How does a Custom Design & Installation company build my Smart-Home?
A hypothetical from start to finish
The custom design and installation industry is a relatively young industry and many people either do not know that there are companies offering these services or how a typical Smart-Homes project unfolds. Understandably, the format is quite straightforward and painless, otherwise what are these guys getting paid for?!
What better way to explain this process than through a hypothetical project. Clive will be the client and Patrick will be the project manager for the company ‘Smart-Homes R Us’. Clive’s property is being renovated by building contractor, Bob.
Initial meeting
Clive arranges with Patrick to come round to the property for a site-survey and creative brainstorming. Here ideas and possibilities are discussed so that Clive can get a feel of what is possible, timescales and whether what he is talking about will cost £1000’s or £100 000’s. Patrick’s priority is to not to only understand what Clive wants but also why he wants these things so that he can suggest more options and alternatives.
Design
Following this meeting Patrick’s designers start designing a system using the best suited equipment and technologies to fit the parameters set out by Clive. This initial proposal alongside product literature and a project schedule is submitted to Clive for confirmation, amendments are made until the proposal is finalised. This final proposal acts as a detailed invoice and work begins after Clive makes his first payment.
Off-site Preparation
Having received the funds ‘Smart-Homes R Us’ purchases all the equipment and tests it all on their premises. Work has also started on the necessary technical drawings. Although unnecessary in this instance as Bob has his team of builders, now would also be the time that Patrick would contact his sub-contractors and notify them of the strucutural work that would need to be done.
Installation
Through continued communication between Bob and Patrick, installation begins and continues until finished. Typically Bob’s builders do the structural work and Patrick’s installers do the more technical tasks like testing and terminating cables, and configuring and programming the equipment.
Finalisation
After the final installation Patrick returns to do some final checks and analysis and provide any tweeks if Clive so wishes. Patrick and Clive then shake hands, have a joke about ‘how they battled the odds and got there in the end’, Patrick drives into the sunset with a warm sense of enhancing and adding value to another customers property and Clive either begins preparations for the mother of all night-ins on his own or for the best party he has ever thrown. The end.
