Connecting Tomorrow

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.  High gas prices are bad for all of us because they affect everything around us driving costs of all goods through the roof.  Increased costs equal low consumer confidence, low spending, etc.  It’s all bad news all the time.  That is of course if you don’t see the silver lining.  High gas prices are a wake up call.

From our perspective, high gas prices have made us look at every aspect of our business.  What we pay to our suppliers, how much we charge our customers, what kind of service vehicles we buy; it’s endless.  This is exactly what all businesses must to do on a frequent basis to ensure their future.  Not only must businesses take a hard look at themselves from top to bottom constantly, so too must consumers.  Where to save money, how to be more efficient, how to ensure their family’s future are a few important problems everyone faces.  We sat down and asked ourselves these questions and realized that there’s a ton that we can do to help our customers solve their problems even though we’ll never physically be able to lower gas prices.

To start, disconnect from the grid as much as possible, slowly, over time.  Not everyone can afford to outfit their home with all of the latest technology that will enable them to cut the cord.  What everyone can do is make improvements little by little until eventually every home in America is 100% independent of manufactured energy.  Combine the efficiency of home automation, solar power, wind power and various other new technologies to come up with a solution that will make you energy independent.  Start somewhere, start anywhere.  We can help.

We’ll post more information about our plans and how we can help you become energy independent over the coming weeks and months.  There’s so much to say that I could write a book about it but that wouldn’t get us anywhere today.  Keep your eyes on Connecting Tomorrow for simple and affordable solutions for your energy indepedence.

Don’t look now but I just mentioned a dirty concept in our business, IT.  Mention those two simple letters to many of the professionals in our industry and you’ll get all kinds of angry stares, not to mention harsh comments about integrators with IT roots.  I’m not exactly sure why this happens and am even less sure why it does with such amazing frequency.  I can’t tell you how many times our company has been ripped on by others because we’ve built our business based on concepts from our past experience in IT.  Maybe they had a bad experience working with companies that sold them PCs (or Macs).  Maybe they’re scared that the industry is changing.  I really don’t know for sure but they have their opinions and they’re entitled to them. 

Our opinion is different.  First off, bashing competitors isn’t a wise decision which is why you’ll never hear us doing it.  We like to spend our time making our business better instead of worrying about who’s putting us down and getting back at them by doing the same.  Secondly, we wear our experience in the IT industry as a badge of honor and believe whole heartedly that it’s what sets us apart from the crowd. After all, it’s this experience that gives us the ability to implement amazing products from companies like Control4, a company that’s taken IT concepts and completely changed the face of home automation. 

Control4 offers a product line of completely IP (Internet Protocol) based home automation controls that truly connect every aspect of your daily lives.  Each of Control4’s intelligent devices lives on and can be operated from your own personal home network, wired or wirelessly, with the touch of a button.  What we like the most about the Control4 product line is that it’s affordable, easy to use and offers unparalleled scalability for any solution.  You can start with the Home Theater Controller or Media Controller and immediately realize the benefits of a connected lifestyle.  Manage your entire digital music collection with ease streaming your digital music over your home stereo, right from the controller. 

Control4 controllers can exist by themselves in a home theater solution on those merits alone but they allow you to accomplish so much more.  Owning a Control4 system gives you the ability to add devices at any time, at your own pace.  Add a light dimmer switch here, an outlet there, and pretty soon you’ve got a fully functioning automation system without any new wiring.  Swap the old “dumb” switches with the new Control4 intelligent switches, add the device to your network and you’re done.   And that’s just scratching the surface.

Control4 solutions work in any home, anywhere.  Old homes, new homes and all homes in between are perfectly suited for Control4 solutions which is another reason we’ve absolutely fallen in love with their products and have installed them in our own homes.  Hop on over to www.control4.com and take a look around.  We promise you’ll enjoy your visit!

This is the most frequent question we hear on a daily basis.  The business we are in is confusing, not to us, but to most everyone else.  Vocabulary that we can use to describe our business includes:

• Low-Voltage
• Custom Electronics Professional
• Home Automation
• Home Security Installer
• Home Systems Integrator
• Home Technology Integrator
• Network Engineers
• Smart Homes
• Systems Integrator

And the list goes on.  People know our industry by so many different names that it often makes it difficult finding common ground when answering the question.   It makes our day when we can give our pitch and actually find someone who understands what we do.  In the same sense, it scares us to death that we have friends and associates that we do business with on a daily basis that have heard our pitch hundreds of times, heck, they’ve even seen the technology in action, but still haven’t got a clue what we do.  We have to figure out a way to change that.

Part of our solution to the problem is this blog.  Blogging allows us to connect with people in ways which we couldn’t possibly have connected in the past.  It gives us the ability to give you the story straight from the horse’s mouth helping to educate you in the process.  After all, if we’re experts and we can’t figure out a better way to educate our customers about what we do, we’re in trouble.

Our challenge to you is for you to tell us what you don’t understand about our business, the products we sell and the services we offer.  Anything and everything is fair game so don’t be afraid to come at us with whatever it is that you’d like to learn.  We don’t want you to have to spend all day researching what we do just to figure it out.  Instead, we want to figure out a way to condense all the education you need into easy to use guides that you can refer back to over and over again, whenever you need them.  Anyone can post a FAQ page, but can anyone take it a step further and actually make FAQ’s more useful?  We intend to do so.

I know that we still haven’t answered the original question that titles this post but we’re hoping you stick around as we engage in conversations that will help shape the answer.  We like to think that it is a living answer.

I referred to the “Grandma” test in my last post and thought I should elaborate.  The Grandma test as it’s referred to for our purposes relates to the ability of a grandmother to operate any sort of technology related system(s).  If grandma can walk up to a thermostat, keypad, remote control or any other device and operate it with minimal effort, that particular device passes the test.  If not, it receives a big red “F”.

The Grandma test can also refer to a test applied to conversations with your customers in any business.  I found an article that refers to this application of the Grandma test when I Googled the term “grandma test”.  I’m adding this Grandma test to our repertoire as well.  Call it Grandma².

It’s no coincidence that I am on the subject of the Grandma test today, although I think about it quite a bit anyways.  Today’s thoughts were brought on by one of the blogs I regularly read, the Wibrary at Untangled Life, and their To Heck with Tech feature.  Well done guys. 

Note: I’m purposefully not tagging the Grandma test in Technorati as doing so led to some unfavorable results.  I’m not an expert at tagging as of yet so any suggestions on how to properly tag it without producing these types of results are greatly appreciated.

It has, up to this point, been easy for most integrators to ignore the middle because it didn’t fit their business models.  The margins weren’t there and too potential customers felt that they were being taken advantage of by profit hungry salesman that over promise and under deliver and who didn’t really care about their needs.  That or you’d run into a company that lowered their prices so low that nobody in the market could compete.  These types of companies use the strategy making their margin up in volume while providing an inferior solution in every way shape and form.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been told of situations like these, none of which are good for business.

It has been a main focus of ours since day one to provide access to our products and services to anyone that wants them, left, right and middle.  We want to let you know that home automation is affordable for everyone.  Are you interested in basic lighting control?  Interested in saving money on your energy bills?  Is your family safe and secure?  These are questions that we want you to feel that you can always answer yes to without remorse.  The best part is that you can start with the basic core for your home systems and gradually increase capabilities over time.  Stating this is not just hype or marketing hyperbole, it’s the truth.  Any integrator that isn’t willing to work with you on your timetable and budget only has their own personal agenda in mind. 

Your agenda drives our agenda and that will never change.  It is in this spirit that we are creating some new and exciting tools that you can use to design your own home systems with a few mouse clicks.  These tools will not only help you build your system, but will also help teach you about it at the same time. These tools will be accessible to anyone and everyone that would like to use them and will be free of charge.  Everyone likes free don’t they?

Horner Networks, ensuring that all of our home solutions pass the “Grandma” test, since 2003.

We’ve had an idea for a while that just seems like a no-brainer to us, but then again we’re the ones who thought of it.  I know that we can’t possibly be the only ones to have pondered the possibilities of the idea but we haven’t seen anyone else pushing for it here in Northeast Ohio.  If someone else has, please let me know because I’d like to see it.  First, a little background before I get to the idea. 

The residential construction world seems to be focused on the Master Planned Community these days, whereby developers build not only homes but other commercial facilities to support the community as a whole.  These types of communities are sprouting up all over the country and are huge investments for the developers, for business and for the local community.  It’s amazing how many local and sometimes regional political battles are fought over how these communities are secured yet none of these communities include anything more than homes, the ever so hip lifestyle centers and basic commercial development, of which we see over and over and over again.  Do these types of developments boost local economies and populations?  Of course.  Is there anything really different being done to increase these boosts even more?  Not that I can see.

We live in the age of the cookie-cutter.  “This One” is the same as “That One” which is the same as “The One They Developed Last Year” and “The One They have planned for Tomorrow”.  Where’s the innovation?  Anyone can throw up more shopping and expect to attract an influx of commerce, but what happens when there’s a new lifestyle center on every corner in every town?  I don’t think I want to know… I can see the traffic now…  What does your community have to offer that my current community doesn’t?

The nature of our business keeps us involved in such development projects around the clock for which we are eternally grateful; these projects keep our business alive.  That being said, as a subcontractor we have little if any say in the planning that goes into these communities.  We’re pretty much dealing with the builder and the homeowner and that’s it.  While we feel that we’re pretty darn good at what we do, we know that we could help serve the builder, homeowner and the community better.  This brings me back to the idea.  Master Planned Technology Ready Communities.

Think for one second what it would be like to live in a community that had mobile broadband access everywhere.  An entire community wired with fiber-optic cabling to every home and business.  Access to control your home from anywhere on the Internet.  Instant communication between homes and schools for homework and distance learning.  A house that you move into and are instantly connected with work, your neighbors and the rest of the world, without lifting a finger. 

These are just a few ideas of which none are new, but for some reason are not being included when master planned communities are developed.  Think about the type of residents it would attract.   Residents that would more than likely seek to start businesses within the community because they have access to so many resources already within their neighborhoods.  No more brain drain.  It would put that particular community on the map, no pun intended.

We want to help educate homeowners, developers and communities alike because we understand technology and the impact it can have when implemented in such a way.  We want to partner with everyone involved in projects like this not only because it helps our business grow, but will help improve life for everyone around us; our family, friends, neighbors and customers.  We love our community as much as we love technology and putting the two together is something that everyone could be proud of.

It seems like the biggest problem I have when it comes to writing anything is how to start.  Once I’m rolling, I’m rolling, and while I might not be the best writer on the planet, I don’t think I’m the worst.  A cheesy way to start?  Perhaps.  Time to get rolling.

Connecting Tomorrow is a philosophy that drives the way we think, do business and live our lives.  Who are we?  We are entrepreneurs.  We are people that love technology; every size, shape and form of it.  We are people that seek to help people.  We are a company that loves building relationships with customers.  We are a happy family opening our ideas in order to build said relationships that define who we are today and who we will become tomorrow.  We are Horner Networks, and our core purpose is our responsibility to our customers, employees and the community to solve problems and improve life through technology.

While this will serve as the official blog of our company, it will in no way be “just another sales tool”, this I promise.  Who am I?  I am Terry Horner, one of our company’s co-founders.  This is my first foray into the exciting world of blogging, and I want to use Connecting Tomorrow as an easy and effective way of communicating with our customers, friends and anyone else that wants to listen.  My main goal is to improve our ability to serve our core purpose without which we could not exist. 

Many of you reading this blog in the weeks after its inception are people like me, people who can’t live without technology, technology evangelists.  People like us get it, simple as that.  The inherent problem with people like us is that we’re in the minority; those that think they get it might get it but most likely don’t, and those that don’t get it are completely lost.  It’s up to us to help since we’re the ones who get it, and by help I don’t mean adding more features or creating snazzier marketing campaigns.  The only way we can help is to create an open dialogue that aims to educate.

Growing up in a blue-collar town has taught me many lessons.  Most of my friends and neighbors wouldn’t know what a blog was if it hit them in the face and if that’s true, then how can blogging really help educate them?  How do we hand our blog over to someone that finds technology frightening and help them realize the benefits of it?  How do we show them that it’s really not as scary as it looks and it really can be reliable if it’s done right?  I intend to find out and use that knowledge to improve the way we live and do business.

That’s Connecting Tomorrow in a nutshell.  The day it becomes “just another sales tool”, I’ll quit blogging.  I’ll leave it up to you to keep me on my toes and respect everything you have to say along the way.  I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow and can’t wait to help show you how to enjoy technology as much as I do.