I sometimes get questions about our team of Authorized ASD® Installers (AASDI™). They’re our nationwide network of skilled technicians who partner with us to deliver, install, and service our clients from coast to coast. They’re highly qualified, licensed, and vetted to ensure their skill and work ethic are up to our standards, much like “on-staff” employees.
Many of our AASDI techs have worked with us for years and are truly part of our team, even though they’re technically not on staff and don’t receive a W-2 each year.
Even so, there are some misconceptions about working with a technology integrator that leverages 1099 workers. Here at ASD, we consider it a competitive advantage for both our clients and our company, and here’s why.
1. Quality
Some believe that W-2 employees inherently provide better quality work than 1099 technicians. This myth stems from the belief that full-time employees are more invested in the company’s success. However, quality of work is not determined by their employment status but rather by their skill, experience, and dedication to their craft.
Independent technicians understand that their livelihoods and future opportunities depend on the quality of their work, incentivizing them to deliver superior results consistently.
At ASD, every technician — whether W-2 or 1099 — undergoes a stringent vetting process to ensure they possess the necessary certifications, licenses, and experience for the specific tasks at hand. This ensures that only highly qualified individuals are deployed, maintaining high standards of quality.
2. Cost-Effectiveness
Costs incurred by a technology integrator are inevitably passed along to end users, and some of the biggest potential cost factors can be travel, accommodations, and logistics for long-distance projects. An advantage of having a network of technicians who reside in the areas where they’ll perform their work is reduced travel expenses.
For example, an East Coast company responding to an RFP for a project in California may not be competitive if they have to fly their technicians and installers cross-country. Because we have a network of more than 17,000 technicians spread out across the United States, we’re able to keep travel costs to a minimum.
In fact, the larger and more complicated your project becomes the more unrealistic it can be for a technology integrator to staff them with only W-2 technicians. When enterprises run simultaneous projects that span geographies, travel costs and scheduling conflicts become prohibitive.
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3. Scalability
Technology integrators need to respond quickly to the needs at hand, and will have limited resources if they have a dedicated staff of technicians in-house. When workloads are light, technicians may sit idle (adding once again to project costs), or have to be laid off. And when workloads exceed their capacity, it’s difficult to hire enough workers fast enough to meet customer demands.
Scaling for large projects is relatively simple for a company that leverages independent technicians. We’re able to hire faster and for designated time periods because our extensive AASDI partners are already vetted. And because we already have a relationship and know their skill levels, they can hit the ground running.
4. Phasing & Flexibility
Whether to preserve cash flow, minimize operational disruptions, or to coordinate with other projects taking place over time, many organizations want to phase their technology integrations. However, when a technology integrator requires extensive travel for their W-2 technicians, they’ll generally want to perform all the work at once to avoid further travel costs.
Phasing a technology integration is common practice for many organizations, and your schedule shouldn’t be dictated by the technology integrator just because they don’t want to fly their technicians back and forth to your locations. Leveraging technicians who are already in your region allows flexible scheduling to accommodate project requirements like general contractor work or other trades at a job site.
5. Timely Service
Beyond cost, it bears something even larger: speed to react. Making multiple trips because of construction delays, equipment delays, or even customer readiness becomes incrementally more difficult for technicians from outside the region.
Ideally, you can have the right skilled resources in the right places and at the right time for each project. There’s also something to be said about familiarity. Local technicians who frequently work on similar projects, such as multiple installations for a single client, develop a high level of efficiency with the tasks. This repeated experience leads to faster completion times and fewer errors, contributing to higher quality outcomes.
6. Specialty Technical Skills
Certain projects require specialized knowledge that may not be needed on a daily basis, and having them on staff simply doesn’t make sense. Those with niche capabilities often bring specialized skills and extensive experience to the table, continually honing their craft. These types of contracted technicians with specific certifications or experience can be hired temporarily, ensuring expert execution.
Servicing a National Footprint
ASD has cultivated long-term relationships with thousands of its technicians, some spanning more than 15 years. These long-standing partnerships are built on mutual trust and a proven track record of high-quality work.
Our network of technicians are motivated to maintain these relationships and uphold their reputation, which often results in a higher level of dedication and attention to detail.
The Importance of Project Management
For all the advantages of 1099 technicians, things can go awry if a project isn’t managed properly. Communication and coordination of all details are critically important. That’s where a dedicated project manager comes in.
ASD helps ensure success through our on-staff project managers who coordinate AASDI technicians and every aspect of a project, including:
- Regular site visits, daily communication, and defined scopes and milestones
- Ensuring a comprehensive design for the project with a clear set of technology drawings, leading to fewer questions, mistakes, and coordination challenges
- Setting clear expectations of project success and establishing mutually understood objectives up front. This includes everything from the aesthetics of your boardroom touch panel to the nitty-gritty of how you want the back of your rack wired
- Making sure to stage all equipment for a uniform installation, regardless of the system. It's important to define roles and guidelines to ensure the systems installed perform the same way across the client's footprint
- Defining the closeout process and ensuring your users get consistent training and documentation on the systems. This will help create clarity and avoid misunderstandings that lead to unhappy users
- Using project management technology like our proprietary AASDI mobile app to achieve standardized, repeatable outcomes across different markets. Technicians use our mobile app to provide real-time updates, documentation, pictures, and site visit reports, ensuring work is being completed correctly and on time
Why Choose 1099 vs. W-2?
In the end, the choice to use W-2 workers is purely a tax status. It isn’t a guarantee of superior quality or craftsmanship. Nor is it an indicator that a company is taking better care of their people and giving them proper training.
The quality of work delivered by ASD is not a function of the tax status of its technicians but a result of a robust vetting process, strong long-term relationships, specialized expertise, and effective project management. We have worked with and provided training for our AASDI technicians — a 100% contingent workforce — since 1992. By leveraging a network of highly skilled workers, we’re able to ensure that every project is completed to the highest standards of quality and efficiency.
Reach out to us to talk through your low-voltage technology needs and get started by estimating your project costs using our helpful budget calculator below.
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