“11 Ways the Integration Business Will Change This Decade” is a wide-ranging analysis by NSCA board members of the future of integration, originally published in the special Pivot to Profit+ section of the Q3 2021 edition of our quarterly trade journal, Integrate. This column discusses creating cultures to support continuous improvement.
In order to be successful over the next decade, integrators need to create a culture of continual improvement.
I think the biggest challenge integrators will face over the next five to 10 years will be the ability to innovate and transform as organizations—in order to progress from reacting to client needs to anticipating them. Many integrators have been somewhat successful by doing things a certain way for a long time, without much change to people, process, technologies, or offerings within their business. As clients’ needs evolve, they are shifting to needing true, proactive technology business partners that give them confidence to focus on their core business without worrying about keeping the blinking lights on for mission-critical systems.
The need for traditional reactive vendors will steadily decline in the future, and the mindset of clients “calling us if they need us” will become a thing of the past. Clients will need integrators to be their subject-matter experts and consultants on the technologies they choose. Current systems and technologies are too complex for clients to manage on their own.
Innovation requires significant changes and disruption to existing processes, employee skillsets, technology, culture, and team member mindsets. Taking a company through change and transformation is a difficult task and requires a specific skill that may not be obvious to those who have been with a company for a long time and seen some success doing it “the way we’ve always done it.”
Unless a company is led by people who embrace innovation and change, it will remain in its traditional state.
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An integrator must plan its innovation and transformation strategy, and it must be the key initiative of the leadership team to make sure the pieces are in place to execute on that strategy. The best company change agents want to be empowered to modernize and transform the organization. Many of the best ideas around change or innovation (business process, new technologies, and company offerings) come from those on the frontlines of the business. Everyone in the company needs to feel empowered to share their thoughts and ideas around how to become a better business partner to its clients. Integrators will need to create a culture of continuous improvement, tied to innovation strategies to stimulate growth. Integrators must be willing to take risks, fall down, learn from those failures and mistakes, and get up and start moving again. Leadership will need to stay the course and keep moving the company forward as it transforms into a true technology solutions partner for its clients. “The way we’ve always done it” is a thing of the past!
Bradford S. Caron is president of SIGNET Electronic Systems, Inc. and an NSCA board member.