Third-party contractors and consultants can be a tech ministry's lifeline, ultimately saving money in the long haul.
It’s a dilemma that probably every church in America has faced at some point.
If I have $10k to spend on a project, do I spend all of that money on equipment and do the install myself, or do I only spend a portion of the budget on gear, and the rest on integrator labor to handle install, commissioning, and support?
For many churches, budgets may be tight, and capital expenses may not happen on a regular basis. So there tends to be a tension to try and get as much value as possible when cash is available, because there’s no guarantee that more may be close behind it.
Thus, since church leadership may already have labor on hand in the form of staff or volunteers, it's tempting to avoid paying for outside manpower.
But is that really the right call?
Yes, I can save money up front by not investing in extra labor. But the downside is that by only looking through a short-term, cost-based lens, I run the risk of actually damaging the organization in the long run.
When I end up handling purchases directly from a manufacturer or box sale website, the weight then ends up on my shoulders to navigate any issues related to faulty products, failure, support issues, formatting/programming challenges, etc.
... by only looking through a short-term, cost-based lens, I run the risk of actually damaging the organization in the long run.
I recently had this conversation with a church that saved thousands of dollars on an LED wall by sourcing the product directly from an overseas manufacturer instead of using a domestic integrator or established reseller.
While it helped them out financially on the day they made the purchase, they immediately ran into issues with the functionality of the wall. They ended up spending money to bring in multiple additional third-party contractors and consultants to try and solve the issue because they were never able to get connected with the original manufacturer to get their support questions answered.
That, in a nutshell, became a microcosm of what many churches face on their own projects. Pressure to do it cheaply. Handle it in-house. Something goes wrong. Can’t get repair or service. Don’t have the time or expertise to fix it on our own. Spend more money to bring in others to solve problems, which may or may not get resolved. Stress and frustration levels grow immensely. Trust with leadership damaged due to perception of making a poor decision.
There’s not necessarily always a cut-and-dry answer on how to handle certain situations, either. At my ministry, we handle purchases both ways. Some things are box sales where our team handles all of the setup and install ourselves. Yet, there are others where we outsource the project to another company to handle, even though we may have the manpower to do it ourselves.
So what are the wins? If it’s more expensive to outsource my project, and I’m expected to be a good steward of the money I’m spending, why not try to do it as cheaply as possible?
Because the “cheap” decision may not always be the “best” decision.
And it comes down to service and support.
Here are important points for church techs to consider as they mull over whether to do things on my their or through a third-party.
There’s tremendous value in professional relationships
Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know.
I can Google something myself or crowdsource a solution on a forum (neither of which are necessarily bad options, by the way), or I can realize that there are folks whose job is to constantly be connected with what the tech industry is doing and know different solutions to put on the table.
Even if I end up doing a job myself, there may still be value in having a service contract or retainer with a local AVL company. If something breaks on a Sunday morning and I’m in a pinch, I can bring those folks in to solve the issue while I’m able to give my focus to other areas of service prep and execution.
That happened to us many years ago. A projector’s power supply died during Christmas services on December 23. A technician from a local company showed up that evening to assess the issue, called the manufacturer, had a replacement part overnighted to his own house, and then showed up on Christmas Eve (a Saturday) to fix the issue before our first service that day. There’s no way I could have ever done that on my own, and the service contract was worth its weight in gold that day.
On my own, I’m just one church out of thousands across the country, and a manufacturer may not really see me standing out in the crowd.
In addition, having relationships with integrators or other types of companies allows me to leverage their relationships and buying power.
On my own, I’m just one church out of thousands across the country, and a manufacturer may not really see me standing out in the crowd. But if an integrator or consultant makes the call on my behalf, perhaps that person or company carries greater name recognition with the manufacturer due to the volume of business they do. Not only might I be able to get a solution faster and cheaper, that may open the door for advanced product replacement, or it might even allow a technician to come on-site to help solve my problem.
Some names carry more weight than mine ever will.
Peace of mind is worth paying for
So, to recap. Can I save money on a project by doing the work myself? Yes, of course.
But now, all of the weight of the potential issues comes back on me and my team.
Maybe we aren’t professionally certified as riggers, but we hung something in our room that ended up having issues. All of the liability and cost from damages comes back on me; there’s no insured third-party rigging company that becomes liable for addressing the issue.
Let these examples speak for themselves: We decided to do our own install for a big system upgrade, or for a campus launch, or a new building construction, and now something’s not working right and there’s only a couple days (or hours) until the opening. There’s nobody to call. All the weight is on me to get the problem solved.
I convinced my leadership that we needed a certain piece of equipment, but when we got it, I had to jerry-rig some things to make it work, which (unbeknownst to me) voided the manufacturer’s warranty, and not it’s not working right. I have to make the walk of shame back to my leaders to ask forgiveness and ask for more money to solve the problem; there’s no integrator willing to go to bat for me with the manufacturer to get it addressed.
Each of these scenarios are absolutely realistic, and it’s likely that we have all either experienced one of them on our own, or we know someone who has.
Spending some extra money to bring in external labor and expertise can absolutely be worth it in the long run. And peace of mind is a large part of the reason why.
When there’s an issue, it’s someone else’s responsibility to fix it. They’re the ones who lose the sleep, not me. When the gear isn’t working ahead of the new building opening, they’re the ones who have to drag in extra labor, not me. When the wrong gear gets ordered, it’s their job to rectify the situation, not mine.
So yes, it may cost a bit more money up front. But is there really a price tag on peace? In many cases, it’s well worth the investment. This is even more true when companies are willing to honor your support needs even after a particular project concludes.
This can never be emphasized enough: try before you buy
Just like I referenced earlier in regards to buying power, third parties may also carry name recognition and street cred that allows doors to open for me that I’d never be able to open on my own.
I may be looking at making a sizable investment into a new digital audio console or video switcher. If I’m trying to tackle the project on my own, I may not have the ability to call the manufacturer directly and ask them to send me a demo unit. They may have limited stock, and if they don’t know who I am or how realistic my purchase might be, they may be hesitant to ship a unit or send a sales engineer to my location to do a demo in person.
Having integrators or consultants involved may help give me extra credibility that allows doors to be opened with a manufacturer. It may make it easier for me to demo products or arrange for a “shoot-out” where multiple products are displayed at the same time.
But if I’m looking at spending significant money, and if I carry the weight of making a good decision and being a good steward with the church’s money, there should be a reasonable expectation that I do all my due diligence before writing a check.
Having integrators or consultants involved may help give me extra credibility that allows doors to be opened with a manufacturer. It may make it easier for me to demo products or arrange for a “shoot-out” where multiple products are displayed at the same time. I may also now have access to some of their other clients who have made similar decisions that I can now ask for feedback or even visit their space to experience things for myself.
Sometimes that name recognition and reputation is worth the extra cost of design fees and commissioning charges, because it opens doors for me that I never would have been able to open on my own.
So, in sum, being a good steward of resources doesn’t always mean that I’m spending the least and doing things as cheaply as possible. It means I’m being wise with my decision and am looking through both a short-term and long-term lens and am considering the people cost as well as the financial.
At the end of the day, I carry the weight of making sure my system if functional on a weekly basis. But I’d always prefer to have as many resources in my corner as possible, just to help me carry the load so I’m not having to bear it all on my own.
