By Patrick Supanich, Contributor
The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) recently held their annual conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. This article provides a brief recap of the conference and outlines why, as a systems integrator, you can’t afford to miss next year’s conference. And while you’re reading, I provide five reasons why you should think about joining CSIA.
What You Missed at This Year’s Conference
As leader in your business, especially in this industry, it is difficult to set aside the time to assess your organization from afar, learn from your peers and improve your own skills. The CSIA conference gives you that chance.
This year there were some great presentations:
- Alan Beaulieu, a renowned economist, gave his annual presentations on the macroeconomic picture globally.
- Nick Setchell, RealTime CEO, gave a great presentation that blended leadership principles with an innovative approach to financial measurements.
- There were a number of other presentations on legal issues facing integrators, company valuation, customer intimacy, sales strategy, code standardization, Industrial Network Security and social networking.
He provided a convincing argument that good times are here for at least the next five years and you should invest and grow.
This approach provides a very accessible method for the non-accountants to run their business and allow them to make the "Can we?"
and "Should we?"
decisions.
The method was reinforced by Sage Automation’s explanation on how the approach has helped them run their business more effectively.
The biggest problem at this conference is deciding where to allocate your time. For a full list of the presentations from this year’s conference, click here .
In addition, the conference was also attended by over 50 partner members who are product and service suppliers to systems integrators. A list of partner members can be found here . These members, some of which are the biggest names in the industry, have recognized the importance of CSIA and the market opportunity that comes with partnering with its membership.
What is CSIA? And Why YOU Should Care
CSIA (Control System Integrators Association) is an organization whose mission and vision is:
To advance the industry of control system integration to assure that industries everywhere have access to low-risk, safe and successful applications of automation technology.
The organization has its roots in a newsletter started by Charlie Bergman in 1989. This newsletter was designed to “support the evolving profession with information about running a successful business.” After reading about Bergman, I came to the conclusion that his overall intent was to form a community around this profession in the interest of a greater good. Bergman must have had something right. The organization has grown from his newsletter, and an initial meeting of 30 members in 1994, to an organization with over 400 member firms in 27 countries.
Click here to read more about this story .
Five Reasons You Should Join CSIA
Certification
So while membership has its benefits, certification will give your business a "big picture" roadmap for success. I have personal experience with the certification process and, though I cannot say the audit was something I enjoyed, I can attest that having an outside entity measure our organization against best practices was definitely a good thing. As you know, like all industries, there are some bad apples out there. CSIA provides validation to your clients (and maybe you?) that you are not one of them.
The CSIA certification was created by Systems Integrators for Systems Integrators and was designed to grow with your organization. Relevancy that grows with you is not a bad combination.
As CSIA’s Brand Grows, So Too Will Yours
Back in the early days, if one looked at the primary reasons organizations joined CSIA, leveraging the brand was probably not the first and foremost. If it was, they were likely to be disappointed. When I was building an SI office, I remember spending a fair amount of time educating my clients on the organization only to be met with blank stares and then some eventual appreciation. However, this is changing. Every year the brand strengthens.
Through marketing and public relations by the members and the organizations, the message is being heard. Clients and vendors are taking notice. Probably the best evidence for this is highlighted by these “biggest concerns” at this year’s conference:
- How do you address and enforce non-CSIA members falsely claiming they are?
- Concern among non-certified CSIA members that clients will make certification an assessment criterion before they get certified.
The Community
CSIA is a vibrant community. The willingness of the members, who are often competitors, to share their successes, ideas, struggles and failures so openly is to be admired. I believe it comes from the difficult nature of this business. Just knowing that there are others facing the same adversity can prompt you to share yours. Charlie Bergman's philosophy was that "for every idea you share you will get ten back" and I believe the organization still reflects this today.
Being a part of this community has another benefit. Let’s face it, when you are the guy in charge, you can sometimes lull yourself into complacency. Being surrounded and interacting with your competition at the annual conference can validate that complacency or strike fear into you. Either way you owe it to your organization to see which will occur. It is very likely there is someone operating as "best in class" in an area of the business that you can learn from.
Networking, Networking, Networking
For those just starting their integration business, this is a place to learn from those who have been there. They can provide you the insights and lessons learned that will help you in the struggles you will eventually face. For those seasoned veterans you can share your wisdom, reminisce on days gone by or better yet, identify and partner with that up-and-coming integrator.
Additionally, CSIA is an international organization. So if it’s international relationships you are looking for, I cannot think of a better place to grow your network. At this last conference, I met individuals from Thailand, Australia, The Netherlands, Croatia and Columbia. If your organization is looking for an international partnership, you just may find it through CSIA.
The Conference
The fifth reason to join the CSIA is simply “The Conference.”
See above for what you missed this year and mark your calendar for next year’s conference to be hosted in San Diego, California.
Conclusion
I wonder if Charlie Bergman ever imagined what would result from the seed he had planted with that first newsletter. I read once that Bergman expressed to his wife that he was concerned about not being remembered and his family name not living on. She told him that maybe an idea rather than his name would be how he could endure. It seems that she was right.
About the Author
Patrick Supanich is a BSEE graduate of Michigan Technological University. He chose an Automation career after graduation when he went to work for 3M Company as a Systems Engineer. After 6 years at 3M, Patrick took a year-long sabbatical to travel the world. Upon return he founded and built a successful Systems Integration office for Tegron.
After 8 years with Tegron, Patrick joined Automation.com with a goal to serve witness to the changing field as well as provide his thoughts and observations on the industry.
