My staff has been encouraging me for a long time to start a blog. So, to share information more rapidly, I finally agreed.

 I hear from members every day — answering questions about technologies, giving advjce on business situations and listening to their challenges. Through this blog, I’ll share what I’m hearing to help our industry and its members address common concerns and build better integrators.  

 Now that I’ve got the official introduction done, let’s talk about 2010. After all the changes, opportunities, challenges, etc. of 2009, it appears that the first half of 2010 will bring us much of the same. So, here is my first piece of advice for the new year:

 More than anything, keep paying very close attention to your business. Every owner and manager should establish 5 or 10 key metrics that serve as the “dashboard” to monitor and make swift changes to steer their business in a better direction. 

 The biggest metric I keep ranting about right now is the backlog erosion. This is better defined as the comparison to new business booked to billings. Overall, our members report they are still billing more than the new business they are writing. This erodes the backlog and will become an indication that change may be needed. I hate to say that 2010 is a survival year; maybe I will call it a rebuilding year. But, before I can do that, I need to know how many of you are booking business faster than the rate of your billings, so let me know  by contacting me at cwilson@nsca.org or 800.446.6722. Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll be blogging about more key metrics that I have learned from the top companies in the industry. Bookmark my new blog to find out what other gauges you need on your dashboard throughout the year.  

That’s all for this time. Have a great 2010. CW