Video analytics and the benefits they can provide to organizations have emerged once again as a topic of much debate and evaluation. Some security professionals may feel as if they have been down this road before — with less than spectacular results. The same thought can be applied doubly to the systems integrators who bore the brunt of customer dissatisfaction more than a decade ago, when security analytics were all the buzz but were initially more promise than delivery.
Fortunately, the quality and accuracy of today’s video analytics has, in large part, caught up to customers’ expectations — which is not surprising given previous lessons learned and significant technology advancements, such as vastly improved video resolution, algorithms and processing power. Manufacturers are also much more careful about explaining what customers can expect in terms of accuracy. A people counting analytic with a 90-percent accuracy rate might be perfectly acceptable for a financial institution comparing branch performance nation-wide; however, a retail organization that wants to tie people counting data to its point-of-sale (POS) transactions to track conversion rates might prefer to pay more for higher accuracy.
Faster and easier configuration is another characteristic of most of today’s video analytic products. An analytic that once might take an installer an hour or more to configure can now be setup in just minutes thanks to innovative software features that some manufacturers build into analytic products. For systems integrators and their customers, that means reduced installation costs and less — or no — time spent beyond the initial setup to get camera calibrations working as they should.
Growth Opportunity
Video analytics represent a great growth opportunity for systems integrators who are willing to take the time to understand the technology, but also to learn how to sell it as part of a comprehensive video solution. Analytics can add real business value to existing customers’ video surveillance systems, and are an excellent way to get prospects excited about the benefits of a complete video solution.
One of the most important things to understand about today’s intelligent video analytics is how they are designed to be used. When the technology first appeared, it was intended primarily for mission-critical security applications, such as a tripwire analytic that would trigger an alarm if someone entered a restricted area. While those security analytics are still being deployed and improved, business intelligence analytics are focused on capturing data for performance trend analysis and optimization, rather than for security.
Pulling in other data sources — including transaction data and the associated surveillance video — in easy-to-use reporting software is key to the value of these analytics for all organizations. In the end, if the analytics data is not presented in a way that is easy to understand and apply, it simply will not get used and the anticipated return on investment will never materialize — regardless of how well the analytics are actually performing.
As a systems integrator, your organization has no doubt invested (or will invest) considerable time evaluating and understanding the video analytics included in your security portfolio. The next step is learning to how best to sell these solutions to your customers.
Sales Strategies
As an integrator, it is time to perfect the art of demonstrating how video analytics can realistically help your customers address real business challenges — and improve performance and profitability as a result. Here are some key strategies to help successfully make the video analytics sales pitch to prospective customers, as well as those longtime customers who are typically more open to your recommendations based on past, positive experiences.
1. Forget the marketing pitch. While it is important to understand what video analytics can do, that is not what your customers are thinking about. They have a business problem — or several, that they are trying to solve and may be willing to invest in proven technology to get to a solution. As a systems integrator, you are in a great position to help your customer clarify what exactly the problem is and identify where video analytics can help.
One example is a conversation our company had with a banking customer, which had just acquired another bank and wanted to evaluate how well the acquired branches were serving customers at the teller stations. Their plan was to download and watch hours of recorded video from the branches to evaluate the speed of service. We worked with their integrator to explain how a dwell time analytic could help them evaluate this across all their branches much more efficiently. They could also continue to use the data over time to monitor and improve customer service. In this case, the customer wasn’t even thinking about analytics, but the application was an ideal fit.
2. Put your best customers forward. Nothing you say or do is going to sell a prospective customer on the value of a solution more than another satisfied customer. The power of a reference customer cannot be overstated — find those customers who are happy with the video analytics you installed, and put them face-to-face with your prospects. Not only will they speak the same language, but the opportunity to showcase the working analytics will also reveal details about your prospect’s expectations and how they may or may not use video analytics in their own organization.
A grocery chain, for example, might envision using a people counting analytic in real-time to bring on another cashier if the lines got too long, however many people counting analytics are not designed for real-time alerting but more for performance and trend analysis. These expectations are critical to the success of any video analytics installation, so the sooner you can clarify the use case, the better for everyone involved.
3. Help build a strong business case. Who your customer involves in the analytics discussion is another important sales strategy. If you are having the video analytics discussion with a security, loss or fraud prevention decision-maker, talk to them about the value video analytics can also deliver to other departments. A well-developed analytics strategy can address marketing’s need to know how compelling a certain promotional display is, and if it is outperforming in one location compared to others because it has been put in a different location. Customer service can use queue length monitoring and the integrated video to identify opportunities to improve speed of service, and operations can benefit from an intelligent video systems ability to produce reports that can help them easily audit everything from the time each location opened and closed, to health and safety compliance.
Help your customer build a strong internal business case for the analytics investment. Once multiple departments start understanding the intelligence they could gather from a video analytics solution, they may even go so far as to cost-share the investment.
4. Do a proof-of-concept. Before your customer agrees to a full-scale rollout of their chosen video analytic solution, you should insist on a proof-of-concept (PoC). A PoC is essential for a few reasons. In the planning stages, it will encourage all stakeholders to confirm the date they need to achieve their objectives, and enables you to verify that the application can deliver to those goals. Second, it ensures that the solution is tested in a single location so all the technical details can be worked out in advance of a more sizeable rollout. Most importantly, a PoC enables your customer to work hands-on with the data so you they can see exactly what the solution will provide and how their staff actually uses the information.
Net Payne is the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer for March Networks. To request more info about the company, visit www.securityinfowatch.com/10214308.
