It may be time to rewire the contractor/project business model with services that include recurring monthly revenue (RMR) beyond monitored security and equipment maintenance and service.

Emerging hosting approaches can include video surveillance as a service (VSaaS), remote viewing on mobile devices, virtual guarding, video verification, in the cloud solutions, remote storage and retrieval as well as fully outsourced management of a surveillance system.

Many electronic system contractors (ESC) often know green as motorized shades, LED lighting and home energy management and monitoring. Courtney Baker sees a bigger green. “These are major areas that the dealer/installer community can affect; but being green is a lot more than just saving energy. It is also about indoor air quality, water efficiency indoor and outdoor, material selection and generally being aware of how [a client’s] home ‘should’ work.”

Take Willie Sutton’s advice. When the infamous robber was asked why he targeted banks, he said, “That’s where the money is.”

Monte Guerrette estimates that his firm will face at least a 10 percent increase in its gas at the pump costs this year as compared to 2011. And that is a conservative guess when it comes to volatile gas prices, which go down and up, but mostly up, depending on geography, season, refinery problems, oil supply, world politics and speculators.

Ironically, “in this tight business economy, we have to more often drive longer distances to get business and service accounts,” points out Guerrette, senior project manager with Mid State Electric of Ocala, Fla.

So what’s an integrator to do these days to better manage his or her fleet fuel expenses? Here are seven ways numerous firms use and that can apply to fleets from a handful of vehicles to thousands.

Keith Harrison uses MoCA to speed deployment and improve the profitability of his retrofit projects. Frank Montensinos and Rich Green both see value in MoCA for their residential businesses.

It’s today’s spaghetti western. But, instead of the cut-and-dry of movie stars like Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, rules and regulations that impact today’s system integrator cut myriad ways — there is some good in the bad, there is some bad in the good, and there can be beauty in the ugly — and all are seemingly ever-changing. Regulations can be cumbersome and expensive; some generate more business or higher profits for the integrator; there are reasonable and effective ones; some are unfair.

Just envision the business opportunities in the house of the future. You won’t find traditional furniture styles or old-fashioned appliances. Everything is ultra-modern, a blending of lifestyle and technology.

Back in 1974, when gas was 55 cents a gallon and a worker’s average annual income was about $10,900, his father, Charles, founded the company with a focus on the then solid service business in office intercoms and master antennas. Over those growing pain years and with myriad changes and advances in communications technologies, the business — then consisting of about two handfuls of employees — was critically challenged.

First off, what will happen in 2012 will not happen to every dealer or electronic home system contractor. It all depends on your business model, customer base, region of the country, mix of technology and services, and — oh my — the economy.