Interoperability Is the New Battleground for Smart Home Dealers. Brilliant Max Was Built to Win It
New research from Parks Associates confirms what security dealers have been feeling on the ground for the last few years: connecting a customer's growing pile of smart devices is getting harder, not easier. As reported by Investors Hangout, 57% of security dealers now call device interoperability tough or very challenging in 2026, up from just 44% in 2022. At the same time, 74% of security dealers say they're losing potential customers to DIY security systems.
The data is specific to the security channel, but the pressure it describes isn't unique to security dealers. Any integrator selling into a home full of mixed-brand cameras, locks, lighting, and thermostats is fighting the same interoperability battle and facing the same DIY pull.
That's a tough spot to be in. Customers want the freedom to buy whatever camera, lock, thermostat, or lighting system catches their eye, but they still expect it all to work together without friction. As Jennifer Kent, SVP at Parks Associates, put it, “Consumers want flexibility in the devices they choose without sacrificing reliability or support.” Dealers are stuck in the middle: expected to be the glue holding together ecosystems they didn't design, while a cheaper, DIY alternative sits one Amazon order away.
Where Brilliant Max fits in
This is exactly the gap Brilliant Max was designed to close.
A single hub, not another silo. Instead of asking dealers to become fluent in a dozen competing ecosystems, Brilliant Max gives them one integration layer that bridges the major smart home brands and protocols customers are already buying into. Dealers don't have to choose a side in the ecosystem wars; they just need a control layer that speaks everyone's language, and that's the job Brilliant Max is built to do.
Professional installation stays valuable. The Parks Associates data is clear that DIY is winning on convenience, not on quality of experience. Brilliant Max is built for the pro channel: it's deployed and configured by dealers and integrators, not assembled out of a box in a customer's living room. That keeps the dealer's installation and design expertise squarely in the value chain, rather than getting disintermediated by a self-install competitor.
Recurring revenue, not just a one-time install. The article notes that dealers who master interoperability unlock real opportunities for recurring revenue and stickier customer relationships. Brilliant Max is a subscription service by design. Every home it's deployed in becomes an ongoing relationship: monitoring, updates, feature releases, and support that dealers get to own, instead of a single invoice that closes the book on the job.
Support that a DIY system can't replicate. Reliability and support are the two things Parks Associates flagged as non-negotiable for consumers. Brilliant Max's dealer-facing tools are built around ongoing visibility into the health of a customer's system, so integrators can catch and fix problems, often before the homeowner even notices, which is the kind of white-glove reliability no self-install kit can match.
It also works for the homeowner going it alone. Not every household calls a dealer, and the report is candid about DIY's pull. Brilliant Max doesn't require a pro install to deliver on the same core promise: a homeowner can set it up themselves and still get one control point across brands, instead of juggling a different app for every camera, lock, and thermostat. The setup and pairing steps that usually cause the most friction in a mixed-ecosystem home are handled inside Brilliant Max itself, so the interoperability problem gets solved at the control layer whether a dealer is involved or not. That gives dealers a real answer for the DIY-leaning customer too: even the ones who want to self-install don't have to give up a unified, reliable experience to do it.
The Takeaway
The dealers who come out ahead in this market, per the report, will be the ones who turn their systems into the central hub for an increasingly scattered set of devices, and who lean into service and support as their real differentiator against DIY. Brilliant Max gives dealers exactly that: a way to be the integration backbone customers need, without taking on the endless complexity of chasing every new device standard themselves, while building the kind of recurring, service-based revenue that a one-time DIY sale simply can't offer. And because Brilliant Max solves the same interoperability and control problems for homeowners who set it up themselves, it closes the gap on both sides of the market Parks Associates describes: it's a stronger offer for the customer who wants a pro, and a stronger product for the one who doesn't.
Interoperability isn't going away as a challenge. But Brilliant is key in bridging the gap.
