How’s the industry doing in this recession?

I thought I’d try to answer the question that I get asked most often these days, how’s the industry doing? Well, I think it is much like most other industries in that the global recession has hurt, but most audience response companies are hanging in there.

I have spoken with at least a dozen business mangers in the industry and they report that since early November sales are down by anywhere from 15% to 35% depending upon a given company’s product mix. So, most have had to cut costs to the bone. Of these, the highest profile is Turning Technologies cutting about 30% of their workforce.

The thing is, the users of this technology really need it more now than they did before. And as a service provider, I find it very frustrating that corporate users still aren’t taking the tool more seriously. These days, most corporations are going through major upheavals. The world is changing faster than we forecast. There are dozens of new issues to deal with day in and day out. So, business managers need data from the front lines faster than ever.

The best tool out there for communicating exactly what is happening in the field and for developing plans to deal with what is happening is an audience response system. Don’t they see it? Why not?

For an organization to be light, nimble, maneuverable and dead-on effective it needs feedback from those in the trenches. And to get that feedback, you’ve got to bring the people together and talk about what’s happening. Yes, it will cost a few bucks to do that. But, it’s the only way to survive these brutal economic times.

Audience Response System Demand

Infocomm 2008 in Las Vegas (June 18-20) this year was hot, and not just because the temperature hit 107 degrees by 12:30 pm. From my vantage point, traffic seemed quite strong. In fact, Infocomm states that attendance was over 38,000 people, an increase of more that 5,000 over last year in LA.

I spent my time in ComTec’s booth of course, where we focused on Fleetwood’s audience response system hardware. In general, interest was extremely high in Reply Mini and Mini Plus. It was my first look at Mini Plus and I have to say, this product is going to be a winner. It’s due to launch this summer.

In my view, the fact that with the Reply Plus product line you can have a full featured keypad with an LCD, or a “smaller than credit card” sized keypad (no LCD) is huge. As a rental service provider I can fill any traditional customer need with this combination, providing either a power based or a price based solution. And in either case, I don’t forfeit quality.

Reflecting on the show, it struck me just how educated most potential buyers were. Most knew exactly what they were after, asking questions like “can this system support a 300 seat auditorium and avoid 2.4 GHZ wi-fi?”

It was also nice to see a number of industry friends who I haven’t seen in . . . well, too long. Padgett Communications hosted a cocktail party for “Friends of ComTec” who attended the show, and what a great time we had. Thanks Todd.

ComTec Releases Software for Reply Plus

ComTec has recently announced the release of software for Fleetwood’s latest audience response system, Reply Plus. Unity Plus which targets decision making and Synthesis Plus which targets learning support are both available in sizes from 100 to 15,500 keypads.

Elect Plus which is designed for parliamentary proceedings is due for release in the third week of December. Elect will also support the maximum 15,500 keypads on initial release.

All three software applications allow multi-digit entry so audience members can easily log in with an employee or student number for easy identification to the system. Standard polling questions can have up to 20 choices each. Demographic questions can list up to 99 groups, and priority questions can include up to 99 issues.

Both Unity and Synthesis now include a multiple entry type question that allows users to enter a number of up to 9 digits. Data is then displayed based on a maximum of 20 user defined ranges. With Synthesis, multiple entry data can also be saved on-the-fly to a text file, for easy import into other applications.

I have had the opportunity to test the combination of ComTec software and Reply Plus quite extensively over the past 3 weeks and find this system to be extraordinarily robust, stabile, and easy to use. For those considering a system purchase, I’d look no farther.

Audience Response Systems at InfoComm 2007

InfoComm was in Anaheim California this year and according to InfoComm staff, there were a record breaking 30,000 attendees. While I did get around to most of the exhibits, I focused on the audience response system companies, of course.

There are two main conclusions that I am able to draw from the time spent talking with vendors. First, the audience response industry continues to grow rapidly. Second, not all vendors are benefiting from the growth. It seems to me that quality is more important than ever. Those who are out there doing quality work day-in and day-out are being rewarded. And those who are not, receive very little repeat business.

I counted roughly 18 companies who are now selling systems. That’s a major change from years ago when there were typically only 4 or 5. Even so, every one of them seemed to be busy with strong traffic and truly interested visitors.

While I did see a few new products, I was most interested in Fleetwood’s ‘key fob’ keypad. It’s a very small device, about the size of your car’s keyless entry remote and like that remote, hangs nicely on a key ring. It has just five buttons, but Fleetwood’s Pat Moody states that they may develop a version with either 7 or 10. I’m not sure yet exactly how it will be used, but I do know that it will be a very ‘hot’ product upon release.

As many of you know, I am also involved with ComTec Audience Response Systems. So, I spent some time staffing their booth. It was a huge effort for ComTec’s staff to make this first-ever appearance at InfoComm, especially since they were moving offices at the same time. Nice work guys. . . next year will be a cakewalk. :-)

New Reply Audience Response System

Rumor has it that Fleetwood will be introducing a new audience response system at Infocomm this year. It is supposed to be much like Reply Worldwide, but with a slightly smaller footprint, thinner, and with an LCD.

Interestingly, it is a multi-digit system. I assume that the multi-digit capability will be something less than that found with Reply IQ, as it appears to position between the Worldwide and IQ platforms.

I expect to have more info in the next couple of weeks.

What Happened To ResponseCard?

A number of customers and partners have been asking why we no longer sell ResponseCard and “is there a problem that we should know about?”

Well, there are no problems that we are aware of. The sole reason for no longer selling ResponseCard is the new contract that Turning Technologies is requiring dealers to sign.

There are three major issues that Rich and I simply could not agree to. First, we would have to agree to not sell any competitive product. Second, we would have to agree to sell at list price, regardless of quantity. And third, our discount was reduced.

While we could live with the lower discount, we felt that eliminating competition and selling at list price only is not in the customer’s best interest. Of equal importance, we felt that these two requirements might even be a violation of U.S. anti-trust law. Although I am not a lawyer, I do know that any attempt by two or more companies to fix pricing or eliminate competition is a potential violation, and we simply could not be a party to it.

One of our partners here in NJ who we have known for about twenty years has decided to sell the product. So, if you have purchased equipment from us and need support, please do contact either Rich or me. We’ll put you in direct contact with our partner where you will be well cared for.

Where are we going?

Every once in a while, it’s good to stop and think about where you are going, and for what purpose. In the audience response industry, not very many vendors do this. Perhaps the five largest companies do it routinely, but if so, they don’t have enough influence on the others to really affect any sort of industry wide change.

I am in the unique position of having relationships with close to thirty different audience response companies around the world and I tend to communicate with these folks regularly. While I can’t say that I know everything that they are planning, I do know enough to get a sense of where they are going.

Based on that, I’ll take a shot at predicting the future, at least the short term future. First, I would say that the market overall is growing quickly and broadly. It seems to me that interactive meetings and interactive classrooms are becoming mainstream technologies, and may have already reached that point. The companies that receive the biggest benefit of this are the manufacturers, including Fleetwood, Turning Technologies, IML, and others.

In general, businesses continue to engage their audience with this technology and although interactive systems have been in broad use for a decade, there is no sign of market fatigue. The same seems to hold true with higher education. These folks are spending lots of money on classroom response systems and there’s no sign of declining demand.

The most intriguing segment though is public schools, commonly referred to as k-12. While most would agree that kindergartners don’t need wireless keypads as learning tools, it is equally apparent that high-school students do.

Because the size and cost of handhelds are moving lower rapidly, and because higher education has already worked out the issues of ownership and logistics, high-school classrooms are in my view the next big market opportunity for student response system vendors.