Why Are End Users Impressed When Integrators Are Not?

It comes down to the end user not knowing any better.  If your told one product is the best and solves all your problems and you don't know any better what do you expect?   I think dealers need to understand this technology better and need to educate the customers on the major limitations Verkada/Meraki has.  

Technical people and non-technical people use different criteria to evaluate a product. Things that technical people consider very important mean little or nothing to a non-technical person and vice versa.

I have sat in on literally hundreds of manufacturer presentations to clients and have witnessed this first-hand. Products that had a simpler and cleaner user interface often won out over products that had many more features and were clearly superior from a technical standpoint. On one project, how well that the embedded "Help" feature worked was the deciding factor in which access control system was chosen. On another, the fact that access privileges could be assigned to a card on one screen rather than having to tab through several screens was a big deal to the evaluation committee.

Products that are visually appealing and intuitive are almost always the first choice of non-technical users. While you can educate consumers to a certain point, if they don't like and understand a product, they have a tough time buying it.

I have a pretty simple analogy.

When people like this

Are shown this

They say oohh, woooww, how great. Problem is, for a little more they could have gotten:

They see something better than what they have, and do not really take the time to evaluate their choices. We tried residential alarms for a bit and everythone thought Nest and Ring were great... until they started dealing with multiple apps and the lack of a united platform. But by then they are invested into that hardware. Maybe its different on bigger projects where clients do a thorough evaluation. But usually we do not see clients really look and compare.

We just closed a 70 or 80 camera project plus some access control modifications and our proposal was reduced to 5 lines in spreadsheet and sent to the owner.

The fundamental reason why Integrators are sour to products like Verkada and Meraki is because those companies are direct competitors to the Integrators. Or at least they perceive it that way.

The problem is most Integrators can not see from a customers perspective. The reality is they fail to often see how it is from the customers perspective that they have to rely on that Integrator and their specific knowledge of the bespoke system they installed. Integrators value the flexibility of the complex systems they have selected, but fail to see that complexity and relationship lock-in can be a downside to the end customer also. But ONVIF and standards you say! Well in my experience when my choice in town is between two different security companies, if I try to get company #2 to support a system put in by company #1, the typically response is to get a quote for their preferred system and a no thank you if I don't bite.

Believe me, coming from more of an IT systems background, I've seen this story play out over and over. Complex bespoke systems that have way more flexibility and power lose out in the long run to the commodity systems that end up putting more power into the hands of the user via integration and user experience.

Let's consider the analogy in this thread that was used regarding Microwaves. If I the small business owner need two microwaves in my breakroom and decide to talk to a Microwave Integration Consultant. I will likely get a recommendation for a $800 commercial Amanda microwave based on all the features it can do and the reliability it has. However if I have to go to that Microwave consultant every time I need to move the Microwave because it needs special power outlets, I may end up valuing the convenience and simplicity of purchasing a microwave from the local appliance store and just plugging it in myself.

This is a case of where both sides are right. However their perspectives are entirely different. In the long run the trend is for commodity integrated systems to eat more and more of the marketplace as their feature sets fit more of the common denominator requirements. The bad news is that leaves conventional Integrators competing for a smaller and smaller piece of the market that requires the higher-end feature set.

End users are very knowledgably now a days, they do their homework and well prepared before meeting any system integrators or suppliers!  

Nailed it.  And this also applies to many "integrator" reviews of product they've never had or limited experience with.

Good salespeople know to ask questions, before ever showing any features to an end user.

You'd be surprised how many times the core first question "how do you use video here" isn't even asked

They just jump right into the canned demo and lose the audience in the first minutes. By Contrast asking the right questions should be the roadmap for your demo

Super important topic for the industry...especially given big tech entering.  Just sat through a meeting with a top partner at a major private equity fund (think $billions), who is also an engineer.  He invoked the assumption that Nest equipment is superior to traditional industry equipment.  When I probed as to what data he was relying on for that assumption, he admitted it was a bias he had allowed himself to drift into based on the aesthetics of the products, the fact that Google is behind them, and that there were what he perceived to be unique features (such as waving at the smoke alarm to make it stop sounding) that, while not part of the core critical function, suggested that the overall technology is likely to be superior.  A bit disconcerting.

I have been an end user for years. I have worked with various integrator s over the years. I have worked with many manufactures over the years, some still in business, others out of business. 

From an end user perspective I can tell you the topic is a good one but has a complex answer.

1. Many end users have no clue. two examples of this are the following: I've sat in on many meetings with law enforcement and they have told me time and time again when they respond to a crime scene and ask for video many (and I mean often) they are told by the end user who works there well the system is in the back, however I don't know how to get video off of the system. Another item i heard once from a former colleague who had the title of Director of Security for a major hotel in town  that one of his issues was lack of funding to repair or replace cameras. He was so proud of himself to tell everyone in the group that he found a solution that he's been using for years. He would go to a local electronics supply company and buy these cameras he found for a half dozen for like a couple hundred bucks. He was so proud of himself. That his cheap cameras were a good deal.

2. What is the new system going to solve for the end users. One post on here says the end user is a security guard. I can tell you this is often the case when the organization has a security department. For example: Just a few years ago I was involved with a 500,000 square foot 5 story new facility. Within the new facility we were building a new Security Operations Center. Unfortunately due to politics where I worked the construction team went behind my back and hired an integrator and gave them specs for technology long before I was involved. One item for some unknown reason that was spec'd was a PSIM solution. When I did get involved and was going over the technology being spec'd and came across the PSIM solution I rejected it immediately. The integrator tried to convince me why I needed it. I asked him one simple question: Why? They tried to say well it does this, it does that, etc. Typical sales pitch. I said What does it solve for me? Will I no longer need my VMS to burn CD's for the police? Will I no longer need my card access system to create cards and assign access? Will I no longer need my alarm monitoring software to program people to alarm systems? Will it integrate with the 3 different VMS's I currently run? All of these questions were answered with a No. So I responded so your giving me just another system for my staff to log into and maintain how to use. You did not solve one single problem i currently have. You only added to it. The person who told you to spec this solution has no clue what they are talking about. The PSIM solution was removed. By the way they also tried to spec a VMS and IP camera I had not been buying so in the end all they did with these proposed solutions is try and give me two move solutions I needed to learn, maintain, and teach my staff. Again not solving a single problem or issue I had.

3. As far as is the new solution better than the old one or is the new one the end user like worse than other new systems on the market. Again this could be tied to my #2. What does the other system do for me or solve for me? I am a car guy so and I assume most of you are so here is a car analogy: You go to the dealership and by a branch new vehicle. You know the one with all of the bells and whistles. Not one option available is rejected. The moment the keys are handed over to you, you ask the sales guy where the service department is? He points you in the direction but not until he asks you why? The vehicle good to go, its brand new nothing is wrong with it. You response true but I just bought the towing package and I never tow anything so I am going to have the service department remove it. I don't need it. So my point being don't try and sell your clients a solution that does not solve an issue or problem they have. Don't sell your clients a solution that adds to their problems. And don't sell your clients solutions that are Mustang Shelby Cobra GT500R when all they needed was a Prius.

IPVM has taught this end user to be less "blown away"

It's not so much that we don't get impressed that much it's the fact that we see so many different products these days we don't have time to get impressed. One is we have all gotten burned over the years by something we probably were impressed with that all to often we get very reserved in what we say we are impressed with.

An end user is impressed with some new technology that comes out but they often fail to read the fine print at the bottom that says Widget A wont do this feature until Widget D comes out next year or so. This is the integrators job to vet new products our end users find but this can be daunting as well since there are so many new products entering the market.