Exclusive Lighting Solutions: How a Small Company’s Innovation is Creating Big Results

Earlier this week I sat down with Trevor Orrick, CEO of Exclusive Lighting Solutions. For those unfamiliar with what Exclusive Lighting Solutions (ELS) has been doing, ELS is a lighting control integration company that is leveraging the power of the web to expand its market reach. ELS is a lighting control integration company that is leveraging the power of the web to expand its market reach. I’ve worked closely with Trevor in the past, and I knew he typically thinks on a little larger scale than most integrators I’ve talked with, so I was interested to get his thoughts on the industry. ELS is looking at the business from a different perspective, and hopefully you’ll gain some insights that will help you run your own company.

LC Pros: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. It’s been a while since I talked with you. What’s new?

Trevor: Thank you! Well, we’ve got a lot of interesting things we’re working on. Our biggest project right now I can’t really discuss yet, but whenever we launch, you’ll be one of the first to know.

LC Pros: Nice! Any hints?

Trevor: Sadly no, sorry.

LC Pros: No problem, can’t wait to hear more. For now, give us some insight into how you run your business, and a little bit of your history. Talking with you on the phone, I was really impressed by some of the things you’ve done to streamline your workflow.

Trevor: Sure. Well, first of all, we started out like most any integration company. I had a company called AV Exclusive which performed AV integration for high-end residential projects. In early 2004, we started to notice product quality of AV equipment really drop. A large portion of our work became maintenance work. At the same time, we became dealers for Lutron and started integrating lighting control into our projects. When we sat down with clients, the lighting control portion of the project was a very easy sell. Audio-video, on the other hand, became difficult to sell, particularly when the economy went south. Clients perceived lighting control as an investment in their home, but perceived audio-video as an optional luxury with a limited functional life. After seeing this happen a couple times, we decided to setup an entirely separate company to focus strictly on lighting control, called Exclusive Lighting Solutions. In our area, we have one of the best Independent Lutron Homeworks Authorized Programmers (HAP) in America, Kevin Mikelonis. His company Process DSG was instrumental in setting up Lutron’s HAP certification program, and in fact is the first person in the world to be a Lutron HAP.

LC Pros: Wow, you didn’t mention that on the phone.

Trevor: Yes, we’re pretty fortunate to be able to work with him. So Kevin’s methodical process of laying out a lighting design really influenced how we approach our process. We’ve seen a lot of lighting projects, and for the most part, we saw that most integrators approached every project with a clean slate. In other words, every project was a custom project, started from scratch. There were very little standards or design protocols in place to make the process streamlined and repeatable. We felt that if we set up standards, every project we took on would simply be a compilation of our pre-designed modules and would be more quickly completed with greater consistency. With the help of Kevin, we developed a number of system specification tools. We can look at a set of plans, run the spec’s through our tools, and have a baseline program, parts list and estimated project cost within hours, instead of days, as is typically the case. You’d be surprised how much of a difference speed makes in the bidding process. Being able to get a proposal off to a client in hours really sends a professional message, and it makes our time more effective and profitable.

LC Pros: Are you going to make your tools available to other integrators?

Trevor: Right now, I don’t believe so. In the future, when more integrators realize the necessity of standardization, we may put together a package, but right now we’re not focused on that.

LC Pros: Sure, ok. So then you decided to offer your services online, right? How is that working out for you?

Trevor: Right. We looked at what was currently available online as far as lighting control system design, and saw that very few integrators were using the Web to market themselves. I couldn’t imagine not using the Web. I immediately tasked my webmaster with creating a site to represent us, as well as provide useful information for other lighting control integrators. He compiled a comprehensive database of Lutron’s products and made a searchable product library with Tech Spec’s, installation instruction sheets, compatibilities, the whole bit. We got very positive feedback from this feature. I’m sure you’ve checked it out already, but you should encourage your readers to go check it out. The page-flipping interface is gorgeous.

LC Pros: Will do. (Check it out here: Homeworks 8 Processor )

Trevor: So after launch, we got articles in CE Pro, Buildings, and a few other smaller industry outlets. We started to get calls from all over the world. East Coast, West Coast, London, Germany, Dominican Republic, you name it. We were pretty excited. We could provide reliable, consistent lighting control system design to any client, anywhere they needed it. And it was working.

LC Pros: Interesting. Have you ever wondered why other integrators aren’t doing this yet?

Trevor: Absolutely. But a big part of our breakthrough was simply a change in perspective. Our industry is typically a geography-based dealer model, for service and support reasons. With IP login capabilities, though, we no longer need to be at the project site to take care of the programming and system upkeep. We decided to flatten the current model, and make it a value-based service-provider model, with no limitations of geography or location. So, to answer your question, I think it’s simply a matter of old thinking perpetuated by industry examples.

LC Pros: I agree. Well, thank you for sitting down with LC Pros, Trevor.

Trevor: Absolutely, thank you for having me.

LC Pros: Any last hints or tips for my readers?

Trevor: Work smarter. When faced with a task, look at it from the perspective of a business model. What is the current method of accomplishing this? Is it efficient? If not, how can it be made more efficient? If so, how can I add more value for my client? To use the old Apple mantra, Think Different. I think that’s been our greatest asset thus far, simply different thinking.