Technology has nearly infinite power to make our lives better. It also causes more headaches than nearly anything else in our lives. And it can be hard to find proper help with your technical needs.
Normally, if you want help wrangling your tech, there are two types of companies who will offer to help. Let’s say you want to upgrade to smart lighting. You may walk into your local big box retailer, and they’ll happily sell you a kit of smart lights, and they may offer to install them for you. When the installer arrives, they will probably come with a limited scope of work that says that says something like “Configure up to 5 smart lights with the manufacturer’s mobile application,” which really only gets you through the part of the setup that most people can do themselves. The other type of company who will offer to help is an integrator. These groups offer large, complicated systems that can easily set you back six figures, and you’ll have to bring them back anytime you want to make even a small change to the system.
At Effortless Innovation, we try to meet in the middle of those two groups. We design home systems that use off-the-shelf, lower-cost technology, but which are put together thoughtfully, with components that work together. We design systems with three rules in mind:
1: Technology should fit your lifestyle, not the other way around
Let’s stick with the smart lighting example. If you walk into a store, and walk out with your first smart lighting kit. You’ll get home and set them up, and you’ll start to discover the joys of smart lighting, like adjustable white balance, colored mood lighting, the ability to see if you left the lights on while you’re away… You’ll also start to learn the headaches of smart lighting. Like the fact that, if someone turns the light switch off, you can no longer control them. Which means to keep full control of your lights, you have to either talk to a voice assistant in the middle of the night, when you’re trying to keep quiet, or get out your phone and fumble into an app.
In this case, the solution is in control. Whether it’s a smart switch or button panel, wherever a person would normally reach for a light switch, there should be something there that will control the smart lighting (and the switch that cuts the power should be more hidden away, where guests won’t accidentally power them off). That way, you can continue to interact with lights the way you have your whole life, while still getting all the benefits of smart lighting.
This is just one example, but things that come up all the time when building technical solutions. We use our experience and expertise to make sure that you can get as much benefit as possible from your technology, while minimizing the need to change your lifestyle to use it.
2: Fit the space
Not only should your new tech look like it belongs in your home, but it should also work like it. Things mounted on walls and ceilings should fit the decor, and an 800 square foot apartment has very different needs for WiFi coverage than a 5,000 square foot mansion.
Our solutions are designed to be appropriate for your space.
3: Minimally invasive service
With any technical product, issues are bound to come up eventually. Maybe that’s initial hiccups after things get going, devices malfunctioning, or even issues outside of anyone’s control (like ISP outages). We provide remote monitoring services, to keep an eye on your new devices and make sure they’re operating as they should. Many issues can be identified, troubleshot, and solved without the need to have a tech return to your home.
Maintenance windows can be arranged in the middle of the night or when nobody is home, so you can live your life, and not worry about your devices. And for issues like ISP outages, we are able to collect data about the problem and help you work with your ISP’s support.
