In the latest report from a great data construction firm, ConstructConnect, Prisons as a category was listed as -39% year over year in terms of construction movement. And yet, prisons as a category in the same report later on in a table is reporting Prisons +1124.7% year over year.

Can both be true?

A closer look seems to suggest that the -39% refers to year-over-year change in September 2025 project counts (i.e., how many prison projects entered planning that month vs. the same month a year ago). The +1,124.7% reflects the year-over-year change in total project dollar volume (not project count) for all prison-related construction projects year-to-date through September.

So both ARE true.

But that makes it confusing, doesn’t it?

The numbers suggest a small number of very large prison projects entered the pipeline in 2025, but in September, fewer new prison projects were initiated compared to Sept. 2024.

My question is, then, so what?

Or should I say, who cares?

What is important to know is that if prisons are your target, there are identifiable architects and engineers doing that work, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THESE NUMBERS SUGGEST.

So the real question is: do you go after the people controlling the projects, or settle for knowing some of the numbers for your dashboard you may be building in a category?

Lock Them Up

Relationship building takes time. You can’t get on a spec with one sales call, or one email blast. To reach your target audiences, integrated campaigns demonstrating unique knowledge has been and always will be the key to successful sales.

We took a look at prisons to provide you some techniques to shape your communications if that is your market. If prisons are not your market, the same techniques can be applied to ANY category you are aiming at. Because the point is, we’re after relationships not numbers.

Step One: Create a Dataset.

Using platforms like ConstructConnect gives you tremendous first-look access to any category to begin building relationships. The dataset we created for this exercise involving prisons looks like this for the planning stage of prison projects:

• Total Projects Listed: 574
• Architects serving these projects: 96
• Engineers serving these projects: 75

As mentioned, we’re after the people BEHIND the projects.

Step Two: Identify the firms where the people are.

These numbers confirm  that the top 10 firms building prisons (only a subset of a much larger pool of participants across the dataset) are in the table below. We have to start somewhere!

Step Three:
Where are these projects with these firms located?

By dollar volume, here is where those projects are being built in the top ten states.

• New York
• South Dakota
• Washington DC
• Tennessee
• Ontario
• Hawaii
• Arkansas
• Georgia
• Colorado
• Kentucky

But by number of prisons, here are the states where the projects are being built:

• California
• Texas
• North Carolina
• New York
• Florida
• Ohio
• Louisiana
• Georgia
• New Jersey
• Washington

Step Four: Average Per Project

While you can now begin building relationships by firms based on the states in either volume or number of projects, a better way is to get the average cost per project in those states. When you do that, your target grid looks like this for prisons:

As much as we’d all like to fly to Hawaii to start a relationship with the BIG ONE, you’re better off doing the numbers game. Aiming at New York with 34 projects (even though the average per project is lower than almost all of them) gives us more targets to shoot at. And more targets, more chances to start and build a relationship.

Step Five: Focus

Looking strictly at New York, here are the architectural firms doing the work:

• Azar Design Co – Albany
• BCA Architects Engineers – Troy
• BCA Architects Engineers – Watertown
• GHD – Syracuse
• HOLT Architects – Ithaca (HQ)
• SMRT Architects & Engineers – Schenectady
• Spring Line Design Architecture + Structural Engineering
• Trautman Associates
• Urbahn Architects – New York

GHD – Syracuse is a huge architectural AND engineering company. With some investigative reporting on LinkedIn, you will find Kyle Morris, AIA, NCARB who is the Senior Architect at GHD doing the work. For variety, let’s also aim at South Dakota as well. In that state, only one firm is doing the work – nelson worldwide, LLC — and if we do some detective work with LinkedIn, we’ll find Meghan Vincent, AIA, NCARB is the one doing it.

Step Six: Attack!

The final step is to hatch your marketing and sales strategy. Emails, phone calls, CEUs, PR, Case Studies with your product, everything is on the table for review. You might find my blog Should I Sell to a Group or an Individual? helpful in planning your strategy.

So what are you waiting for?

Most prison construction projects are bid on using either a traditional design-bid-build or a more modern design-build process, based on highly detailed specifications provided by the government. Bidders must demonstrate they can meet strict security, performance, and budgetary requirements.

In the same way, your attack strategy should follow the guidelines that are used when responding to the specifications themselves.

 Master the target: Your communications plan must meticulously review all provided documents, backgrounds, design philosophies and how your product fits in.

• Calculate highly detailed analysis: Your attack plan must always include the cost savings, performance efficiencies, etc. that your product brings to the table. This is especially true in the prison market, where detention-grade materials, advanced security systems, and robust construction techniques are used.
• Demonstrate experience: Your communications should be competitive and transparent, and show the target why you are the best provider, which often includes a review of past performances.
• Show financial stability: Your communications should demonstrate your financial capacity to handle the project and background.

Like I said: what are you waiting for? Let us know how we can help, and good hunting! Contact jim@interlinegroup.com for information on this report.

The post Prison Break! How to Use Data to Tap the Prison Market appeared first on Accountability Information Management.

Predicting potential sales or the overall business outlook whether for a manufacturing company, a supplier or any company for that matter is not an easy task because doing it involves considering a myriad of economic, market, and industry-specific factors.

The complexity is because of the changes that occur frequently in all of those factors[1]; nothing much stays the same with the variables of the world wherein each business operates. This is especially true of trends operating in the “social media” world and the world at large. In other words, your decision to follow trends or create them will be based on “roving data.”

For example, fashion is one of those markets that creates trends at a clip. Historically, these trends were thought to follow a 20-year cycle, rising in popularity, fading, and then returning with a modern twist. However, the rise of social media and fast fashion[2] has condensed this cycle, with trends sometimes rising and falling in a matter of months. And while in B2B may be looked upon as more slow moving, the pace of economic data trends feeding product development has been increasing.

Social media influencers perhaps more than most can promote items or brands that go viral, leading to mass consumption. These “influencers” are not limited to what we think of as traditional influencers on Instagram; architectural firms, engineering firms themselves become influencers in terms of the specifications they create. Design and merchandising technologies have reduced the time it takes for trends to reach a market. Condensing time is a function of technology, and it also increases the amount of change in trends themselves.

Another example is social media in and of itself. Trends on social media seem to change daily, as content drives engagement, traffic, and conversions back and forth like a ping-pong match. For example, TikTok trends can last as little as 2–3 weeks. Trends in any industry – especially like B2B — may seem stagnant or circular in comparison (witness what’s happening with electrification in the HVAC industry). However, that perception is just that: a perception[3].

Sometimes, a type of cycle is repeated, giving the impression that “nothing changes.” In one case, an influencer or celebrity may write, “Traditional kitchens are moving out of fashion, open shelving taking their place.” Or, “white kitchens tend to be sterile and lacking personality. In reality, there is so much room to customize the space you spend the most time in.” Both are seeking to shape perceptions and not necessarily what you would call “reality.”

For example, the 2024 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, indicated that 46% of the consumers surveyed preferred white cabinets—an increase of six percentage points from 2023 research. This supposedly proves that despite some perceptions on the market, that the trend of “white kitchens”  is changing. White is still “in.” Or is it?

Source: 2024 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study | © Houzz Inc

Remember the trend toward automated faucets started years ago? And yet, you still have the majority of specifications are for manual faucets.

There are many reports out there that talk about product trends and can vary based on your search criteria. In fact, using artificial intelligence (AI) to find current research on the product trends for kitchens or housing or any other market, adds to the already-several different sources of research on trends.

Not only does Houzz publish several reports on trends, but other associations, research companies or organizations related to homes or kitchens publish information—National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), National Home

Builders Association (NHBA), National Association of Realtors (NAR) are some of them. Even manufacturers themselves will publish information on what’s trending, as do the value-chain participants like architects.[4]

Keep in mind, basing your business strategy on trends alone is risky. While it’s important to know and understand what’s trending, there are other factors that affect the trends themselves which should be part of your business strategy calculations. You should at a minimum ask yourself if you follow or create these “trends.”

For example, Table One presents the ranking of how companies involved in the housing market answered a question: What do you see are the biggest challenges facing your business in 2024?

Table One. Ranking of how respondents answered the question about the biggest challenges facing their  business in 2024?

Manufacturers see interest rates as their biggest challenge, while suppliers see labor and employee retention as the number one issue. In 2021, an Interline blog post – “77 Biggest Challenges in Business Today Boiled Down to One” showed us this:

Table Two: Results of compiling Google’s responses to the question, “What’s the biggest challenge in business today?”

There are some striking similarities (the importance of the “right” people in the jobs) between the past and the present. In fact, there doesn’t seem much that changes in terms of business challenges does it? Note, too, that “trends” itself is never mentioned as a factor influencing business strategies either in the past or the present surveys. Does that mean we should ignore them?

The question is actually what “trends” are going to help my business when it comes to overcoming these factors? Is there a trend that will do this, or do I have to create one? While an individual company doesn’t have control over interest rates, one company began competing with banks who do by offering their own terms to key accounts on purchases in volume. In short, different ways should be examined on using trends or creating them to help a business create a business strategy.

Our conclusion at that time and this was the root cause of all business problems was: finding and retaining customers. Without customers, there is no business. The question is, who is your customer?

That is still the conclusion today…but it’s also the problem: customers have splintered into a wider variety of “types” than ever before. So before deciding on which trends to follow or create and which to ignore in your business strategy, it is important to review customer fragmentation and these “new” targeted groups.

We would be happy to help you. Contact us, or read Part 2 in this series: Cutting the Gordian Knot. If you want a convenient of the entire series in one pdf file, email inquiries@a-i-m.com. Thanks for reading!

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[1] The Bureau of Labor Statics for example publishes preliminary estimates of employment, hours, and earnings about three weeks after a reference period, but then revises them twice, with the second preliminary estimate published the following month and the final estimate published two months after the initial release. If you watch this, your head will spin, and make strategy development difficult (i.e., in May 2024, BLS revised the number of job openings up by 90,000 to 8.2 million, but revised the number of hires down by 101,000 to 5.7 million).

[2] Fast fashion is a business model involving quickly manufacturing and selling inexpensive, trendy clothing that mimics popular styles. Fast fashion brands — H&M, Zara, or Shein, — often base collections on styles from Fashion Week, celebrities, and social media. The goal is to bring new looks to consumers at affordable prices while demand is high.

[3] Perception we know is a mental impression and a way of interpreting or understanding something. Reality is the state of things as they actually exist. We’ve heard the saying in advertising that “perception is reality,” and to a degree, that is especially true of trends.  Perceptions are variables in people’s minds. These “perceptions” influenced by thoughts, feelings, experiences, interests, and actually how we process information (i.e., via social media, etc.). Trends are more perception then reality, and as such they are shaped by guiding individuals to view things in a particular way. This is what advertising (and influencers, and social media participants) try to do. Storytelling, word choice, images – these all shape perceptions and trends.

[4] Gensler’s DIALOGUE newsletter is an outstanding example of information on trending in various markets like education, municipal or industrial.

The post Setting or Following Construction Trends to Build Your Business appeared first on Accountability Information Management.

Knowing what trends that have emerged to split apart your customer base can help you shape your business strategy correctly by aligning or realigning product and services development. Let’s cut the Gordian Knot[1] and untie those trends to help your strategy.

Digital Transformation and Increased Buyer Sophistication.

B2B customers have increasingly adopted digital channels for research and then purchasing. For example, in the past architects or engineers would have to rely on reps for information; today, they hop on the internet and go directly to the manufacturer’s website[2]. This begs the question: what is the value of a sales rep?

Buyers become as a result more informed and expect seamless, personalized experiences akin to B2C. So one answer to the sales rep question is to provide that “personalized” experience (see How to Treat a VIC (Very Important Customer) Blog). Digital transformation has led to fragmentation based on digital behaviors, with some customers preferring online self-service models, while others still value traditional, relationship-based interactions. This makes the B2B strategy development more complex, often requiring two different approaches to be successful.

Industry-Specific Needs and Specialization.

B2B markets have become more specialized, with industries developing unique needs based on technological advancements and regulatory environments. In the value chain of participants[3], for example, each “player” has different needs, prohibiting “one size fits all” approaches of the past. In other words, you can’t “talk” to a contractor the same way you talk to an architect. Often, the most important step a B2B business can take is deciding which “participant” is the most valuable in his product being sold (and it is rare that only one will be the answer).

Besides, fragmentation has occurred by industry, creating distinct groups with highly specific requirements for products and services (i.e., fire protection engineers are an important subset of engineers and completely different than an electrical engineer). Or, the healthcare sector might demand highly regulated technology which only a few companies can provide, and even fewer install and operate, forcing the manufacturer to “create” his own workers that can be deployed into companies (this is SAP’s strategy) relationship-based interactions. This also makes the B2B strategy development complex, requiring different approaches to be successful depending on who you think is the customer.

Size and Scale of Operations.

The B2B market has fragmented across the size of companies, from startups to large enterprises, each with vastly different needs, budgets, and decision-making processes. This size-based fragmentation means businesses now need to cater to smaller businesses with flexible purchasing behaviors, as well as to larger corporations with complex procurement processes and longer sales cycles. If you take too long to turn the ship, the business will go elsewhere. In fact, our research has proven year-over-year that availability is one of if not THE key attribute for business to succeed.

One company for example, developed a software tool to navigate a complex law being enacted by a major city. That company – an engineering firm startup – wanted to use that tool as the “way in” to working for an owner of a building that had to meet those requirements. When a manufacturer of equipment stumbled on the tool, the manufacturer sought to engage the engineering firm in go-to-market strategy to white label the software. The startup engineering firm put up obstacle after obstacle on the pretext of “proprietary” programming and the deal fell through. In the meantime, a half dozen other “software” companies got into the game and commoditized the software for anyone to use.

Opportunities are lost this way when out-of-box thinking gets overlooked.

Remote Work and Decentralized Decision-Making.

The rise of remote work and decentralized organizations, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has shifted decision-making from a central authority to a broader range of stakeholders and actually changed the business landscape forever. This is especially true in the service sector. This trend has resulted in a fragmentation where buying committees are more diverse and geographically dispersed, requiring different communication strategies and more stakeholder engagement. Thinking for a moment that anyone of these “remote” character participants can disrupt a deal takes careful planning and strategy development.

For example, focus groups used to be extraordinarily expensive; you had to rent a facility, gather participants, feed them, hire professional moderators, etc. Today, you can pull together experts into a zoom room for a modest investment and get realistic and valuable information to help make decisions.

Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility.

Many B2B companies now place a high value on sustainability, ethical practices, and corporate responsibility, driven by both regulatory pressures and consumer expectations. In a blog — Finding a Working Definition for Sustaining Sustainability – the author noted there are a total of 931 bills going through state legislative bodies that contain “sustainability” in them according to BillTrack50, the legislative tracking software. A brand’s regulatory competence with sustainability should be embraced throughout the C-suite and integrated across functions according to sources, whether you are selling lighting, plumbing, HVAC or other building-related products. But how does the marketer navigate sustainability for the brand? What is the real working definition of the word? And, how is the company to accomplish this?

The focus on sustainability has created a segment of customers who prioritize suppliers and partners that demonstrate strong ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance. Targeting this “segment within a segment” can pay dividends (i.e., by examining specifications carefully usually shows that sustainability is not always top of consideration: performance is). However, when you can combine performance WITH sustainability, a B2B company can probably write its own ticket.

Tech-Savviness and Adoption of Innovation.

Adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud computing, and automation has varied widely across B2B customers and further fragment your targets. For example, IoT has played an increasing vital role in “smart” buildings; even in plumbing, products are more often being connected to “central control” in order to monitor not just performance but maintenance issues.

Businesses have become fragmented based on their technological maturity, with some eagerly embracing new innovations and others lagging behind due to cost concerns or lack of expertise. It is important for a B2B company to understand this both from a marketing and sales point of view.

For example, in a recent piece of research, AIM found there was no outstanding service excellence being practiced by any of the dozen manufacturers they studied on a consistent basis. They were all “average” at best, and below average for the most part. But, the research was able to bring together “innovative” and “tech-savvy” solutions that were, well, not so innovative and tech-savvy to bring about customer service excellence (i.e., non-automating the first phone contact with a customers paid dividends over automation). Often, research leads to such insights that help B2B companies become “trend setters” rather than trend-followers.[4]

Globalization and Localization.

While globalization continues, there has also been a resurgence in localizing business models and sourcing due to political and economic shifts (e.g., tariffs, supply chain disruptions). This further fragments a B2B strategy calculation in forcing companies to adapt local requirements (hardly a one-size-fits-all any longer). However, the ability to address this segment can have far-reaching profitability impact. For example, localization has led to geographic fragmentation, with some businesses looking for global solutions while others sought localized, region-specific providers. Sometimes, the global solutions actually can be changed, with slight modifications, to fit the local requirement.

Understanding these trends that have emerged to split apart your customer base can help you shape your business strategy. While taking apart the Gordian Knot of trends is difficult, sometimes it pays to just cut the knot!

We would be happy to help you. Contact us, or read Part 3 in this series: Anticipate, React, Adapt: Targeting B2B Customers into Relevant Groups. And for a convenient single pdf file of the entire series, email inquiries@a-i-m.com  Thanks for reading!

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[1] The Gordian Knot is an ancient Greek legend about Alexander the Great and a complex knot that tied an oxcart to a post in the city of Gordium, Phrygia, in 333 BC. An oracle prophesied that whoever could untie the knot would become the ruler of Asia or the entire settled world.  Many people tried to untie the knot but failed, until Alexander arrived and examined it carefully. With one swift stroke of his sword, he cut the knot in half and claimed the title of king of Asia. The story of Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot is used as a metaphor for a seemingly intractable problem that can be solved by exercising brute force, or “thinking outside the box”. This is exactly what B2B companies have to do today with the multitude of audiences they face.

[2] An AIM Snapshot report noted that a building professionals most often use a manufacturer’s website to get detailed product information, beating even Google searches. https://www.a-i-m.com/wp-content/uploads/AIM7103.17-Product-Info-Sources.pdf

[3] There are seven activities within the value chain in construction that have participants in them. These include: Raw Materials – the companies that make the raw materials for the products that feed construction of buildings and structures; Product Manufacturing – the manufacturers themselves and their processes that create products from the raw materials; Design and Engineering – The design and engineering participants (architects, engineers, construction managers, sales representatives, building owners, etc.) that utilize the products; Construction – the building of the structure itself, which includes the previous participants as well as safety regulators, municipalities, etc. ; Operations and Maintenance – These participants (often overlooked) play a primary role in the value chain, as they maintain the products that were intalled and often influence what WILL be installed; Demolition – people who may be responsible for demolishing the  older buildings before the new construction can begin; and finally, Renovators – industries and participants who work on existing structures to upgrade them.

[4] There were several “best of class” findings which included in this order:1) Answer the phone quickly. It is extraordinary how many companies slip up on this basic “innovative” technique of simply answering the incoming phone. 2) Give your name without being asked was another important one, because it PERSONALIZES the conversation! 3) Be polite and very professional seems basic enough, but sometimes is lost in the “boredom” of day to day answering the phone. 4) Be or seem very knowledgeable about the products/company sounds simple, but often forgotten. These were just some of the “innovative” findings of the research, which by the way, technology can help make even better.

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Alexander the great (besides cutting the Gordian Knot) was a master of strategy. He followed three principles: anticipate, react and adapt. This strategy can be followed for segmenting your customers into relevant groups as a result of the fragmentation going on around us.

Below are some key approaches to group and target your diverse customers:

By Behavior.

Segmenting customers based on their behaviors, such as purchasing patterns, digital engagement, and loyalty is an effect way to shape your communications. For example, you can implement and use analytics to track customer interactions across multiple channels, identifying patterns such as frequency of purchases, average order size, and engagement levels with content (e.g., webinars, white papers).

One company uses reverse IP lookup to understand how engineers interact with their website. They can capture the “journey” of the visit based on their company’s IP address, and then going to the visitor’s website, make a fairly accurate estimate on “who” is downloading the specification. Cross tabulating with another database, the company can identify the exact project that the engineer is seeking their products for in the specification. The result is arming the sales representative with powerful information so that when he makes the sales call, he treats the engineer as a VIP (see earlier discussion).

Website behavior is only one example of targeting relevant customers on behavior (in this case, digital behavior). Besides, segmenting customers who regularly engage in digital content but have long sales cycles also provides valuable feedback on “how often” that firm is engaging with the websites. Remember, long-sales cycles are vastly different from those who rely on direct sales calls and shorter decision timelines.

By Firm Demographics.

Another method for dividing customers into relevant groups is to segment based on firm characteristics such as company size, industry, revenue, and location. This is a more traditional way of approaching your customer file, but is nevertheless very relevant, as big companies act differently than little companies.

In fact, if you examine your customer file, it probably follows the 80/20 rule not only in sales, but in these types of demographics (that is, 80% are small to medium size and only 20% are larger). Besides, grouping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) separately from large corporations makes sense as their procurement processes, budget priorities, and product needs are significantly different. Relevant strategy means deciding if you sell to a group or individual. This blog — Should I Sell to a Group or an Individual? – contains an excellent discussion (and actually is served up by Google if you ask, “should you sell to a group or individual” as the number one link (after their AI answer of course!).

To do this, you will need to collect and analyze data on target companies’ demographics using CRM systems, third-party databases, or direct research. Many B2B companies face an almost insurmountable problem: diverse systems that don’t talk to each other (i.e., accounting doesn’t talk to billing which doesn’t talk to marketing). The way to solve this problem is to integrate these databases using Middleware, or if that is cost prohibitive, decide on systems like Salesforce, Apptivo, Sugar or others you can find listed as “best CRM software” on various websites.

By Needs.

Segmenting customers based on their specific needs, challenges, or pain points is yet another way to approach your strategy and determining which if any trends you should consider. This falls in line with what you know about value chain participants in our prior discussion (i.e., contractors have different pain points than architects).

One of the most important ways to achieve such segmentation is to conduct customer interviews, surveys, and data analysis on the results to understand the unique needs of different groups. You may think you know them, and your sales people may think they know them, but third-party verification often exposes gaps in understanding.

For example, one client believed his product was “totally understood” by his target market: airports. The product, a monitor for water, connected directly to the building automated control system. In our research it became immediately clear that airport managers (the target) were unable to “see” the benefit of monitoring water usage. Even if we embarked on explanations of water savings, run-on notification, etc. can benefit the facility, the targets simply didn’t see the monetary advantage such knowledge would mean to them.

This was because water was not a critical event in their opinions. It’s a “nice to have” rather than a “must have” technology as far as monitoring it was concerned. And like all technology, it has to be used before it is accepted as “normal” or with a clear benefit that’s easy to understand. The result of the research enabled our client to prepare a complete “education” program for this targeted group.

You can proceed by mapping out pain points related to operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, technology integration, or supply chain resilience to your targeted groups, and then look for commonalities across the audiences. It might be as simple as repeated exposures through marketing for the “break-through” moment.

By Persona.

This type of segmentation is interesting because it forces us to create detailed profiles of different buyer personas within a target group, such as decision-makers, influencers, and end-users. And while generalizations are sometimes dangerous, creating personas gives you clues on how to narrow your focus when you talk to the people.

Personas can be developed on a variety of people types, including job roles, responsibilities, motivations, and pain points. You should consider factors like seniority, department, and influence on the purchasing process sometimes as well.

For example, “consumers” is a wide segment and trying to build one persona for a “consumer” impossible. However, within “consumers” are demographics such as income levels, age, etc. “Architects” is just as wide a segment as consumers, but within “architects” are filters such as commercial, residential, specializing in education, or data centers.

One client wanted to know if his product (anti-dandruff chemically enhanced shampoo for beards) would be used by bearded men? 97% of men with beards said yes they would in our research. But more important, it didn’t matter what level of income the respondent was at; men from $50K to $200K per year would use it. Without drawing up personas and breaking down by income level ahead of time, this finding would have totally missed the mark.

By Lifecycle Stage.

Segmenting customers based on lifecycle stage for your company, from awareness to decision and post-purchase, is still another way to slice your data. In B2B, “lifecycle” may mean the product’s lifecycle, not the targets’. For example, the installed based of any product is probably quite large, and there will be a mean-time-between-failure rate. Calculating such rates on the product’s lifecycle can mean sales opportunities.

For example, one client using reverse IP lookup noticed someone from a large campus of a major pharma company with many buildings visited their website and took one specific PDF file for a one product – nothing else. The product – a Concealed Vertical Rod Exit Device for a glass door – was probably one of many that the company had on their campus of buildings with many, many doors. The client held a sales meeting and we suggested contacting the VP of maintenance and to conduct a “door audit.” The audit would be comprised of going through all the facilities, documenting doors, their hardware, etc., and the producing a report. When the client asked what they could charge for that much less if the company would allow it, we replied: “Charge nothing.” The client was in disbelief, until we told them the strategy: Knowing when the products were installed, and doing a mean-time-between-failure study to anticipate replacement will intrigue the VP of maintenance, whom we had found on LinkedIn. Besides the “someone” who looked up that piece of information on a Saturday night wasn’t the VP, but someone who WORKED for the VP. There is no other possibility. So when the audit is finished, we told our client to simply present the audit which documents how often and when each component had to be changed to prevent failure. The company would then ask about the other hardware on doors not fitted with our client’s hardware. We told our client to say, “We’d be happy to replace them, but we don’t have that information.”

I’d like to say that our client got the deal and ended up replacing all of the door hardware, but that didn’t happen. Our client (no longer out client) didn’t pursue the solution because it was out of his “sweet spot,” which was simply selling through distribution.

Often lifecycle analysis reveals such opportunities, and as the saying goes, “He who hesitates is lost.”

By using behavioral, firmographic, needs-based, and other segmentation methods, businesses can effectively target fragmented customers, ensuring that their marketing, sales, and service efforts are relevant and resonate with diverse audiences.

We would be happy to help you. Contact us, or read Part 4 in this series: Et Tu Trends? that discusses now that you have your market segments lined up, your strategies in place, what’s next? And if you’d like a convenient pdf of the entire series, email inquiries@a-i-m.com. Thanks for reading!

The post Adopting an Anticipate, React, Adapt B2B Strategy appeared first on Accountability Information Management.

You may have heard “Et Tu Brute?” which were Ceasar’s dying words (And you too Brutus?) as Brutus joined the other assassins to kill Ceasar. The idea here is do trends kill you too?

You’ve got your segments lined up, your strategies in place, what’s next? Do you follow trends, not follow them, or create your own?

Perhaps the toughest question: from all the segmentation you just did, who is really your customer? And the real question on top of that is, how do you find and retain these customers? This is the only way you can find out if trends will kill you or not.

You see, it’s really not about trends, which come and go; it’s about who your customer really is. Trends may attract clients, maintain your current clients, but it is the blocking and tackling that keeps customers viable. You need to know, in short, more than your customers know.

Ultimately, the customer is most often the consumer, but a manufacturer sometimes doesn’t aim at the consumer. Besides, consumers also require a definition. While all facility managers are consumers, not all consumers are facility managers. Buying radio commercials on a baseball game to reach facility managers is a “spray and pray” strategy that will waste your money fast. Here’s a better way.

After segmenting value chain participants like designers or architects (who follow trends closely), you’ll be faced with myriad possibilities to be looked at and that sometimes obstruct your own “perceptions.” In fact, the designers may very well lead a manufacturer astray since they are more “sensitive” to the comings and goings of trends.

Selling to showrooms or retailers as your target gives us a different set of problems. Besides taking us further from the consumer (end user), it’s hard to believe a retailer will “bleed” for a manufacturer. In customer service, for example, most showrooms will throw the consumer back to the manufacturer when things go South. Two-step and three-step distribution changes “who” the customer is as well. So. where to begin?

A better way is to do your own research, not just about trends but about segments and everything else discussed in this series and create your  own “benchmarks” on a wide variety of topics which are chosen based on various events or activity occurring in the market. These benchmarks can be used to compare with other reported industry trends, a company’s internal analysis of trends, or other third-party information generated by other agencies such as the government or construction associations who produce trend information. Then, YOU decide to follow or create the trend!

Research: Why it is Important

Whatever research you conduct, there are other factors that influence a business strategy and whether sales might increase, decrease, or stay the same compared to the past year. Therefore, knowing the trends and topics in advance of these “other factors” currently impacting your business can be valuable in any company’s strategic planning and in developing those segments discussed earlier. In other words, if you’re prepared with your own research findings, you can look at these “other” factors and actually shape them to your own advantage, whether you believe they will influence sales or not.

Find out about these factors in part 5 of this series: “Other” Factors Influencing What You Think Increases Sales. And if you want a convenient single pdf file of the entire series, email inquiries@a-i-m.com. And thanks for reading!

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Regardless of where you are in the discovery of who your customer really is, how your base has fragmented or the influence of trends on that base, you have to realize that there are myriad “other” factors that influence what you think you are seeing if your sales are going up. It helps your overall strategy development to consider them, so here they are.

Economic Growth

Most people believe that if the economy grows, consumer confidence and disposable income grows, leading to higher spending on products such as home improvements, recreation, travel or other goods. Part of the problem companies face is the divergent views about the economy.

For example, in a recent survey AIM conducted, 64% of the manufacturers believed their sales will increase in 2024. But is this true of all manufacturers or other types of companies, distributors/suppliers, retailers or others? Are companies just trying to be positive about their future position?

The answer to this question will always depend not only on the bottom-line actual sales your company is experiencing, but on what people are doing in the actual markets. Again, “who” is the customer and how are they influencing economic forecasts and our own judgments about how the economy will affect our businesses.

A USA Today survey, for example, found “Homeowners spent $463 billion on home renovations in the first quarter of 2024 — projections indicate that home renovation spending will continue to decline by $12 billion in the first quarter of 2025.”[1] And since the median sale price for an existing home in the U.S. hit a record-high $419,300 in May 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), it’s probably safe to say people are going to continue to invest in their current homes, kitchens being the most room people will commit to remodeling.[2]

Based on that, the 64% feeling increases makes sense in that business. In fact, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and lockdowns ensued, Americans found themselves with more time than ever to focus on their living environments. As a result, home remodeling in the U.S spiked. Annual spending on improvements and repairs to owner-occupied and rental properties between 2019 and 2021 grew 23% to $495 billion, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. That’s compared to the market’s historical 4.4% average pace of growth.[3]

We know one contractor in Kansas who when COVID hit, went out and bought every bidet seat he could lay his hands on. When he saw the run on toilet paper, he realized quickly that people want to “feel safe.” He sold out his inventory in two weeks and made a handsome profit.

When a disruption in air travel occurred, we saw a coffee vendor bemoaning his fate as people waiting helpless in lines to get their tickets changed or board a plane, and no one was taking a chance of leave the line. We told him, “Bring the coffee to them,” and he looked at us like we were crazy. Today, you can see this happening sometimes when lines are created, with smart retailers offering people in line samples of what they sell.

The point is don’t always believe everything economists predict. They don’t live in the world you inhabit.

Housing Market Boom

An active housing market with increased new home constructions and home renovations can drive up demand for many types of products. However, rising prices of homes can constrain the boom. As of the second quarter of 2024, American households have a record high of $17.796 trillion in debt, averaging $104,215 per household. This is a 4.8% increase from the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023. Who can afford a house?

Molly Grace and Laura Grace Tarpley make a good case in Will the Housing Market Crash in 2024 piece in Business Insider point out “The US is currently between 2.3 million and 6.5 million units short of a healthy housing supply…so even if something happened that caused a lot of homebuyers to drop out of the market, demand likely still couldn’t drop low enough to push prices down significantly.”

That’s assuming a lot. And that’s probably why manufacturers indicated that the two most important challenges in their businesses are interest rates and inflation. It’s always been about the money.

Besides, these “30,000-ft” level observations never bring the reality into the picture. There are so many adjustments to these numbers over time that the reality is never known[4] – except at the business level wherein the manufacturer operates. Perhaps the questions to be asking is within our own reach – that is, the sales databases within each manufacturers’ grasp. Examining your customer file with RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) analysis in mind can reveal fresh insights into the future. Doing this type of analysis never fails to bring in additional ways to think about your strategies.

Home Renovations

Another factor influencing business strategy is home renovation, driven by an increased focus on home aesthetics and functionality, seen as a way to boost sales. This goes beyond what happened during COVID.

When it comes to consumers, the markets for several of the major product categories involved in kitchen remodels, for example, are expected to decline in 2023 and 2024, and then rebound from 2025 to 2027. This is according to the Home Improvement Research Institute. It includes paint and preservatives; plumbing fixtures and supplies; kitchen cabinets and counter­tops; and doors and molding. So if you are in that business, what should you do?

Since people are drawn to trends for a variety of reasons[5], one of the ways companies might take advantage is to become the trend setter and not just the trend follower.

For example, manufacturers may consider sponsoring a design contest that uses their products. Or consider partnering with one of the designers and set a trend yourself? Partnering with a designer (i.e., naming a line after the designer for example) might just be what the market is looking for!

This is true whether you play in the commercial OR the residential markets!

Partnering with a local media outlet to produce content for that outlet is another way to set the trends. Whether you know it or not, every manufacturer is in a content war not only with other competitors, but with the consumer themselves. Media outlets are desperate for content, and negotiating for example a monthly column on “trends” or sponsoring a blog on a particular topic or activating an aggressive social media blitz might be a way to boost your own visibility.

Sustainability and Green Building

An increased emphasis on sustainability and eco-friendly building materials might lead to higher sales if the company offers green or environmentally safe certified products (see previous discussion, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility).

Marketing sustainability, encouraging recycling or other environmental practices that benefit both the environment and the communities can add a boost in business for any manufacturer. In today’s environmentally conscious world where many companies have strong ESG (environment, social and governance) policies, it is important for a company to aggressively promote their involvement with any green or sustainability program. Participation in these programs can pay dividends in marketing your company.

In research AIM participated in, most often companies indicated they were involved in product recycling/re-use programs. This was followed closely by a manufacturer’s involvement in the local community service or charity programs.

Ashley Reichheld, John Peto, and Cory Ritthaler conducted research and concluded in a Harvard Business Review piece that after surveying more than 350,000 U.S. customers aged 18 to 98 to gauge their perception of brands’ intent and competence, “Only sustainability stood out as a critical driver of intent.”[6] Other companies align with this conclusion (i.e., Bain & Company, McKinsey, PwC, etc.). Therefore, promoting your involvement in sustainability only stands to benefit your positioning.

Here are just a few ways to think about promoting the sustainability side of your business.

• Highlight Sustainable Practices. Transparent Sourcing: Clearly communicating the sustainable sourcing of your products means identifying and emphasizing where and how materials for your product are produced or cultivated. Do you showcase energy-efficiency or material sources used in the manufacturing processes on your website? Have you communicated your waste reduction initiatives? What about the use of non-toxic materials? Or your recycling efforts? All of these efforts help position your company in the minds of your prospects and customers.
• Certifications and Standards. Obtain and prominently display certifications from recognized environmental organizations. Ensure compliance with such environmental standards and regulations, and make this information easily accessible to customers. There are several organizations that are actively involved in “green building” efforts.
• Educational Content. Creating content that educates consumers, customers and prospects about the benefits of the company’s sustainable efforts is an excellent way to “spread the word.” For example, you can publish detailed reports on the company’s environmental impact, sustainability goals, and progress toward those goals. Send these to your local community media outlets, as well as customers.

These are just a few ways to heighten awareness about your sustainability initiatives. Finally, encourage and act on customer feedback regarding sustainability, showing that you value and respond to their concerns.

Government Incentives

Tax incentives or subsidies for home improvements and energy-efficient renovations could stimulate demand for many products. For example, updating a kitchen can save money on taxes as this is considered a capital investment. The tax break from a kitchen remodel will come in the form of a tax basis. That is, consumers won’t see savings on a home improvement until they sell their home. But, as the Cabinet Coatings of America points out, not seeing a return until the home is sold shouldn’t stop the investment in home improvements.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 empowers Americans to make homes and buildings more energy-efficient by providing federal tax credits and deductions that will help reduce energy costs and demand, as we transition to cleaner energy sources. Through 2032, federal income tax credits are available to homeowners, that will allow up to $3,200 annually to lower the cost of energy efficient home upgrades by up to 30 percent.

The National Association of Realtors lists 7 Types of Tax-Deductible Home Improvements for your review – all giving you ideas to consider in your own positioning of your company.

Supply Chain Improvements

If the company has improved its supply chain efficiency, leading to faster delivery times and better customer service, it might see increased sales due to higher customer satisfaction and repeat business.

During COVID, Just-in-Time became Just-in-Case, where people bought excess inventory because of the extreme uncertainty of that era. Having products when people want and need product is the secret of W.W.Grainger’s success. They charge a premium price for items that you really can’t find anywhere else. And while you may think any “product is just a product”, the fact is that it is marketing that makes the product more than a product.[7]

How many case histories do you have on your website? How many interviews have you done with satisfied consumers WITH their designers? And while you might ask, “what has this to do with supply chains,” the answer should be obvious: everything.

Giving people what they want means having the resources to do that, which is the central issue with supply chain. And while only 5% of manufacturers surveyed considered supply chain a “big challenge” it  doesn’t mean you can’t keep it in mind in your strategic planning. Things change, and disruption in the chain can cause more harm than you might suspect.

Find out about these factors in part 6 of this series: “Other” Factors Influencing What You Think Decreases Sales. And thanks for reading! And by the way, if you want a convenient single pdf of this entire series, email inquiries@a-i-m.com and request it.

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[1] Home renovation statistics and trends: Our 2024 report by Rebecca Henderson Updated Jul. 19, 2024

[2] Housing market predictions for the rest of 2024 by Mia Taylor and Michele Petry, Bankrate.

[3] Home remodeling exploded as a result of pandemic by Dylan Croll·on Yahoo Finance, March 27, 2023

[4] Witness the recent 818,000 adjustment downward in job numbers for the Bureau of Labor Statics. In other words, almost a million jobs were reported but didn’t exist.

[5] Reasons for liking a trend include social acceptance, fear of missing out, desire for novelty, status, sense of belonging and more.

[6] Research: Consumers’ Sustainability Demands Are Rising by Ashley Reichheld, John Peto, and Cory Ritthaler in Harbard Business Review, September 18, 2023.

[7] At the time of this writing, reports of vessels continuing to use the Cape of Good Hope as an alternative global shipping route in light of Red Sea disruptions have appeared. Shipping lines are re-routing towards the Cape of Good Hope and will continue to do so until the Red Sea becomes safe to transport goods again. Due to the ongoing conflict in the waters, commercial vessels are being forced to take longer routes to avoid disruption. In March 2023, shipping a 40-foot container cost around $3,162, which was almost double the price from the previous year. By January 2024, the price had increased to around $3,964, and in June 2024, it reached over $5,800, the highest price ever recorded. However, as of July 25, 2024, the price had decreased to $5,806, which is still 268% higher than the same week in 2023.

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There are many “other” factors that will influence a slide in sales that you must consider in sorting out your fragmented audiences. Things like an economic downturns, rising costs, the supply chain disruption we just talked about in the prior series of articles or competitive pressures will all influence a sales decrease as well as an increase.

For example, there is a general feeling that the American economy has held up well against higher inflation and interest rates. The Wall Street Journal recently noted that while that’s true, “Many individual borrowers haven’t. Predictions for a recession this year have largely faded. Employers have added jobs at a healthy clip month after month. Households have continued to spend. Many locked in ultralow mortgage rates before the Federal Reserve began its campaign to curb inflation in 2022.”[1]

The piece pointed out that costs to borrow for a home, a car or on a credit card were at the highest levels in decades. They noted, “The total amount of interest consumers paid on mortgages in 2023 rose 14% from a year earlier, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. It jumped 50% for other types of consumer debt, such as credit cards and auto loans. The costs to borrow for a home, a car or on a credit card are at the highest levels in decades.”[2],

Such debt affects the consumer’s ability to remodel, an owner to expand, a manufacturer to add a new line, and that impacts many business.

This “borrowing trend” suggests an interesting “risk” question: should a manufacturer play a card like “Buy Now Pay Later?” We are not suggesting manufacturers get into the finance business. But, what about building relationships with your own banks? Besides the larger ones, there are plenty of local banks that understand the value of a business relationship when a good customer wants to leverage money.

Everyone in business knows to “follow the money,” and when you follow it, generally, the path always leads to someone underwriting the investment. Because a home remodeling or adding a new line to a manufacturing facility or whatever is just that: an investment.

A Final Comment: Differentiation

According to a 2024 report titled, U.S. Today’s Home Renovation Statistics and Trends: Our 2024 Report kitchens and bathroom remodels were among the top most common consumer remodel projects in 2023. To promote a company’s products, it can help to look for ways to differentiate your particular product. Looking deeper at what key accessories consumers want in a new or remodeled home, may help find ways to differentiate a business and marketing strategy.

In a study we conducted entitled WHAT DO CONSUMERS WANT IN A HOME REALLY?,[3] consumers told us what they wanted in their “dream” homes versus the homes they were living in currently. This “trend” research revealed extraordinary opportunities for product manufacturers. While wine cabinets/racks or cellars was not listed as one of the “top” items consumers were looking for in their dream home, a deeper look indicated it might offer manufacturers of wine cabinets a way to differentiate their product offering.

Even though only 15% of respondents indicated they wanted a wine cellar in their dream home, it was the highest category in terms of the DIFFERENCE between what people want in their dream homes compared to what they have in their current homes. In short, 588% of the people wanted a wine cellar in their dream home! And it wasn’t just the 4,000-sf homeowners who wanted this either. Most people in the group that wanted wine cellars came from the 2,000 sq. ft. to 3,000 sq. ft. group. Gender-wise, 44% were men and 56% were women. What WAS going on here?

Besides realizing people are drinking more wine than every before, the key was to “define” a wine cellar, which is not always a wood-paneled room temperature controlled space.  Houzz contains the largest collection of photos of “rooms” probably in existence, and if you go there and look at Wine Cellar Ideas & Designs, you’ll see what we are saying: it’s not just about a “room” per se. You’ll see wine being stored under staircases, along walls in other rooms, in additional pantries, in cabinetry in the kitchen…almost anywhere you can think of. It’s a manufacturer’s dream come true.

But that’s not the only example.

Laundry Rooms

We haven’t heard of a designer or realtor who leads with “wait until you see the laundry room in this house!” But in AIM’s research, laundry rooms (as in the large NAHB report) were the most sought after room (79% of respondents wanted it). How can manufacturers who make products for the laundry room look away from a statistic like that?

Most people want them because of the population of multi-family rooms; more people are living in a single household than in the past. As a result, there’s more laundry! And, homeowners are looking for ways to organize and make life more efficient.

There are many features consumers are looking for in a home which can offer product manufacturers ideas for how to differentiate their product offerings.

Conclusion

Given these factors in this discussion, the specific outlook for a manufacturing company’s sales in 2024 or 2025 compared to the prior year will depend heavily on the interplay of economic conditions, housing market trends, cost fluctuations, supply chain stability, and competitive dynamics. But it will also depends on trends…so your knowledge of which to follow or which to ignore is important. Monitoring the “other” factors closely can help your company anticipate changes and adjust strategies accordingly.

But ultimately, it’s up to you whether you are setting or following trends. And while “which” trend you should create or follow is at the heart of a business strategy, being realistic and looking at RESEARCH as one of your primary weapons to create a successful strategy can’t be neglected.

If you have any questions or comments, or if we can help you in your research, please feel to contact us here at Accountability Information Management, Inc. And thank you for reading this entire six-part series! If you want a convenient single pdf of this entire series, email inquiries@a-i-m.com and request it.

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[1] American Borrowers Are on Shakier Ground. These Charts Show Why by Gina HeebFollow  and Kailyn Rhone, July 21, 2024. But now we also know that this is not true (i.e., the job numbers adjustment of inflating 818,000 jobs).

[2] Ibid.

[3] WHAT DO CONSUMERS WANT IN A HOME REALLY? Is a 40-page report and also a AIA, IDCEC and NKBA approved webinar based on AIM research. It is available upon request by emailing inquiries@a-i-m.com.

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Apple enters the report of data center changes with their $177M Data Center Expansion in Prineville.OR with the plans for the construction of a 330,000-square-foot data center facility. As of April 12, 2023, this project has been approved by the city of Prineville. This is all in the planning stages now, and you can tap Apple Computer to jump start your selling journey. The email we have is pbo@apple.com (408)-996-0275.

Beretania It Data Center Renovation is a $2.5M  in Honolulu, HI. The owner is the City and County of Honolulu – Board of Water Supply (BWS) fn_procurement@hbws.org and the phone: (808)-768-3099. The contractor awarded the project is Index Builders. Roberto M. Rongcal is at the helm. roberto@indexbuilders.com with a phone of (808)-689-0654. Index is one of those builders that does a lot of work on the Island, so it may pay off to begin your relationship with them if YOU are on the Island as well.

The CloudHQ Data Center in Chaska, MN is a $1B project comprised of 1,400,000 square foot data center. Very early in the planning stage. The listed owner is Dalian Development is the owner, located at 1212 New York Avenue, NW,Suite 1250, Washington,DC, 20005 with a phone of (202)-607-2300. Email we have is info@dalianllc.com. However, Dalian is the multifamily development arm of the Fateh Family Office, a global investment and development firm with a focus on long term wealth preservation and growth. Hossein Fateh is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of CloudHQ LLC, a wholesale data center developer, owner, and operator. It gets a little tangled up, but these are players in data centers. Their websites give you clues as to the paths to navigate in your journey.

The DataBank Data Center in Orangeburg, NY is really two phases, one $40M first phase and a $50M second phase. Both projects are being controlled by Highland Associates out of PA. The owner is DataBank out of Texas. They have 65+ data centers located within 100 miles of more than 60% of the U.S. population, modular/micro-data centers that can be placed beneath any 5G tower, and 20 major interconnect hubs that give your workloads unrestricted reach which you can see on their website. These new DCs are adding to their lineup. Their Leadership Team will give you plenty of targets. Paul Leblond is the architect to contact about these projects from what we can gather, a 16-year veteran of the firm. (212)-681-0201.

EdgeConneX Data Center – NW on 112th Avenue  in Miami. is a $31M data center being built by EdgeConneX, the company who has built and delivered a full spectrum of data center solutions, from Hyperlocal to Hyperscale. The leadership team gives you some main targets. Dick Theunissen, Managing Director, EMEA should fit your planning. Planning is for construction of a 145,700-square-foot, two-story above grade data center facility; and for site work for a 60-space sidewalk / parking lot. Design team is still in the works.

The Illinois Medical District Data Center in Chicago a 184,720-square-foot, five-story above grade data center facility. The developer is Metreo Edge Development Partners that describe themselves as a  unique commercial real estate firm “focused on high-impact, technology-driven developments.” They feature this project on their website. They also give you a five page “introduction to data center” paper you can download that you may find useful in developing your pitch. While it’s general information you may already know, you are given insights in how Metreo Edge thinks and can weave that into your presentation for any work. There are a couple of general contractors already associated with this project. Clune Construction Company and Ujamaa Construction Inc. Since data centers fall under mission critical facilities, you might find  Dave Sitkowski, Managing Director for Clune and Brian Donahue also a Managing Director the people to contact. The Leadership team at Ujamaa might get you started.

The Microsoft Corporation Hillcrest Data Center in South Hill VA continues the build it big attitude of Microsoft, with this one $50M valuation. Plans call for the construction of a data center facility. Three data center buildings, a substation, road, utilities, and storm water management facilities. So a lot is going in this project. The owner of course is Microsoft, and no design team has been selecting yet. You can get the inside scoop from Lara Pollitt (425)-882-8080 or email her at Lara.Pollitt@microsoft.com. Lara is the Environmental Due Diligence & Permitting Program Director for Microsoft, but also according to her LinkedIn page, she is Environmental Transactions and Due Diligence Program Manager for AWS (Amazon Web Services). Microsoft actually filed for environmental permits to build three data center buildings at a greenfield site in Mecklenburg County, Virginia last year. The district commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers has received a joint permit application for federal and state permits from Microsoft for its Hillcrest Site Data Center. The project site is located on a 132-acre site at 210 Tunstall Road, in Southern Virginia’s Mecklenburg County. The site is north of South Hill and between North Mecklenburg Avenue and I-85. Microsoft Corporation has purchased all or most of the land in three industrial parks located in Mecklenburg County — Hillcrest Industrial Park in South Hill, Roanoke River Regional Business Park located between La Crosse and Brodnax, and Lakeside Commerce Park near Clarksville. If you follow the link we provided for the Army Corps of Engineers above, you’ll see the importance of the role Lara plays in this construction project.

Construction is underway for the NTT GDCA-PDC TX2 / TX2 Data Center in Garland, Texas, owned by NTT Global The company operates seven data center campuses strategically located across the United States that deliver 100% availability for optimal client experiences, and  has been the country’s leading managed hosting and multicloud hybrid IT solution provider in India for over 20 years. Their leadership team would where to start, or you can tap the General Contractor, Electronic Environments Co. LLC. on this project. The architect might help as well, who is Page Southerland Page / Austin, Alejandro Gonzalez ((512)-477-3211, agonzalez@pagethink.com.

AIM does their best to keep you posted on data centers. If you would like to receive more detailed information, drop jnowak@a-i-m.com an email. Also, we’ll be starting more details in the future and will announce how you can get this information. Thanks very much for reading and visiting.

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Stack Infrastructure is one of those large custom data center solutions companies that are building data center footprints. This Data Center Campus (they are the owner) is located in Phoenix, AZ and valued at $362M. Design plans call for the construction of a 1,700,000-square-foot data center facility, but no other information is available as of yet. You can contact Stack at (888)-316-8177 or email press-emea@stackinfra.com. Their team is located here: https://www.stackinfra.com/about/meet-the-team/?area=americas

Aligned Energy Data Center in Chandler, AZ is a $98M that’s a 456,946-square-foot data center facility that includes an office building, warehouse, and 17 acre parking lot besides the data center. Aligned of course is one of the top data center companies in the country and was covered in all our reports, but featured in the 3.17.2023 update. Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects is doing this project, and was featured in our comprehensive Data Center Construction: An Insatiable Market. Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects is now part of the Woolpert architectural team! Rich Keagy, PE, LEED, is a senior associate and practice leader at Woolpert who wrote an interesting piece, What Existing Facilities Are Best Suited to Become Data Centers? You might start a conversation with him about this project.

The Corscale Data Centers in Gainesville VA is a 854,250-square-foot, two-story above grade data center facility and power facility. This is a 130-acre, site with five buildings. Corscale Data Centers(the owners)  is focused on delivering sustainability at scale, offering some of the largest and most sophisticated hyperscale operators and enterprises. Their facilities can be delivered as highly scalable, secure, and energy-efficient build-to-suit powered shells or designed to scale according to their management. Contacts to begin your sales journey include: Architect is Corgan Associates. The National Real Estate firm Patrinely Group is one of the developers, and other developer is Kincora. The general is one of the nation’s largest general contractors, offering lifecycle construction services from small projects to high rises, HITT.

But not all data centers are being built; some, like the Hamilton County Todd Portune Center, are be demolished! While a reliable data center is necessary for successful business operations , technology marches on! Decommission a data center is an art form, actually, which is why specialized services exist. This project is valued at $450,000. For more information, contact Gina Richmond, (513)-946-4321 or email at gina.richmond@hamilton-co.org.

Microsoft Data Center Campus  in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin for  construction of a data center facility on 315 acres. Like many Microsoft data centers, there’s not a lot of current information, even though they are covered in our comprehensive report.

The Mount Airy Data Center Park is a facility in Bowling Green, Virginia with construction probably in 2024, giving you ample time to get the process rolling for the work. But the owner, Valco Caroline County, is confusing; there are two LLC’s with that name. It’s unclear which is which in terms of this project. the civil engineer is Timmons Group, and may be able to sort it out for you. You can begin the journey with someone from their leadership page: https://www.timmons.com/about-us/leadership/

Previous updates contain additional information for your review. The current list of data center owners that have changed in March include:

• 234MW Data Center Campus
• Aligned Adaptive Data Centers
• Aligned Energy Data Center PHX06
• Amazon Data Center – H&M Property / Leesburg
• California Department of Transportation – Division of Procurement and Contracts
• Central Facility Data Center Renovation Project
• Cologix COL4 Data Center
• Compass Data Center Campus At PW Digital Gateway
• Corscale Data Centers Gainesville Crossing Additional Phases
• Data Center Upgrades
• DC Blox Data Center / New Orleans
• EHRM Infrastructure Upgrades Data Center at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center
• Facebook / Meta
• FY 2023 E-Rate Data Center at DeAnza High School
• Gaston County
• Greenville County – Procurement Services Division
• H5 Data Center – Loudoun County
• Hamilton County Todd Portune Center Data Center Decommissioning Project
• Hunter Property Data Center
• Luck Stone Corporation
• Microsoft Data Center / Malaga, Mount Pleasant
• Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) – Facilities Department
• Mt Airy Data Center Park Campus
• Northern Kentucky Water District
• PowerHouse Data Centers / Ashburn
• RFQ Contractor – Camp Roberts Naval Research Laboratory Data Center
• SMS: Data Center Cleaning, Uninterruptible Power Supply and HVAC Services
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – VA Program Contracting Activities Central (VA-PCAC)
• US Department of Veterans Affairs – National Energy Business Center

If you’d like more information on creating dialogues with these or other companies, or information on any other market other than data centers, give us a call at 847-358-8558. Thank you.

Contact: Jim Nowakowski, President, jnowak@a-i-m.com

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Besides the smaller upgrades and maintenance, some of the main projects we found this past week included the following of interest.

Another Amazon data center in Leesburg is showing activity. Gensler out of Denver is the architect.  The project data center is actually an office development in the planning stages, and the application was  approved by the Loudon Planning commission. You’ll note that there are many data centers being built in this area.

The Northern Kentucky Water District has a data center  renovation going on in Erlanger. This work includes the partial renovation with structural steel, interior finishing, and the MEP as well as fire protection upgrades. The architect is CT Consultants and bidding is in progress. Valuation is around $90K.

There is a new Cologix $61M data center in Columbus Ohio. This is a 287,000-square-foot, two-story above grade data center facility. Cologix, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is North America’s leading network-neutral interconnection and hyperscale edge data center company with a carrier-dense ecosystem of 700+ networks, 350+ cloud service providers and 30+ onramps across its platform. The General Contractor is Hunt Builders Corporation.

DC BLOX is another builder of databases, providing tier III data centers, a robust connectivity ecosystem, and dark fiber solutions to businesses in growing markets.  This $15M data center is going up in New Orleans and is part of the company’s $187M Southeast data center expansion. Pick your target on the Leadership page of the company’s website.

Renovation is going on one of the US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities in Oklahoma City, VA Medical Center (about $1M). They are going to award a single firm fixed price for this work (design bid build). One of the things about these government project is they give you very specific requests for what they want done! Gregory Parker, Jr. can help you scope it out (gregory.parkerjr@va.gov.).

H5 Data Centers is one of the leading data center operators in the United States with over 3 million square feet of data center space under management. The company designs and engineers flexible and scalable data center solutions to address the core infrastructure and edge requirements of its customers. In Ashburn, VA, the company has one of these new datacenters valued at $46M going up. Josh Simms (josh@H5datacenters.com) is the company’s contact on the project, but as always, we encourage you to examine their website for additional targets.

Prince William County’s Planning Commission recommended approval Wednesday of a plan (Hunter Property Data Center) to rezone 196 acres to allow a proposed data center campus on a site once slated for a 1,000-home development known as “Stonehaven.” But the owner is still a mystery. Clayton Tock the Civil Engineer from Urban Ltd. is the only contact we have. ctock@urban-ltd.com.

Microsoft has another data center going up in Malaga, WA valued at $160M. The scope is for a 750,000-square-foot data center facility ion a few phases.  Construction expected to start fourth quarter 2023 and complete fourth quarter 2025. 425-882-8080 is Microsoft’s number.

There is a$25M  data center project for the Navy going up in San Miguel, CA.  Matthew Webb (matthew.m.webb@usace.army.mil)  is the contact, but there’s not a lot of information yet about the project. While it’s a government job, and there are details, nothing is going on just yet, so this would be the time to explore your options. You can also get started here: https://www.nrl.navy.mil/Doing-Business/Contracts/Solicitations/.

The Telos Data Center is a $43M project in Ashburn, VA. The company offers advanced technology solutions that empower and protect the world’s most security-conscious enterprises. They are looking at a 180,000-square-foot, one-story above grade data center facility, but no value chain participants have been announced. Marc Solomon from Finmarc Managemernt is the developer. Finmarc provides management services for retail and hotel properties.

Here are the owners of data centers discussed in this reports thus far (bold are the new ones added this time):

• Aligned Adaptive Data Centers
• Amazon Data Center – H&M Property / Leesburg
• California Department of Transportation – Division of Procurement and Contracts
• Central Facility Data Center Renovation Project
• Cologix COL4 Data Center
• Compass Data Center Campus At PW Digital Gateway
• DC Blox Data Center / New Orleans
• EHRM Infrastructure Upgrades Data Center at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center
• Facebook / Meta
• FY 2023 E-Rate Data Center at DeAnza High School
• Gaston County
• Greenville County – Procurement Services Division
• H5 Data Center – Loudoun County
• Hunter Property Data Center
• Luck Stone Corporation
• Microsoft Corp.
• Microsoft Data Center / Malaga
• Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) – Facilities Department
• Northern Kentucky Water District
• RFQ Contractor – Camp Roberts Naval Research Laboratory Data Center
• SMS: Data Center Uninterruptible Power Supply and HVAC Services
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – VA Program Contracting Activities Central (VA-PCAC)
• UNLV – Purchasing Department
• US Department of Veterans Affairs – National Energy Business Center

If you’d like more information on creating dialogues with these or other companies, or information on any other market other than data centers, give us a call at 847-358-8558. Thank you.

Contact: Jim Nowakowski, President, jnowak@a-i-m.com

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