'Best In Show' Fails

Disclaimer: I am VP Engineering for IPConfigure

I think, respectfully, that John's post misunderstands the meaning -- or at least *a* meaning -- of "Best New Product". There is a semantic game at work here: is "Best New Product" the best product that was released in the past year, or the best product that's first to occupy a brand new market position? In my view and in the view of the SIA judges, this award addresses the former.

The best product in a class is rarely the first. Good work takes time, both in terms of product development and understanding customers' needs in a new or changing market space. IPConfigure Orchid Fusion VMS on ACAP for Axis cameras is a new product that offers a no-compromise embedded, web-based VMS with first-class user experiences and capabilities that are fundamentally identical to Orchid Fusion VMS running on traditional servers -- and in fact the two can integrate seamlessly in a way that's transparent to end-users and system administrators.

While intelligent and well-meaning folks can disagree on the degree to which this architecture is revolutionary, IPConfigure feels that our product represents the cleanest, most technologically sound, and highest value implementation of the concept and has likewise earned the judges' decision.

All the "awards" in this industry are a joke, mostly a marketing tool being paid for the manufacturers...

I have never seen an RFP or spec call for "award winning products only", nor have I ever had a customer say "I called you because we saw your award for X".

To me, these awards are almost valueless. I say "almost" because they are not entirely valueless, but they have a very short half life. The problem with the ISC West awards in particular is that there is too much going on at the show, and the awards are announced roughly halfway through the show, near what is basically the peak of show floor attendance. This leaves winners practically zero chance to really promote and capitalize on their awards. By the week after ISC West, nobody cares who won what, everyone is back to grinding at sales, and "Wanna hear about the award we won" is a freshman's pickup line.

If SIA announced the award winners before the show, it would give manufacturers some opportunity to promote their wins, and possibly even adjust booth signage to say "Come see our award winning analytics-for-detecting-people-loitering-in-the-rain". This might help drive greater awareness of the awards in general, and actually allow winners to get some value from it.

Announcing awards before the show would also mean that you are not doing your product presentation to the committee the last day of pre-show setup, when (in my experience) you often need all hands on deck to finish things off in the booth. This is particularly true when you are showing a new product (which award entries are supposed to be), where you need to do final debugging and patching to make the damn thing run successfully :)

I am a marketing guy. I am not a sales guy. I am not an engineer. Some of you can stop reading now.

Because John Honovich has such a significant following in the industry which my employer serves, I try to understand the underlying (or overarching) principles of his arguments. Why? By representing a manufacturer, I have a responsibility to try to understand what our potential customers think, or are being influenced to think.

As I understand it, John is not taking issue with running a VMS on the camera. John is taking an issue with the criteria used to choose winners of awards, specifically a "best of show" award at a security products convention.

To me, to understand this you must accept that John's purpose with IPVM is to educate and PROTECT integrators.

When he states that the market for security cameras running the VMS on the camera is small, I think that he is telling us that he questions why such a niche product would be deemed significant. It could be the universally best VMS running on the universally best camera and he would still say that few people are going to need it or buy it. So, why should it win an award?

We sell a very, very good VMS and it is now available on very, very good cameras as "edge" offerings. That is why this issue is important to me.

John's argument acutely illustrates my challenge -- what is the use case for these cameras? Are there uses that integrators (and apparently, even John) are not recognizing, or is the application always going to be limited?

But to have a product named "best in show" where there is an old and ongoing argument about the usefulness of the product does not make much sense to me, either. But, congratulations. You won. If your win increases the market for the cameras running your VMS, it should influence our sales as well.

As several here have pointed out, it may just be that some of us disagree with the criteria for the award.

If the award was, as has been alluded to, "The Best New Product with the Most Potential to Make Integrators More Profitable," it might be easier to understand and to debate the winner.

As a marketing guy for a manufacturer, I never want to be accused of doing marketing for marketing's sake. Our engineers should not do engineering for engineering's sake. Innovation should not be innovative for innovation's sake.

Marketing and innovation for the customer's sake.

By choosing products for awards that solve niche issues, is the customer ultimately being served? Is the customer even considered in the criteria?

Call me jaded, but I view the entire "association" (SIA, ASIS, PMI) as money machines and that "awards" and "pre-advertising" are just a means to an end - enriching the association.

I know that these shows combined with their membership pushes (and educational classes / materials) are their primary revenue sources and it's a necessary evil, but it does allow for agendas.

What criteria is used to establish the "best-in" label? Who's on the committee? Why did they get chosen and not others?

I think highlighting and spiking new technology - without consideration or remuneration - would give far more credibility to the SIA and selection committees. (Which is why I SO enjoy reading the reviews on IPVM - unbiased, relevant reviews of products - kudos).

I, as an end-consumer and reseller, would appreciate understanding "real" new technology in the market space. Additionally, I think that the SIA should take a focus annually as to where the market is trending - it certainly isn't with a VMS on the camera?

Looking forward to the recriminations of the industry groups to this post.

Cheers...

Speaking of 'Best In Show' Fails, 2011 award winner FST has failed, ceasing operations.

In terms of the award, what was strange even at that time, given the complexity of technology involved and the price point they were trying to charge, this company had a high probability of failing and was virtually guaranteed to be, at best, a niche high-end play.

And we called those concerns many years ago.