The Digital Dozen

These are the people integrators should get to know to access the products, technologies, services and programs needed to grow business in the home, SOHO, very small business and vertical markets. Aside from being in charge of increasing sales into those markets, these executives were chosen for their visibility and accessibility, their dedication to logging hour after hour at trade shows, their willingness to travel miles to meet with integrators and comb the pages of Digital Connect in search of new partners.

The choices were obvious. D&H's Dan Schwab was ushering his partners into "digital convergence" markets long before the term became the buzz. Ask HAI's Jay McLellan who his top integrators are and he'll rattle off dozens by name and market.

You'd be hard-pressed to find executives more committed to advocating integrators' power than Leviton's Ian Hendler, On-Q/Legrand's Avi Rosenthal, Control4's Will West, Intel's Bill Davidson and Exceptional Innovation's Mike Seamons. Ingram Micro's Irene Chow and Tech Data's Karl Werner are bringing a new depth of intelligence and understanding to broadline distribution. And Hewlett-Packard's Jan-Luc Blakborn, Linksys' Allen Powell and Microsoft's Justin Hutchinson are striving to help deliver disparate product lines into the digital integrator channel.

Our congratulations to the Digital Dozen. And, yes, we'll all be watching you.

Digital Connect's 'Digital Dozen': The List

• Dan Schwab, D&H Distributing
• Jay McLellan, HAI
• Ian Hendler, Leviton
• Bill Davidson, Intel
• Irene Chow, Ingram Micro
• Karl Werner, Tech Data
• Mike Seamons, Exceptional Innovation
• Will West, Control4
• Allen Powell, Linksys
• Avi Rosenthal, On-Q/Legrand
• Jan-Luc Blakborn, Hewlett-Packard
• Justin Hutchinson, Microsoft
  DAN SCHWAB
  Vice president, D&H Distributing When it comes to driving digital home and SOHO opportunities, no one in the channel has been more committed to bringing integrators into the game than D&H Distributing Vice President Dan Schwab.
• The hard-charging Schwab was championing the digital home integration market long before other distributors even thought about it. Schwab's pioneering work has made Harrisburg, Pa.-based D&H, which has trained more than 2,600 integrators on the home opportunity, the distributor to beat.
• One reason for Schwab's early insight is based on the 87-year-old company's heritage as a consumer-electronics distributor. D&H, in fact, distributed the first color television from RCA.
• D&H's first digital convergence consumer-electronics show was five years ago. "At that time we only had 80 attendees," Schwab says. "We saw the stars aligned and knew that D&H partners would be in an ideal position to take advantage of the technologies being introduced."
• Jude Daigle, president and CEO of Computer Connections, Greensburg Pa., says D&H was critical in helping him plunge into the digital home integration market. "D&H is the only distributor that really covered all the bases," Daigle says. "It was part of their everyday business. That is what gave them a leg up on everybody else." — Steven Burke
  
  
  JAY MCLELLAN
  President, HAI
• For the last two decades, New Orleans-based Home Automation Inc. (HAI) has been a driver of innovation in nearly every area of the home integration industry, including automation and control, security, lighting, audio and HVAC. The company backs up its strong product line with a sharp focus on digital integrators. Central to both has been Jay McLellan, company president and one of its founders.
• "Integrators have played a key part of HAI's 20-plus years of growth and success," he says. "Companies with integration talent are thriving because consumers want things to work together."
• Integrators say the company's strong product line and support have been crucial in winning deals. HAI was one of the first vendors to offer a control application tied into Windows Media Center, as well as software to allow homeowners to control their systems via PDAs. HAI recently added Ethernet connectivity to its Omni IIe automation controller, allowing integrators to offer IP-based control at a moderate price.
• "HAI has always been an excellent manufacturer quality-wise," says Richard Steeley, chief system designer at Integrated Technologies and Security, a Las Vegas-based integrator. "The R&D time for them over the big guys is much less. HAI announces a product and in less than six months it's out."
• McLellan recently was elected chairman of the Consumer Electronics Associations' Tech Home Division Board and is working to launch industry training and certification programs to improve the recognition of integrators in the larger market. —Michael Gros
  
  
  IAN HENDLER
  Director of business development, Leviton
• Ian Hendler just landed from a few grueling weeks on the road and was headed out again that night. His voice was more than hoarse and he swore he could only talk for a few minutes. Yeah, right.
• Get Hendler, director of business development for Leviton's Integrated Networks division, talking about the latest home networking technologies—and the importance of digital integrators in implementing them—and he'll resort to sign language to get his point across.
• "We're certainly not alone in realizing what the integrators bring to the table," he says. "If new construction is slowing down or other segments of the market are stagnating then we've got to get more sales per installation. The Digital Connect market is the place to be because the integrators don't focus on five installations a year, it's more of a volume play of relatively high-margin products."
• Over the past few years, Hendler has been helping Leviton, a Little Neck, N.Y., manufacturer of electrical and wiring products, move quickly into the future by bringing on new integrators, technologies and markets. Last year, Hendler orchestrated the addition of LEAP, a media server, to the Leviton line card and is now working on bringing a full line of HomePlug wired networking and Zensys' Z-Wave wireless networking gear.
• Jay Ram, president of LifeStyle Networks, Allentown, Pa., says Hendler is the right person to move Leviton and other entities forward. "Ian has a vision that goes beyond the sole interest of Leviton to how the whole industry should evolve," he says. —Jeff O'Heir
  
  
  BILL DAVIDSON
  Strategic channel alliances manager, Intel
• He may be new to the digital integration community, but he's no stranger to the notion that total solutions are what sell technology.
• Barely 10 months into his role as digital home marketing manager, Intel channel program veteran Bill Davidson firmly believes that focus on a specific niche is what helps the evolving breed of system builders and digital integrators define themselves. "To a large degree, digital home means something different to every person and, therefore, to every home," he says.
• If you're building a showroom, Intel has tips. Likewise, if you're looking to buddy up with home builders, Intel is collecting best practices about what works—and what doesn't. Of course the Santa Clara, Calif., chip giant hopes Viiv, its new home entertainment platform, will be the common center to the digital home. And Davidson says IT experts with a background in the business world may have an edge when it comes to evangelization.
• "Every businessperson I've met is also a consumer and also lives in a home," he says. "So perhaps the simplest model is to sell to your existing base of customers."
• System builder Equus Computer Systems, a longtime Intel partner and early advocate of its residential market push, is along for the ride. Joe Toste, vice president of marketing at Equus, Minneapolis, says Davidson has what it takes to develop the ecosystem needed to build the true digital home—an ecosystem that today remains immature. "Bill is very familiar with the programs required to solve this problem," Toste says. "He's the right guy, who understands the channel." —Heather Clancy IRENE CHOW
  Digital home/signage manager, Ingram Micro
• When it comes to espousing the digital integrator market, Ingram Micro's Irene Chow wants to do more than talk the talk.
• The category manager for digital home and digital signage at the Santa Ana, Calif.-based distributor earned her CompTIA HTI+ certification last summer, becoming only one of two women in the United States at the time to achieve that status. "My philosophy is to walk the talk," Chow says. "If I'm talking to resellers about the need to get trained, I might as well go through it as well."
• Now that she's knowledgeable in everything from structured wiring to swimming pool management, Chow realizes the importance of education. "There were some chapters that I didn't think were relevant to our customers, but I can't walk by a pool pump now without thinking 'Hey, that's a double-check valve assembly,' " Chow says with a laugh. "The main point is it's not going to be as easy for VARs to get into the digital home without going through some education. It's one thing to identify opportunities, it's another to implement opportunities."
• Dave Sallander, president and owner of Sherlock Systems, a Buffalo Grove, Ill., integrator, says Chow's knowledge has helped him grow his business.
• "In terms of the industry, the players, the trends of where the homeowner is going, she's got that figured out pretty well," Sallander says. "She was one of the first people I met that understood the benefits of integrating IT resellers with home automation and audio/video." —Scott Campbell
  
  
  KARL WERNER
  Director of advanced technologies group, Tech Data
• Karl Werner doesn't care to remember how many red-eyes he's taken over the past year, but he won't soon forget some of the conversations he's had with IT resellers and digital integrators on those flights.
• "You're sitting in the exit row, the lights are bright, you can't recline. So you talk. You can get way too much personal information about VARs and their lives," laughs Werner, director of the advanced technologies group at Tech Data, who has racked up thousands of frequent-flier miles espousing Tech Data's development in the digital integrator space.
• And integrators are taking notice. David Gormley, CEO of AdTech Systems, Wayland, Mass., recently started buying from Tech Data because the company "gets it," he says. "I hate most distributors because they act like distributors. When I met Werner, he seems to be more open to understanding how my business works than others."
• Werner has helped refine the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor's strategy to focus more on professional audio/video and IP surveillance solutions, as well as on a more select customer segment to build the market. He's also helped Tech Data enhance its digital solutions center, where what used to showcase separate displays or audio products has been transformed into a center that shows how multiple products are integrated for a full solution.
• "Everything is tied into an IT infrastructure, emphasizing the entire solution," Werner says. "It's not just displays or controls. There's storage, networking, wireless. We have the complete solution. That's a big difference because it's what our guys [integrators] are providing." —Scott Campbell
  
  
  MIKE SEAMONS
  Director of sales and marketing, Exceptional Innovation
• Mike Seamons, director of sales and marketing at Exceptional Innovation, is approached daily by integrators with a variety of backgrounds—commercial IT, legacy control, pure A/V, security, electrical—looking to work with the company's flagship Lifeware control software, one of the first scalable, cost-effective systems to run on Windows XP and Media Center platforms.
• Seamons recognizes strengths in all the groups but suggests they sharpen their skills in one important area before moving forward. "The most important group to us is the integrators that realize it's not analog that will take the connected home into the future," says Seamons. "It's all about the network."
• Seamons, however, is the type of executive who realizes what it takes to strengthen an integrator and is willing to take the time to make sure they're ready to tackle new markets.
• "I think the unique thing about Mike is he's passionate about the Media Center platform in general, so he's playing a big role in the industry right now in [education]," says Ted Houser, store manager at Glick Audio and Video, a Lancaster, Pa., integrator that recently merged with TCW Computer Systems to better tackle home networking. "Mike's value is he's not just pushing his product, he's pushing the concept of the networked home."
• In the coming months, expect Exceptional to introduce more wireless capabilities into Lifeware, making it even more scalable and easier to implement into homes. "We firmly believe the digital home is the territory of the integrator," Seamons says. "As the technology becomes more sophisticated, the need for more integrators will increase." —Jeff O'Heir
  
  
  WILL WEST
  CEO, Control4
• If anyone deserves credit for driving the concept of home control for the masses and installed by the new breed of digital integrators, it's Will West, CEO of Control4, the Salt Lake City-based developer of home automation solutions.
• In a short two years, Control4 has exploded into the home control arena, partnering with hundreds of integrators and offering not only the technical training they need to excel at home networking, but the business skills they need to sell new technologies. While Control4 initially focused on sales into home construction, the company has introduced a new line of wireless products, with more to come, that open up new opportunities for integrators in the existing home or retrofit market.
• "Home automation has been limited to new homes and the rich," says West, who never fails to maintain a consistent message. "Now we have a product that fits into almost 100 percent of the market. As an integrator, how important is it for them to greatly expand the market?"
• Kirby Wright, vice president of Home Waves, a high-end home integrator in Cumming, Ga., appreciates what West and his company have done to offer an alternative to the expensive systems that were limited to a very small fraction of the market.
• "I was impressed with their vision to take basic home automation and make it accessible to a lot more people," he says. "These guys have done a pretty thorough analysis of the market, recognized the gaping hole in it and have gone after it in a big way." —Jeff O'Heir ALLEN POWELL
  Director of channel sales, Linksys
• Allen Powell is counting on integrators with a combination of technical and sales expertise to help Cisco Systems' Linksys division further tap into the home market.
• Most home users aren't able to navigate the complexities of installing home entertainment equipment, and that spells opportunity for integrators, says Powell, director of channel sales at Linksys, Irvine, Calif. "Solutions for the digital home are still complex, and this complexity represents a huge profit opportunity for our partners," he says.
• Linksys announced in early February a new business unit focused on networked home entertainment products, with home products from its acquisition last year of Danish vendor KiSS featured in the initial rollout. "This is a brand-new market opportunity for us, and I see this as a huge growth area for our integrators as well," Powell says.
• Linksys also is introducing new products into very small business environments, starting with a VoIP phone system aimed at SOHOs. Linksys has built a channel training platform educating partners on its solutions coming to market. "We will have training modules around our Linksys and Linksys One voice platforms ready to go in the March/April time frame," he says.
• In addition to the training Linksys provides to its partners, the vendor's channel efforts focus on clear and consistent communication about new products, services and promotions, which makes them easy to deal with, says Matt Peters, president of Wireless Home, an integrator in Naples, Fla. —Kevin McLaughlin
  
  
  AVI ROSENTHAL
  National program manager, On-Q/Legrand
• Who better to promote the needs of the digital integrator community than a former integrator?
• Avi Rosenthal, national program manager at Harrisburg, Pa.-based On-Q/Legrand, spent eight years running Integrator Concepts, a Florida home integration company, before joining electronics retailer CompUSA in 2003 to work with Florida home integrators. Since he joined On-Q/Legrand in 2004, partners say Rosenthal has been an unwavering advocate for their needs.
• "He knows where we're coming from if we have certain issues, if we have objections with certain builders, clients, design issues. Having done it for so long, he knows what to do and what not to do," says Nick McCullough, president of Norcross, Ga.-based integrator Link Your House.
• In the last year, Rosenthal launched several new initiatives that partners say are already helping them capture new revenue and higher margins. Rosenthal spearheaded a complete redesign of the vendor's Web site to focus more on complete solutions, in-depth setup guides and customizable partner portals. The vendor also developed new marketing tools, including kiosks for integrators and builders to demonstrate On-Q/Legrand products and solutions.
• "Our main focus always has been on our integrators' challenges," Rosenthal says. "It's a partnership, so it's very important that they be involved in winning business, and it's also very important they be involved in developing products." — Michael Gros
  
  
  JAN-LUC BLAKBORN
  Director of digital entertainment, Hewlett-Packard
• Just over a year ago, Jan-Luc Blakborn, Hewlett-Packard's North American director of digital entertainment, offered a cautious assessment of the home integration market. But this year, he says HP is poised for a new assault.
• "HP sees a trend toward a digital lifestyle where a great entertainment experience broadens into a whole-house control solution," he says. "HP, along with our partners in the custom installation and building markets, has the expertise to help make this a reality this year."
• Blakborn has his work cut out for him. "HP, under new CEO Mark Hurd, has refocused on the SMB and enterprise side of its business and let its consumer business slip," says Brian Deeley, president of Graymar Business Solutions, a home and business integrator in Timonium, Md. "It will be interesting to see if HP can have a resurgence [in the consumer/home market]."
• During 2005, HP, Palo Alto, Calif., beefed up both its distribution partnerships and its alliances with CE retailers. From Blakborn's point of view, the most effective way to get to the home integrator is through distributors such as D&H Distributing and New Age Electronics.
• "From custom installers and home builders, users get the expert integration of the solutions, displays, devices and services," he says. "This combined strength creates a total home environment where entertainment is more personal and a digitally connected home is a reality." —Craig Zarley
  
  
  JUSTIN HUTCHINSON
  Group product manager for Media Center, Microsoft
• Microsoft has several execs pushing the integrator charge for Media Edition but the leading man is 33-year-old Justin Hutchinson.
• Hutchinson, the newly-appointed group product manager for Windows Media Center, is working to expand the ecosystem of ISVs, system builders, peripheral manufacturers, digital integrators and service providers to make Media Center the dominant home entertainment platform.
• It hasn't been easy. During the last five years, Microsoft has shipped three specialized editions and updates of Media Center to system builders, many that complain about Microsoft's lack of targeted marketing. But sales are expected to soar well beyond the 6.5 million copies already shipped as the pieces slowly fall into place—solid reliability, native digital cable and over-the-air HDTV support, partnerships with content providers and extender technology.
• Integrators expect a surge in demand and adoption throughout the year as Intel's Viiv platform takes hold and also expect that Microsoft's investment will ramp up once Windows Vista ships. "We've been much more intimate with Intel on the hardware side—Microsoft hasn't been as key," says Denzel Lane, manager of Digital Home PC, Wichita, Kan. "We're looking for more help."
• Hutchinson believes the combined marketing power of WinTel will make the market this time. "The fact that Microsoft and Intel are teaming on digital entertainment means nothing but great things for the channel," he says. —Paula Rooney