinda get to this point where they're
like, I just spent all this money.
I'm good.
I shouldn't have to spend any more money.
And the thing is, for is like for
now, that's, that's absolutely true.
If, if this thing that has been put
in meets the expectations and, and.
Checks all the boxes of what needs
to be done for that space and, and
has accomplished all those things.
That's, that's absolutely a
hundred percent correct 'cause
all this stuff is brand new.
However, there needs to be an
understanding that later down the road,
eventually, again, like we mentioned
due to the technology differences and
how fast everything changes, it needs to
be a consideration long term, you know,
to, to be able to budget appropriately.
To be able to pro, you know, uh, be
able to store those reset resources up.
Uh, when it comes time to, um, you know,
refreshing those spaces, like putting
a brand new roof on the building.
If you just put a brand new roof on the
building, you know, in 20 years from now,
you're gonna have to put another roof on.
You know, if you create a sinking fund
effectively that you can put those 20
years worth of, uh, putting that money
back, and then 20 years from now you can
put a new roof on the building again.
You know, that's a, that makes a, uh.
It eases a burden long term
that somebody's not gonna have
to deal with when it comes time
to refreshing those spaces.
Brandon Giella: That's
right, that's right.
Our, uh, our finance oriented listeners
will deeply understand that they have
a, a line in their model where they
kind of built that, that savings in.
So what you guys could do, it
sounds like, is, you know, when
you commission new, new space.
You crash that champagne bottle on
the bow, you should also drop off a
little piggy bank like, Hey, start
saving because this is technology,
you're gonna need to do this again.
Brandon Patton: Exactly.
Brandon Giella: Yeah.
That's great.
Okay.
Well, anything else that is going to be,
uh, useful for our listeners, especially
the operations minded folks who kind of
understand how all these, you know, little
details kind of work together and need to
maintain that space over the long term.
Anything else that's
been useful or, or, um.
You know, thoughtful that
you guys, you know, kind of
incorporate into your process.
Marques Manning: Start with a
solid build, start at the very
beginning with a great build, a
great rollout, and a great process.
Because if
any of that goes off the rails in the
beginning, you're gonna find yourself
replacing something sooner than later.
I mean, we, we have, it sounds
like we're being hyperbolic.
We've actually lived this and seen this
where, you know, decisions were made to,
you know, try to save money and cut costs.
We have clients that had to replace
components that we typically
see last five years easily.
They made a decision, it resulted in
having to replace all those components in
about 18 months, and it was pretty wild.
And it's like, hey, it's, you think
you're gonna save a few bucks up front?
But really again, if you
start having premature
failures, things going offline, you know
those choices you make in the beginning,
they either have consequences or benefits.
You know, it's up to you either way,
based on the choice you've made.
But that will lead to support calls.
Either they're.
Calls because something went offline
or failed early, or we're just
doing preventative maintenance and
we're like, Hey, this is great.
It's gonna definitely last you, you
know, five, seven years, what have you.
Or it's, uh, something we, we go in,
we try to hide our facial expressions.
You know, we don't wanna frown
right away, but we say, Hey, we're
gonna need to keep a eye on this.
You
know, we've seen a few things.
It may not last as long as you would
hope, but we'll keep you advised.
So I'd
say early in the process, you
know, make quality decisions.
Brandon Giella: Hmm.
That's something we've talked about
before of do it right the first time.
Marques Manning: Do it right the first.
Brandon Giella: is gonna cost you,
but in the long term, total cost
of ownership, again, it, it'll be
cheaper, it'll be easier on your brain.
Just do it right the first time.
All right.
Well, gentlemen, thank you so much
for teaching us about the value
of support, especially when it
comes to the AV installation design
implementation integration process.
Uh, there's a lot of moving parts
and you guys are always on top of it.
So, uh, very glad to
hear more of the details.
If you'd like more resources like
this, please go to contech.com,
K-O-N-T-E k.com,
and the team has tons of stuff there to
review and, uh, we will see you next time.
Brandon, thanks for joining.
Brandon Patton: My pleasure.
Brandon Giella: episode.
Brandon Patton: Yep.
Thanks for having me.