During the BICSI 2020 Winter Conference, Concert Technologies’ chief executive officer Dennis Mazaris delivered a presentation titled “Tech Ready Buildings—Lifecycle Servicing Opportunities for Contractors.” Mazaris blended education with entertainment by incorporating “Door Number 1, Door Number 2, and Door Number 3” into his presentation. Specifically, he described the perspectives of three stakeholders in a commercial office building space: 1) the building owner, 2) the cabling installer servicing a tenant in the building, and 3) the owner of the contracting firm that employs the installer.
Mazaris’s presentation detailed the challenges and frustrations that each of the three parties can face when a tenant within the building space needs even a minor cabling job completed. For example, the building owner risks losing tenants altogether if that owner does not provide sufficient connectivity to each office space. Mazaris pointed out that for prospective tenants in such a building, connectivity has become more important than parking as an amenity. For the building owner, pathway capacity frequently presents a challenge. The cabling installer faces the often-arduous task of tracing a connection from the building’s entrance facility to the tenant’s space—a job that becomes even more difficult when (not if) cabling-plant documentation is outdated or missing. And the owner of the contracting company is charged with keeping the tenant (i.e. the paying customer) satisfied, the building owner relatively unbothered but still cooperative, the installer/technician engaged in their work and appropriately compensated—all while maintaining some level of solvency or, better yet, profitability.
But Mazaris’s presentation wasn’t just a rant session. He put forth the concept of what a tech-ready building can be, when a building owner recognizes the value of providing high-quality connectivity to each tenant. You can watch the essential points of Mazaris’s presentation, including entertaining game-show analogies, in the video on this page.
