Home Automation: Expectations vs Reality; Part 1
In the event you've not been following my blog for long, something I've discussed in the past is how many clients come to us because they're unhappy with their current Crestron, Savant, Control4, Lutron, or Vantage home automation & lighting controls integrator / installer. As I've mentioned many times, in most cases, the ultimate problem between these clients and their original integrator has more to do with the clients expectations being unreasonable... which is typically the fault of the integrator not setting them correctly or at all. Home automation systems; even the simplest to deploy; never go in easy... It just doesn't happen. If it was easy, there would be no reason for people like us to be in business. The norm... 90% of the system will get done seemingly fast while the last 10% will take seemingly forever to complete. If you're a would-be Home automation or lighting control system client, demanding small achievable deadlines from your integrator, and then reviewing them every week or 2 is a great first step to ensure your expectations are being managed. Setting deadlines and keeping track of them is something few integrators are good at. Because of this, you should be prepared either ride them yourself or hire a company like ours who can handle project management and peer review on your behalf. If you go into this with your eyes wide open, you should be able to avoid becoming one of these people who regrets doing a smart-home automation system Next part in this series, know what you're buying!