Subscriber Discussion

Multi System Administration In The Cloud

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John Bazyk
Oct 20, 2015
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

DMP just announced multi system administration in the cloud, dealers including myself requested this feature at ISC West and boom, its here. Video Their intrusion systems are rock solid and access control is becoming more advanced.

My question is, why don’t more manufactures create easy to use cloud based administration in the access control and ip video markets?

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Ethan Ace
Oct 20, 2015

I think most access/intrusion manufacturers are pretty old school and don't really see much reason to change. It's a pretty cool feature and good that companies like DMP are moving this way.

But there's a lot of Ademco and Lenel and Software House and others out there selling product on history and name and not moving toward features like this.

Time will tell if the slower incumbents start to lose business to more advanced features like this.

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John Bazyk
Oct 21, 2015
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

When I first came back to the family business, I called our top 100 customers and asked them what they didn’t like about our services. The most common response was that we didn’t offer sufficient remote access and if we did, it wasn’t up to their standards. They asked why we didn’t offer any services in the cloud for managing the systems (most were stuck with client software on a single PC). So I spent the next year interviewing differing intrusion, access control and video surveillance manufactures and most of them told me there was little to no demand for that kind of service. I wonder if this thought process is coming from end users or from dealers who are unaware of what their customers want.

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Steve Mitchell
Oct 21, 2015

My question is, why don’t more manufactures create easy to use cloud based administration in the access control and ip video markets?

I'm glad to take a crack at this specific question given that I know a thing or two about it from the IP video side. ;)

There are two general reasons:

The manufacturers, traditionally, have not been culturally prepared to develop ‘cloud’ based offerings both in terms of technology as well as operationally. The traditional manufacturer ships boxes out of a loading dock so connectivity to the end-user customer is way outside their comfort zone. A real cloud offering requires investment and commitment in people and infrastructure even beyond things like servers or operational staff. Manufacturers struggle to stay competitive on features, and thus have a hard time with investment in infrastructure that doesn’t directly pay off in large jobs this quarter or high volumes this year. Yes, the VMS software vendors are best prepared to play here (technically and to a lesser extent operationally), but even they have been slow to respond because..

The traditional channel based go-to-market strategy provides a lot of friction for a manufacturer developed cloud offering—even if it’s just a feature of the system. Many of the dealers/integrators may be local/regional. Thus the demand for a multi system, geographically distributed solution doesn’t always fall under the purview of a single component of the channel. The integrators often want to try to develop a solution by wiring together higher-margin components rather than going back to the manufacturer for an overall, manufacturer developed/managed solution that may or may not provide any upside for the integrator. Some integrators can also be protective of their relationship with the customer, and as such actually don’t want the manufacturer to have direct interaction. I think that’s why you see the manufacturers’ disconnect between how the end-user customers would like to manage their systems vs what those manufacturers are hearing THEIR customers (the channels) say they want.

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John Bazyk
Oct 21, 2015
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

What I like about DMP, is that the customer has no idea who DMP is when looking at the UI. On every user interface you only see the name of our company. DMP bills us for the RMR services and we bill the customer so DMP is totally out of the loop when it comes to our relationship with the customer.

I understand how many integrators would be skeptical with some companies who have sketchy sales channels.

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