You chose another company over Boca Tech and Automation about five years ago trying to save a few dollars, and it was one of the worst decisions you have ever made. You have now paid out about 50% more than Boca Tech’s original proposal to your chosen integrator and your family has lived through years of pain and a system that has never worked right.
This is a lengthy article, but if you have found your way here it’s probably because you are frustrated with a Home Technology system that has failed to deliver what was promised. If this is true, please take the time to read this article – we think you will be glad you did.
A lack of standards.
The proliferation of technology in the home means that the “Smart Home” or the integrated technology industry has grown extremely quickly and shows no signs of slowing down.
Unlike other more established trades in the luxury home construction market like plumbing, electrical, and air conditioning; integration technology has been extremely fast moving and as such, it has few recognized standards and even fewer barriers to enter the industry.
The problem is that anyone can call themselves a home technology integrator. They can open an account with a distributor and start designing and installing systems, regardless of their experience, training, or any thought to long-term commitment and customer service.
This is a photo of the main equipment room from one of our Rescue Projects. This client paid the original “AV Guy” over $100,000 dollars for this system. He then paid Boca Tech over $50,000 to make it work. That was over two years ago – we still look after this client today.
The lack of standards is compounded by the fact that home technology integration is, by a very wide margin, the most complex and diverse trade involved in the construction of a modern luxury home.
Home Technology Integrators need a deep understanding of almost every facet of the home, covering a huge scope of products and technologies. This includes electrical and lighting design, network and WiFi, heating and cooling, security and fire alarm systems, CCTV, home cinema, media rooms, audio and video distribution, room acoustics, motorized shading, general building and finishing techniques, gate automation, custom furniture, and much more. No other trade touches and controls as many different parts of a home as the technology integrator.
Add to this the normal stresses and strains of running a business and it’s easy to see why almost all home technology startup businesses fail in the first 3-5 years. Boca Tech has been here in the Boca Raton area for over 20 years now.
Due to these issues, barely a day passes that we do not receive an inquiry from a frustrated homeowner, exasperated by their current integrator and their system.
Typical complaints include:
What we refer to as a “Rescue Project” often requires a significant additional investment by the homeowner to get their system to the point where it provides the value that was originally promised. We cannot take ownership of (or support) a project unless we bring it up to our standards. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee a good experience from the system and that would reflect badly on us and the industry as a whole.
The size, scope, and nature of a “Rescue Project” can vary greatly and because of that it is extremely difficult to provide a cost estimate for a particular system without embarking on a systematic process to decipher the current state of the system. What we can say from our twenty plus years of experience is that it can end up being 20-80% of the original cost to re-design and install the new system correctly.
We will now outline how the process normally works based on a 5,000 sq ft luxury home.
First, we will book two technicians for at least a full day to walk the entire property with you. They will test and document the system’s functionality and what equipment is being used along with its age. We need to be sure of the system’s current state before we can start any repairs.
Based on our example of a 5,000 sq ft home, this will typically take a full day and cost $1,500 minimum to do this step…more if it takes longer than 1 day to complete the walk-through. It is very important that the homeowner is there during this step so we can understand the key frustrations and pain points that you have found over the years of use. Often home technology problems are intermittent in nature, so having the insight of the homeowner will help us to make sure all of the issues are addressed.
During this initial visit we will operate the system exactly as the homeowner has been doing, we will not adjust any equipment or modify any programming. We will just try to use the system as intended and document the functionality and problems with the system.
Back at our showroom we will create a report for internal use outlining what we found, the general state of the system, and highlighting the issues we found. We will then create a proposal showing what the products and costs will be to repair the problems. We will also include upgrades or changes that will provide value and facilitate what you want your system to do.
This proposal will include the cost to make drawings, test and label cabling, re-build the equipment rack, and anything else we determine is necessary to deliver on the promise of the system as it was originally intended, as well as changes we discuss with you during the walk-through.
How much does all this cost? Frankly, if we charged what it actually costs to reverse-engineer an entire house of equipment, find both ends of each wire hidden inside the walls, determine what is missing, then re-engineer a comprehensive solution while trying to re-use as much equipment as we can – most people would stop reading right here and do nothing! So, at BTA we came up with a fee of $2/SQFT to get this important design work completed while giving the homeowner a fixed price fee. We realize this is not a trivial number; a 5,000 SQFT would cost $10k, but that is what it takes to solve this complex puzzle. We make this number more palatable by crediting back 50% of this fee in the proposal; so if you go forward with the updates, you will get back half of the design fee.
Once we have a documented and approved go-forward plan, we will discuss the sequence of events on-site and off-site necessary to bring the system online and agree on the installation window with the client. We will also discuss our White Glove Platinum service plan for ongoing support.
In summary, there can be several thousand dollars in costs associated with the time and labor needed to do all the discovery at the house and then create the list of issues and finally a proposal to fix the problems.
I hope this helps explain why taking over a system that has been installed by another integrator is not as simple as it might seem. It is not our intent to be the bearer of bad news, quite the opposite. We are very much a positive company that loves to say “yes” but having had over 20 years of experience on this kind of work we have found that this is the only realistic and pragmatic approach to getting you to home technology happiness.
Now that you understand the importance of partnering with an experienced system integrator like Boca Tech and Automation (BTA) for project takeovers, it’s time to take the next step. Contact us today to get started on bringing your vision to life.
