May 15, 2015: With the LED lighting industry growing at a rapid pace, the industry holds enormous business opportunity for all stakeholders, including manufacturers, system integrators, traders, etc. These opportunities include small commercial retrofit projects calling for 100 to 200 bulbs. There are even bigger projects like big government projects. However, the system integrators are not too happy with their position in the industry.
LED system integrators are basically the community that procure all subsystems of a project from different OEMs and integrate them into a project. They are, in fact, the interface between the customer and the OEMs.
So why do so few integrators pursue LED lighting business successfully? Even those who already are doing business in this domain, are looking for new ways to diversify and grow.
Lack of knowledge of the technology: The main challenges that the integrators face are a lack of knowledge of the technology; not knowing what the business model looks like; not knowing which bulbs to buy; and not knowing where to turn to learn what they need to know to proceed.
Most integrators are unaware of the advances made in LED bulb technology over the past few years. But it?s high time that they make themselves conversant with at least the basics of LED technology because more and more residential and commercial customers are now asking for LED-based solutions.
Industry is not user-friendly: The commercial lighting industry is not too user friendly to the integrators. Most lighting supply companies do not have proper catalogues or price sheets; their price quoting is very arbitrary; they do not stock the most innovative, advances and expensive LEDs; most of their products are not certified for quality and reliability.
Manufacturers act as integrators: In the LED industry, many manufacturers act as integrators as well and, therefore, they are in a more advantageous position as they are not only aware of the technology and the developments that are taking place, but can also use the products manufactured by themselves. Here the integrator community find it hard to compete.
Need to re-brand their services as energy management: Many integrators, due to lack of knowledge and lack of marketing strategies, are not aware how to sell their services. Majority of them sell home and light commercial control systems, but hardly a few market their services as energy management products and services. Hence, there is a dire need to re-brand their services as energy management solutions, and re-branding themselves as energy management experts.
Lack of standards: The industry lacks standards for LED lights, making it tough for the integrators to satisfy the customers with quality products. Since LED lights have long lifespan, is is risky for the integrators to stand by the reliability of a product as there is not uniform standards for LED lighting products.
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