Firefly Design Group: Intelligent Design

When you first dreamed of creating your new business, did you think it would be all about spending time with clients, trying to design and install systems that would "wow" them?

Do you now realize most of your day-to-day duties are actually more about general business drudgery?

One company, Firefly Design Group Inc. in Hollywood, Fla., says integrators can benefit from some help with the design and documentation that can lead to more profitable sales and to referrals.

As an outsourcing programming specialist, the company helps free up resources so integrators can concentrate on their own areas of expertise.

Ron Callis, who has a strong engineering background as well as sales experience with both Lutron and Crestron, spent years meeting with integrators. This led him to realize many of them fell short in certain areas.

So, he created Firefly to partner with integrators and work with them throughout the entire job process -- from the initial sales contract to the final completion of the project.

The idea is to offer a level of service that will enable the integrator to become more profitable, Callis explains.

"Through my experience working with integration firms, I saw that they had the potential to sell. They were capable, they came up through the industry and they knew how to design systems.

"But the integrators fell short on the documentation of systems and engineering, and they didn't spend enough time up front to engineer for the most successful job," he says.

To date, Firefly's design and process assistance has gleaned some impressive results for integrators:

• A project that was initially bid for $650,000 catapulted to $1.3 million after six weeks of design upgrades.
  
• Using an improved proposal (as opposed to a simple Excel spreadsheet), Firefly had a five-minute meeting with an integrator and a homeowner/client that closed the sale and increased the contract by $40,000.
  
• 50 percent to 100 percent increases in profit margin on design, engineering and documentation fees.

More than Just a Design Firm

While there are a number of design firms out there helping integrators with jobs, Firefly hopes to go a step further by helping integrators increase profitability.

"We offer a lifecycle approach to process. We're not looking to be just a design firm," Callis explains.

"We partner with dealers on a 12-month basis and work with them throughout the entire sales process. We believe with more documentation up front, the integrator can close more sales and become more profitable," he says.

"We help with the proposal, offer drawing sets with device locations, motorized window shade designs … basically, whatever it takes to complete the job."

Callis says that Firefly anticipates that the end-customer won't always accept the first version of a proposal. In fact, he says it's common for two or three versions to be drafted prior to the signing of a contract.

"We provide some documentation up front and the rest after the sale has been signed and after each change order," he says. "We get them the documentation needed over however long the whole process takes."

Firefly offers such services as:

• Proposal generation with detailed low-voltage product specifications.
  
• Low-voltage construction drawings.
  
• Diagrams indicating signal flow.
  
• Rack configuration drawings.
  
• Cabinetry construction drawings.
  
• Specific BTU calculations for HVAC requirements.

Firefly also offers custom touchpanel template creation and artistic renderings of architectural spaces. It can help with customer expectation management, project budget development and contractor selection, too.

Some of the systems the company works on include single-room entertainment systems, audio and video distribution systems, lighting control systems, phone and data networks, security and surveillance camera systems and other low-voltage-controlled sub-systems.

"Our typical integration partner is an experienced, CEDIA-affiliated company with an appreciation for teamwork and 'out-of-the-box' thinking," Callis notes.

In addition to integrators, Firefly works with what it calls "specifier partners" -- interior designers, architects, lighting companies and others. It will also design systems for homeowners, who want to have a set of specs they can then shop around to local integration firms for competitive bids.

As part of its business model, Callis says that Firefly will only work with one or two carefully selected partners in each market it enters.

"By deliberately limiting ourselves within each market," he explains, "our partners are assured that they will be thoroughly differentiated from their competition."

In terms of the value the company offers, Callis tells the story of one integrator who brought Firefly onto a project that had already been contracted for $650,000.

After doing the design and engineering (along with some upgrades to the job), the project was re-signed at $1.3 million.

In another instance, a female homeowner was frazzled on the job site. Callis met with her and also with the integrator. The trio decided to grab lunch. Callis brought a well-designed proposal package with him.

"In five minutes, over a Chinese lunch, we not only closed the sale, but increased it by $40,000," Callis recalls. "And best of all, the customer got the system she really wanted."

Focusing on Its Partners

Callis says Firefly works strictly as a consultant.

The integrator's client never knows of the partnership; its services are designed to work seamlessly with the integrator's company. Moreover, the integration company is never forced to conform its way of doing business to fit in with Firefly's business model.

"We start our partnership with all new clients with a 'client intake discovery meeting," Callis says. "This typically takes about three or four hours. We discuss what products they sell, how they design their systems and basically find out exactly how they run their business."

All of that information then goes into a platform, he says. "This allows our designers to understand how this integrator works and likes its systems designed."

Then, Firefly designers can work within the established parameters to design a system with which the client will be comfortable.

Once the integrator's platform is created, Firefly provides the client with its "Project Intake" package -- a comprehensive set of questions for the salesperson to ask the end client about the wants and needs of the system to be designed.

The Project Intake package covers all aspects of the upcoming job so no information is left out regarding the design. The information is then transferred to Firefly's designers in an electronic format.

Maximizing Referrals & Sales

One area in which Callis believes integrators often drop the ball is in focusing on referral business.

"The end-customers are spending a lot of money on these systems," he says. As such, he believes integrators need to invest more time in gathering referral-based business.

To help his clients concentrate on doing that, Callis creates "brag books."

"Brag books" are coffee-table-type books that can be put in various high-end formats, including being leather bound. "We include the reformatted and polished versions of all of the engineering documentation that has gone into the project." Callis says.

The "brag books" also incorporate the integration company's logo throughout the book. They showcase "the extensive design that has gone into the system," he says.

The idea is to create something the end-clients will show to all of their friends. "It should definitely help generate more referral business," Callis says.

Firefly also gives a sales portfolio to its integrators. It includes all of the company's marketing verbiage and showcases its approach to design.

"This has helped our clients get more business and increase sales," Callis explains. "We have one client in the Bahamas that showed the portfolio to an architect. The architect said he'd never seen anything like that before and said, 'if they deliver this much now, it can only get better from here.'"

Dealing with a Tough Economy

Even though the U.S. economy has taken a downward turn, wealthy people tend to always have some expendable income.

Even so, the integrators that service this clientele may not be so secure. It's for this reason that Callis believes his company can be of service.

"By using our services, it costs our clients less money and they get more out of the relationship," he says, adding that Firefly's offerings allow integrators to "repurpose their current employees" since design duties become Firefly's responsibility.

Callis has found one way his clients maximize Firefly's services is by designating a certain dollar amount at which point design services are outsourced.

"For a job that costs over a certain amount, the integrator will have our company do the design work," he explains.

Firefly bills its services against a retainer. This allows the integrator to determine how much business to send to Firefly.

Callis sets a good guideline for dealers. He suggests charging engineering fees between 5 percent and 10 percent of the gross project value.

Firefly's costs typically run between 3 percent and 6 percent of the overall job cost. Dealers can mark up those outsourced services however high they want.

Callis does make the point that in order for an integration company to charge customers a line item for design, engineering and documentation services, it actually has to provide those services.

If a company does not legitimately engineer and design the system, it should not charge the customer.

"The dealer must believe their engineering, documentation and processes are of the highest caliber in order to successfully look his customer in the eye and tell them why he charges for those services," Callis says.

Expanding the Company

Firefly's client base is currently in South Florida, the Caribbean and Las Vegas. It is expanding into New York and London. It is also expanding its business in a few other ways.

One of the ways the company is expanding is by the institution of a new training component. Firefly will be bringing in a special trainer to teach courses to integration companies.

Courses are already underway or being planned.

The company will also be releasing its Project Intake documentation as a separate product available to all. Callis calls the documentation a "system for gathering information."

"It is a great way to formalize a sales meeting," he says. Firefly has training available for the product.

Callis believes the Project Intake tool will help integrators focus on pricing.

"What should determine price is the scope of work," he says, "including what you want the system to do and what products you will use."

Donna Englander is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer.