5 Home-Tech Trend Takeaways from our CEO

5 Home-Tech Takeaways 

 

Jennifer Mallett, CEO, Level Up Your Home
 

5 Takeaways of where we are today

1. Expertise in technology sales and home service is key to bridging the gap between current technology promises in the smart home and what actually happens — especially as it relates to interoperability.

Custom integrators know more about this topic than security, insurance and manufacturers! It begs the question: How can we become more involved and our voice represented at industry conferences? I hope to see the CEDIA channel represented more next year through attendance and participation at the event.

It’s a time investment for individual businesses, but very much worth the time. We have an opportunity to be a part of the early stages of IoT so we can facilitate easier installs and basic needs of our clients that are being missed – as well as the overall go-to market strategy as whole.

2. The service provider industry will see huge demand for expertise as it will take time for the DIY promise to match the reality in the home. Nuances in voice control, challenges with interoperability … these things will benefit greatly from a custom approach. There are [installer] networks and companies preparing for this on a mass-market scale but it is clear to me that this is not the end-all, be-all answer for all customers.

Good-enough audio, good-enough security, good-enough service? Our sights should be set higher.

I think this will be important for the smart-home industry as a whole, as customers will be disenfranchised with IoT products without a good experience. Mass adoption would suffer as as a result. We are largely not ready to meet the expected demand. We need to work on developing labor to support this demand – from the trade schools to educating more mature professionals.

Scaling technology can be easy. Scaling a labor workforce to support the variety of homes and use cases will be challenging – but the upside will be huge!

3. Aging in place, insurance and other industries are on their way … but they still seem to be in the middle stages of development. How does service labor fit into these models? How can we plug into these opportunities to support and capitalize on the need? 

4. The future opportunities of RMR [recurring monthly revenue] was solidified for me at Connections. The end users of this technology will see the value in paying monthly as long as we communicate the benefits well and deliver on them.

5. The technology coming down the pike, particularly sensor-driven solutions – WOW. Game changers. Privacy still needs to be addressed, but hopefully with everyone working together to create industry standards for protecting personal information, we will allow the end user to opt in to the level of sharing they are comfortable with. 

There seems to be a continuum of “convenience to creepiness” for people. Where someone sits is a personal preference. I think we need to make sure the user is able to decide as products are developed so we can maximize the smart-home opportunity.

JENNIFER MALLETT is founder and CEO of Level Up Your Home, a national home-technology integration company based in Marlborough, Mass. Before starting the company in 2016, Jennifer spent 15 years managing its national network of home service providers.



from Level Up Your Home - Home Automation Nation https://levelupyourhome.com/blogs/level-up-smart-stuff/5-home-tech-takeaways-from-our-ceo
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CEDIA elects Level Up Automation CEO Jennifer Mallett along with Stephen Goodhue and James Ratcliffe to its Board of Directors

  CEDIA  is the leading global trade association for smart home technology, serving more than 4000 members, 30000 professionals from 77 countries. CEDIA   announces three newly elected directors who will join the CEDIA board of directors for the 2023-2025 term: Stephan Goodhue, Jennifer Mallett and James Ratcliffe. “Stephan, Jen, and James bring an abundance of home technology experience and much-needed, fresh perspectives to the board,” said David Weinstein, chair of the CEDIA board of directors. “Their resumes are impressive, and their strategic visions for the association’s future made them stand out among a large pool of qualified nominees. I look forward to working with them to best serve the needs of our members and to advance the industry.” James Ratcliffe is the managing director of Homeplay, based in Sunbury-on-Thames in the U.K. James began his career in home technology and developed a passion for music, sound and electronics when he joined a hi-fi store at ...
Read more

Level Up Automation donates $1,200 all girls robotics team compete in World Championships

Image
Level Up Automation has donated $1,200 to support Zetabots, an all girl robotics team to go to World Robotics championships in Texas.  The Zetabots is a team of 5 girls who have never competed in robotics until this year. The team is comprised of two fifth graders Lilly  and Kaitlyn  and three fourth graders Gabrielle, Molly and Hammelin.  They will compete at the Vex IQ Worlds Competition taking place in Dallas May 10-12th where 600 teams from around the world will strategize with alliance partners, drive, and program to show what they and their robot can do. And appropriately, Team Zetabots has named their robot She-Ra, the  fictional superheroine in the 1985 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power. The team formed in September and began designing and building She-Ra from the ground up.   They went to their first competition of the season with their robot barely functioning.  They scored zero points.  While many people would feel...
Read more

Video Doorbell Shopping Guide: Questions to Consider Before Buying

Image
Video doorbells. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all right? Wrong! Like all important purchases, there’s a lot to consider when shopping for a front door security camera. Here’s the questions you should be asking before you buy. What is the best video doorbell? There are many video doorbell options available for consumers today including — Ring Video Doorbell, Guardian Protection Video Doorbell Pro , Eufy Security Video Doorbell, RemoBell Video Doorbell, Arlo Video Doorbell, and others. Many believe the best video doorbell is one that is reliable in extreme weather conditions, has a full view of vision, offer a touchless ring option, and is integrated with a full suite of professional security monitoring.  Can a doorbell cam really prevent burglary and make you safer? No security device can guarantee 100% protection — any claims otherwise are misleading. However, research indicates that a video doorbell camera can help make your home safer and deter burglars. When...
Read more