Avigilon To Require Disclosing Who 'Your' End User Is

This is a dirty strategy that is also partly practised by other suppliers in the IT segment (Cisco gives the integrator an additional discount for a customer project who he brings first). Goal is to control the enduser. For the integrator, there is just one escape: changing supplier. This is a typical behavior of market dominators that want to control the whole value chain and do not care about ethical rights of the integrators without whom they would have never become a dominant player.

Makes sense. You can't truly protect the channel without ensuring that someone somewhere isn't sneaking extra cameras out the back door.

While the concept sounds sketchy and may be open to future abuse, looking at the form, it's nothing really top-secret they're asking for.

I've had situations with other manufacturers' systems where it's expedient for the end user to contact support directly (usually if we don't have a tech on-site at the time, or support personnel need remote access to systems), and it's usually a major production (read: drama) from the manufacturer's end - they call us, "are you sure you want us supporting your customer?", or they tell the customer HE has to have US call them, and then THEY'LL call the customer back... you know what I'm talking about.

We've looked into becoming an Avigilon partner, and in light of other recent experiences, their open policy about ACTUALLY ALLOWING end users to contact support themselves is pretty attractive for situations like this... and I can see where they would want to know who it is that's calling them for help.

The form includes blanks for the partner's name and PO number, which would also help support look up product info that the end user may not have access to - example, if generate PO#12345A for customer Bob's Car Wash, with an Avigilon server and certain cameras... then if Bob phones them up for help, they don't have to ask, "which cameras do you have, sir?", they can just look up Bob's Car Wash and the integrator now, correlate to the PO#, and KNOW what gear (at least what Avigilon gear) Bob has.

On the surface, it doesn't appear to be for anything more than prudent record-keeping. Is there a deeper hidden agenda? I'll leave that to the conspiracy theorists to work out. My only pause would be in agreement with Daniel's question: does the end user get a say in their info being shared? That said, looking at the info being requested, it's nothing that couldn't be gathered from a quick Google search if one simply knows the customer's name.

I am not sure why this is surprising to people. My take on it is this:

• If you don't trust who you are in bed with...get another partner.
• I have been giving this information to my manufacturers for years, including Lenel, OnSSI and RS2. All require it to place an order. Obviously all of these are direct to dealer partners, I am not sure I would be sending my distributers a list of all of my Exacq clients...
• For most of my partners this information is used to provide myself with reports of who is near to expiring on their support or software upgrade agreements. I know Avigilon does not have any official software upgrade plans per say, but maybe they are heading that way.
• I just checked with my ISR and Avigilon has never required a form to be filled out to purchase product or licensing, so this is either new or not enforced.

"Keep your customers close and your customer's customers closer..."

From 'The Art of VAR' - Sun Tzu

I'm going to play good cop for Avigilon on this one since they are so pathetic :) Based on our past dealings with Avigilon, they were very disorganized top to bottom. The salesman was saying one thing and the credit department was telling you another. You couldn't use the same PO# twice no matter what even if it was a change order on the same project. When you did issue them a PO #, they kept changing their mind on how they wanted the PO# done. Since Avigilon is obsessed with the mega projects like every other manufacturer out there, they are figuring a national integrator like Stanley will do the initial install, screw it up like they normally do and then the end user has to bring it a new company to fix the mess. This will help their service team down the road for the mega projects for their records for what's in warranty and what is not in warranty, firmware etc. I don't have a problem when a regional sales manager brings the deal in for the integrator and Avigilon requires the end user information.

However, for the smaller deals when the integrator brings in Avigilon on their own accord, the integrator shouldn't be required to disclose the end user information. (Though some integrators post every install they do with Avigilon on Twitter so what’s the point? :) ) Avigilon may not like it when the integrator used their VMS with a couple of Hikvision mini dome cameras instead of their own micro domes to win the deal.

If there is a problem with their system, the end user calls us, not the manufacturer. That’s why the end user is paying us so we can help them with their problem. And what's to prevent the integrator making up imaginary customers or existing clients that do not have an Avigilon system? We've done that before with other companies. Is Avigilon going to waste time going through every single purchase order for every end user? My past experience with them tells me no, they will not do that. Most end users do not care if they are using Aviglion, Bosch, Axis or whomever. They just want their system to work, plain and simple. The manufacturers forget sometimes they just sell equipment.

Any competitive business has critical confidential information, and there is very little information more critical to an independent integrator than their customer lists.

During competition and selection phases, but also during the course of the work, disclosure of this sort of information can cause serious damage to a vendor.

In most industries, a confidentiality agreement is critical. Prior to even entering discussions, businesses establish non-disclosure agreement to protect the business interests of both parties. At the exploratory phase, some of these agreements preclude even acknowledging the identity of the other party.

Under several of our agreements with customers and vendors, we would simply be unable to utilize Avigilon as a supplier under the stated terms.

Does Avigilon even sign an NDA which legally binds them to protect integrator confidential information?

Looking at the form, Avigilon seems to be requesting this information at the PO stage. This assumes the end-user has already agreed to the work being done and materials are being ordered to fulfill the job.

How much risk is there that a competitor would waltz in and jeopardize the relationship with the end-user at that point? It seems to me the likelihood of something like that happening is very small to non-existant. Why would the end-user jeopardize the relationship at that point and risk legal action that could potentially double their project cost, or worse?

Maybe I'm just naive, but I don't see much downside for the integrator here.

John - Are there any other details in the communication about their rationale for implementing this or is it limited to that statement?

I had an Avigilon user contact us about trying to help them find someone to service their Avigilon equipment that was not functioning or needed servicing. They wanted to switch integrators because of response times or prices. Maybe this is a way of protecting the Avigilon dealer of these types of clients.

Poll result breakdown:

• Integrators overwhelmingly oppose this: 70% to 15%
• Manufacturers are split down the middle - about 1/3rd think it's good, 1/3rd bad, 1/3rd not sure

It aligns with each party's interest. Integrators get little benefit while assuming future risk. Manufacturers potentially get significant benefits, both short and long term.

I have new PO #

IPVM-1 , IPVM-2..... :)

Its the mandatory nature of the policy that I see as a problem. The integrator should have the ability to allow its customers to access factory direct for support for clients they feel it would benefit and who they have solid control of the account with. Other clients may be newer thus not on as solid footing &/or don't have technical expertise to even go near the system for tech support reasons. Only the integrator is in a position to make those decisions. Additionally, I worked for a company that started out as an integrator then changed to a selling through "channel partners only" mode and then back to an integrator. They absolutely would mine the database of customer informaiton you gave them when they were in channel support mode, to give as leads to thier new direct sales force who may go into your client selling on the "you can have a direct connection to the factory for all your support AND, bonus.....we can provide you with lower pricing because there is no reseller markup". Don't think that can't, won't & doesn't happen. Again - it should be a decision made by the integrator whether to share that information. I definitely will not be selling Avigilon products until/unless they reverse this policy.

If Avigilon was to start handing out customer information to other Installers (I hate the term Integrator, don't know why) would the previous Installer not find out and maybe stop selling Avigilon? I would think if this was their end goal, it could end up working against them, no? By pissing off their loyal installers.