Crestron Electronics has been a stalwart of the AV integration industry since 1972. The Rockleigh, NJ-based company is a leader in creating innovative technologies for its thousands of authorized integrators serving the commercial AV and residential smart home industries.
That leadership role is one reason Crestron has partnered with D-Tools in its i3 Partner Program for the past seven years.
“We joined because we polled our dealers, and the bulk of our dealers are on the D-Tools platform,” says Bob Bavolacco, director of strategic partnerships at Crestron. “So we knew we had to do something deeper with D-Tools to provide our dealers with a value-incented program.”
Using the proprietary Insights+ dashboard that D-Tools has created for Crestron, a wide array of Crestron team members gain access to valuable data that helps mold the company’s product development, sales programs and inventory levels.
“We look at the data that is in the i3 Insights program in multiple ways,” says Bavolacco. “The sales team looks at the data to see what’s happening in the early pipeline stage before deals get to the maturity stage where they become sales for us. Our product team also uses the information.
“Everything points back to D-Tools, which is why we decided to invest in the Insights+ program. It’s the voice of the dealer."
-- Bob Bavolacco, Crestron Electronics
“When we do our product planning and our roadmaps for the following year, we like to understand what is being spec’ed and what are the use cases being built with our solutions so we can make those refinements and invest in the solutions that our dealers are spec’ing.”
He continues, “It helps us understand inventory levels. If we see a bunch of products starting to be scoped within the application, we may need to implement buffer stock. Crestron certainly does not want to go negative inventory. A few years ago, we had some inventory challenges, and we want to make sure our products are ready to ship the minute the dealer specs them.”
Bavolacco says Crestron’s decision to partner with D-Tools in the i3 Partner Program is validated regularly.
“Everything points back to D-Tools, which is why we decided to invest in the Insights+ program. It’s the voice of the dealer. We did not make this decision blindfolded. We literally vet with our dealers what works for them and what doesn’t, and D-Tools always bubbles up to the top year after year,” he notes.