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.