This is in reply to Michael Silva,
I agree with most of your statements, but can't help being frustrated with that reality. Businesses hire engineering companies to do the research and build a system that provides the most value to them. I find it somewhat lazy on their part not to look deeper into the options available. It might take a couple phone calls, but it's not hard to find the integration level of the products out there. Sure there are times where the end-to-end is spec'd simply because the customer likes, and is comfortable with that solution. When that's the case, kudos to the manufacturer and integrator for supplying good product and great support. The reality though, is that the later is not the norm.
That's also why post bid you work with your integrators before construction even begins. Building those relationships and putting aside pride to ask questions is what makes many of the great firms stand out from the rest. It's funny sometimes to step back and look at the hierarchy created in some open bid construction work. The engineer, to the general, to the electrical, to the security integrator; we still all work for the customer, and unfortunately we all seem to lose that perspective at times.
We are all busy and don't often have time, but it's amazing how easy it is to work with and go to these firms/contractors after having a simple conversation over lunch; not to pitch product or your business, but to talk stategy and how to meet common goals. Personally, making time for this is not my strong suit which is why I'm glad there are others in my organization that push to work this into our schedules and lately, I've really been seeing the benefit. We've been extremely lucky in our area where most of those entities find value in getting together, working through the design or issues, and finding resolutions based on the experience/knowledge of the group. Sometimes I don't have the best answer or someone's idea uses a product I've never heard of before. It's a great learning tool and hopefully something I remember and can use going forward in future designs.
Lastly when it comes to the finger pointing if something doesn't work well or at all, thats on us as integrators, not the manufacturers. Either we didn't take the time to research the product or didn't speak up when we could have. Yes manufacturer reps can sometimes over sell their product, but its up to us to do followup fact checking. I would rather chance upsetting someone briefly when approaching flawed design than scamble, make excuses, and have unaccounted labor hours trying to coble something together. Been there, done that, trying to learn from it, and it's jawdropping how fast some issues diminish your profit margin. If we follow through on design, provide detail and explain the issues if there are any, but they choose not to listen; well hopefully we did so in an email for documentation purposes when those problems come to fruition.