MAKING THE RIGHT PARTNERSHIPS

VARs that want to take advantage of the increasing opportunities in IP surveillance need to make sure they work partners that can provide the knowledge and experience to give them the edge, writes Simon Meredith in the last of our three-part series

Awareness of IP surveillance (IPS) is growing, but penetration is very low, according to Thomas Leistiko, European sales manager for specialist IP camera management software firm, Milestone Systems. The reason, he claims, is that there is a shortage of people who can talk with any real knowledge about IPS.

"There is an enormous market to be had," he says. "But very few people can go out and talk about IPS and its business benefits, which is what you need to do. You don't talk surveillance and you don't talk technology, you talk business."

The need to acquire knowledge is the biggest challenge facing resellers, says Robert Veenis, business development manager at wireless networking vendor, Proxim.

"Security VARs have traditionally talked to security people or to the IT manager," he says. "Now we are saying that they have to deal with business people, and this is a different challenge."

CNL, according to James Condron, sales and marketing manager at the IPS integrator, was one of the first IT integrators that started to offer service, support and expertise to the security market. It seems to have been a good move: Condron says that the company's business has grown by more than 60 per cent in the past year. It has also been an education that did not happen overnight.

"Our business has enjoyed some significant growth over the past year," he says. "We have worked with partners to sell products and services, but we did not have the security background. We've recruited people who are capable of managing that dialogue. What we've done over the past five years is develop the currency of language to engage with security, the business and with IT. When you put these three elements together, it significantly supports the preparation of an intelligent response.

"We are also able to manage the risks of the business and support the security manager with their operational goals. It is a learning curve and VARs need to understand that it is significant. People don't employ security managers because they just need them to be there, they also have an active role in the organisation."

Terry Beale, director of channels at storage specialist EMC, says that requests for proposals that cover IPS are being increasingly drawn up jointly by security and IT staff.

"The tender is written by both parties," he says. "What's interesting is that some of those request-for-proposals have not come out of large, forward-thinking organisations. Instead, some of them are coming out of local authorities.

"If you are going to focus on a space as a reseller, pick one that is not too big and not too complex. Choose an area in which security and IT would probably know each other. Then you can start to drive security and IT together. If you see tenders coming out, it is starting to happen."

This is beginning to happen in the public sector, in retail and now in some commercial sectors, according to Condron.

"Where there is a good working environment and strong communication between security and IT, you can see some very significant advantages being delivered to the business through that dialogue," he says.

Tom Kneis, UK sales director of security solutions at distributor Anixter, claims that it boils down to convergence.

"If you go to a security manager, they talk the security language," he says. "If you go to the IT manager, they talk IT. Nine times out of 10 you've got to sit them both down and talk to them together. The issue for the end-user is about who they are confronted with. The end-user may hear about IPS, but if they go to a traditional analogue CCTV supplier who does not know about networking and the implications on the network, they are going to shy away from IPS."

Resellers may understand this and know how to get through to end-users. Kneis says the situation with IPS is very similar to voice and data convergence. Just as the telephony and IT people will need to be brought together, so will security and IT.

Dominic Bruning, marketing director EMEA for camera vendor Axis Communications, which has been in the market for 10 years, says that resellers must also recognise that they need to have an in-depth understanding of both security and IT. What has happened in the voice market seems to be happening in IPS: resellers from the data market are taking to IPS more readily, while many traditional CCTV suppliers are keeping their heads buried firmly in the sand.

"I have seen it many times where I have gone to a security installer and got a negative response," he says. "Why? It's the fear, uncertainty and doubt. It's because nothing has happened in their industry for 20 years. The technology is fundamentally the same and they are saying to themselves: 'Why should I have to learn all these new techniques? I don't see any opportunities. There's the door.'"

Bruning says that data networking integrators have a different attitude because they see an opportunity for incremental sales.

"When you sit with a salesperson who gets paid on storage and says, 'this is IPS, it creates bandwidth and you are going to need to store it', they respond to that," he says. "They see an incremental business opportunity. Although they may not take that step today, they are going to look and listen and keep their ear to the ground."

IT resellers are much more used to constant technological and market changes. In security, the only major transition in the past two decades has been the migration from VHS to digital video recorders.

Dominic Tee, business development leader in access control and IPS at distributor ADI-Gardiner Security, is not sure that traditional security businesses are going to be as slow to adapt, but he acknowledges that many remain unconvinced.

"Where we are seeing success stories is where networking and structured cabling providers are partnering with good security companies," he says.

However, Bruning believes that resellers with an IT background also have the edge.

"Partnerships are something that the security world has not done," he says. "In the IT world, everyone understands that you do what you do, we do what we do, and together we can solve a problem. You have open standards and ecosystems. Security is built around proprietary technologies. One box talking to another box, one manufacturer delivering end-to-end solutions. In the IT world it is about one company delivering one part but the total installation comes from many different suppliers."

Leistiko says that history is repeating itself. He agrees that data resellers are taking to the IP market much faster than security VARs. He also claims that there is a particular issue with luddite attitudes from the established UK CCTV community.

"You have an analogue mafia in the UK," he says. "Adoption to the new technologies here has been slightly slower than in mainland Europe, purely because the market is much more developed. There is nowhere in the world that has more cameras per person than the UK, where there is an enormous installed base."

To some extent, some inertia should be expected from the established players because they have been supplying proprietary CCTV systems to a willing market at margins of between 30 and 50 per cent. They are unlikely to try and drive the market towards IP too quickly.

According to Bruning, there are about four million CCTV cameras installed in the UK. This may make it harder to move the current user base, but it also shows that the UK market - more than any other - is already very convinced about the benefits of video surveillance. The opportunities should be significant over the next few years.

Simon Harris, research director for security at IMS Research, says that while the UK is very analogue-oriented at the moment, it is bound to move towards IP.

"When you think about it, that is a tremendous opportunity for codec sales," he says.

However, it is also important to understand that this installed base is not going to suddenly switch to IPS overnight, Condron adds.

"It is not necessarily going to be IPS at the expense of analogue," he says. "It is about sweating the existing analogue architecture, using it and protecting the client's return on investment by using the encoding and decoding technology that exists today from firms such as Axis. A lot of the tools are there that allow you to use analogue cameras and the network for the transport. I think we all agree that is the way forward."

This is key to end-users, Kneis says, but end-users also need to be made to understand that there is going to be a migration path, and that their investment can be protected while they adopt technology.

"It's about how end-users get their analogue cameras onto the network," he says. "That's what they need to understand because a lot of the time they are going to look at it and think: if I switch to IP, I am going to have to throw what I currently have away. This is not the case."

Bruning says there will be many hybrid IP solutions in its initial phase of adoption. This in itself will create opportunities to sell additional value in the form of video management software and storage at the back-end.

"Many projects will be able to handle both [analogue and digital]," he says. "Most of the large installations we have use encoders and blade servers to convert the video from existing cameras."

End-users need plenty of processing power and performance is needed for efficient decoding and encoding of video. The IPS and management applications need good and stable server platforms, he said.

In addition, the whole surveillance system is going to need protection from mains failure and from viruses. Where the footage is critical, backup and even contingency planning and disaster recovery will also be needed.

There is some evidence to suggest that the lines between security of IT assets and the security of physical locations are starting to blur in the minds of some users. This is causing more VARs with both IT and CCTV backgrounds to investigate IPS, according to John Turner, head of multimedia networking at specialist IT security products distributor Computerlinks (formerly Unipalm).

"We have had VARs contact us that are asked to go into organisations and perform security audits involving not just the physical surveillance and security, but also the general IT side," he says. "So I think there is some convergence happening."

It is quite common for the IP-adoption process to start when existing users of analogue systems want to add extra cameras and find that they have reached capacity on their current system. Moving from 16 to 17 cameras will mean buying an additional system capable of supporting another 16 cameras. IP is much more flexible and cost effective and it is very easy to add cameras at a later date. This is very appealing to existing CCTV users.

Harris believes the codec will play a key role in the move towards IP. Cameras are already very low cost and the price is likely to come down further. This will make hybrid solutions very attractive to users that already have analogue CCTV installed.

With markets converging in this way, the need for skills that bridge the gap between security and IT networking will be in demand. Probably the only way to deliver that combination will be to form partnerships. It's something CNL and other firms active in the market are already doing.

"We use the skill-sets of some very significant players in the IT industry that own the data network, the storage and the computing infrastructure," Condron says. "We partner with them, use our skills and disciplines to perform the risk assessment, deploy cameras and access control systems, then we hand the feeds over to the traditional installers.

"We are talking about significant storage infrastructures of perhaps 100 terabytes. These need to be managed by people that have that skill-set and can provide all the levels of support that are required to deploy it. That's where opportunities for partnerships potentially exist in this space."

As well as resellers with networking skills, partnerships with companies that have security expertise may also be useful for VARs that have IPS and security skills. For many IT resellers, such alliances may be the easiest way to break into this market.

Bruning says that VARs certainly can't do everything themselves. But he believes that many IT resellers may be wary of forming partnerships because they may be concerned about security or surveillance experts poaching their customers. Axis has first-hand experience of this. It put an IT reseller with an IPS opportunity in touch with a security expert who could do a site survey. Axis was told a few days later by the shocked IT VAR that the security expert had sold an analogue system to the customer.

Bruning says this is a perennial problem and one that is not exclusive to the IPS market. A number of vendors and resellers in the surveillance arena remain stubbornly focused on analogue solutions. They continue to market and sell them with little or no acknowledgment of the IP alternative.

Another familiar issue is the requirement for expert companies to come in and pick up the pieces of a poor implementation that has been performed by opportunist resellers.

Martin Parry, director at G1, which has a traditional CCTV background, says that his company has picked up a number of such maintenance contracts in recent months.

"You have to feel sorry for the end-user," he says. "They are getting conflicting advice and they must get completely confused."

The sudden arrival and widespread popularity of digital technologies in the IPS world has taken parts of the market by surprise. No matter how and when it is viewed - much is watched live for crime prevention - most footage taken by analogue cameras is converted using codecs and stored on hard disks. But many of the companies implementing this do not understand the technology well enough.

"It is scary because you are talking about serious pieces of IT equipment being installed by people who think they know what they are doing with it," Parry says.

While this kind of situation is always going to develop with new technologies, it illustrates that there is a need for well-trained organisations with skills in both IT and surveillance, or for good partnership arrangements in the market.

However, Tee says that not all CCTV installers are cowboys.

"There is still a place for the good traditional security installer," he says.

Condron agrees. "Traditional security installers do have a significant amount of value and we look to partner with both IT VARs and some of the UK's largest installers," he says. "Ultimately, these people have enormous service organisations and have a capability to service a significant amount of the customer requirement. But having the integration piece can make the difference to bids."

Veenis agrees and points out that, whatever their background, VARs have to show that they are competent. This is especially true now that video surveillance and other applications are being integrated right across the network. A problem with one system can affect everything else and a breakdown of the network means all applications will be down.

"It's the entire solution that makes it work," Veenis says. "All the applications can be working, but if the server is below specification the customer will not be happy."

Leistiko says that it is very important that resellers go through proper training and accreditation to demonstrate their capabilities.

This is perhaps better understood in the IT sector than it is by the resellers that have been selling analogue CCTV systems, Bruning says. Indeed, he adds that it is becoming increasingly important to understand all the security needs of customers, both physical and digital.

"These two are coming together," he says. "It does not really matter whether someone is coming over the firewall or through the front door; ultimately corporate assets are vulnerable. Security needs to be seen from a holistic perspective."

There is a growing trend in the US, he adds, for the chief security officer to have responsibility for physical and digital security.

Harris claims this creates further challenges for the VAR. "Typically, the IT budget is significantly larger than the budget for physical security," he says. "So as the two come together, IT is going to have a much greater say in terms of the systems and suppliers that are used. IT resellers may pick up business purely as a consequence of that convergence."

That may be so, but VARs that make a real bet on it will have a much better chance of real success, says Beale.

"There is no right or wrong answer but VARs should make a bet in this space," he says. "Resellers are going to need skills to do it and if they work with the distributors to get the support, they could win. I would not label it as IPS, but rather as security because then they bridge that gap between the IT and physical." C

MAKING THE RIGHT PARTNERSHIPS
Fecha: 17-Jul-2006
Computer Reseller News UK, July 17, 2006, Pg. 25