Eagle Eye Favorability Results 2019

By IPVM Team, Published Mar 21, 2019, 11:19am EDT

Eagle Eye has been the biggest spender in the cloud VMS market including (via their owner) acquiring Brivo for $50 million and CameraManager from Panasonic, though their product / service still lacks many fundamental VMS functionalities (see IPVM test results). 

In IPVM's 2019 study, the company had modestly net positive favorability though high neutral level, as the chart below shows:

fav eagle eye 2019

Inside this report, we examine integrator's main themes and share dozens of comments.

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  • "**** **** **** ***** they **** ** **** and **** ********* *** up."
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  • "*** * *** ** this *****."
  • "**** ***** ******** *** a ****** ****** ** sell."
  • "*** ****, ** **** knowledge ** **** *'** read ** **** *** short ****** ** ***** website. * ***** *** based ** **** *********** they ***** **** * solid ******* *** ******** not ******** **'* *** up ***** ********** ***** our ************ ** *** use *** ********* *** now *** ******* ******."
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  • "***** * *** ***** them *** **** *** some ******* *** ***** very ********** ** ****. Price ** **** *** seems **** * ***** product."
  • "***** ***** **. ** not **** ****. *** company ** ******* **** it. ** ** *** have * **** ****** to ******* ********** ** training *** *********."
  • "* *** ***** ********* what **** *******. * know ***** ****** **** because ** *** ************ but **** **** *** they *******?" 

*** ******** ******* ********* observed:

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*******, *************, ** ******** at * ******* ***** Eye ******* *****:

* ***** **** **** positive *** * **** a *** ** ******** from *** ***** **** installations **** *********** **** problems.

********

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Comments (17)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

03/21/19 04:15pm

Wouldn't it be more accurate if you poll actual Eagle Eye dealers for favorability?  Who cares about the opinion of integrators who have never used the product?

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 03/21/19 05:16pm

We do the same survey for every manufacturer we cover. Here is the list of 2019 results published so far:

The goal is to get an overall sense of what the market thinks about a company, including why integrators choose not to use a specific company.

The idea of a different type of survey of just a company's dealer is perfectly sensible. Logistically, though, that would be challenging to get enough responses especially from smaller companies like Eagle Eye.

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Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to John Honovich | 03/21/19 05:29pm

Thanks for the response and I suppose that makes sense. Perhaps you could post statistics of poll respondents who are actually dealers for the product so there could be a more accurate gauge of favorability  for integrators who have real world experience using it. I do value and read these reports, for myself I would find it more helpful to poll people who actually know the product and can give a proper review if they like it or not. 

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 03/21/19 05:33pm

For our next version, in 2 years, we will consider adding a question for each, i.e., "Does your company sell X?" A: "Yes, currently" "No, but we have in the past", "No, never."

Also, we may ask another option in the favorability question - 'don't know' - so that we distinguish people who are actually 'neutral' vs those who don't know the company (which for smaller companies is quite common, e.g. 'everyone' has heard of Axis but not clear how many have not heard of Eagle Eye or Open Eye, etc.)

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Undisclosed Integrator #3

In reply to John Honovich | 03/26/19 10:26am

John,   How come we don’t see a favorability results for Mobotix?   Are they that irrelevant.  

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #3 | 03/26/19 01:11pm

We did not include Mobotix mainly because they have been trending down for some time and they are now OEMing products.

Eagle Eye is on an uptrend (how far they go, of course, remains to be seen) but that was a reason for including them now.

To be clear, after you get past the 10 or so 'obvious' choices (e.g., companies like Axis, Dahua, Hikvision, Avigilon, etc.), cases can be made for and against including lots of other. We did 20 companies in 2017 and nearly 30 this time. We could expand to 40 in the next run.

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Undisclosed End User #4

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 10/03/19 01:27pm

Actually I disagree with you.

I care what everyone tings of the product. Who cares only about those integrators who are in bed with a manufacture.

As an end user I want to hear from folks who sell it, who have sold it and who no longer sell it and for those who have never sold it. This gives a more accurate picture of the product. Folks who are forcing this on the clients (I mean) only selling this product to their clients have a vested interest in continuing to sell a product to their clients. With all of the time and money it takes to become certified and keep techs and sales staff certified on a product cost time and money.

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Undisclosed #2

03/21/19 06:17pm

This may be slightly off topic, but which other VMS play nicely with Brivo?

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Brian Rhodes

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 03/21/19 06:25pm

It's not off topic, we can help.  Are you looking for local (on-premise) based VMS, or cloud based?

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Undisclosed #2

In reply to Brian Rhodes | 03/21/19 08:39pm

local storage, looking for existing integrations they might already have

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Brian Rhodes

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 03/21/19 08:41pm

Got it, I'll ask Brivo and Brivo dealers for feedback.

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James Ashley

03/25/19 02:27am

We set up an end user on Eagle Eye as a sub-contractor and it was surprisingly easy. Our account manager sold a system direct and it took more time to configure the camera than it did to configure Eagle Eye. I'm impressed with the ease of setup and how easy it is to train the end user. I'm going to start leading with this as an option. It works with just about any IP-based camera brand.

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Undisclosed End User #4

10/03/19 01:21pm

Prior to this year had only heard of Eagle Eye and never used. Now I have used it for several months.

Not impressed. Don't like it. Don't see the value it provides. Lacks basic features of almost ever VMS on the market. I see this more of a cloud based spot monitor than anything else. And to me this is one expensive spot monitor.

I also don't like the fact that it heavily relies on the integrator. Traditional VMS's once the product is sold the integrator is gone. I don't know why I need to call my integrator each and every time I need to add or remove new user. I hate that. If I could change the direction of my company decided to go over a year ago I would. However I'm new here and their minds are made up.

I can attest to ADAT being their primary vendor. I went to a meeting between ADT, Eagle Eye and myself. During the meeting one of the Eagle Eye folks stated that they just love our account manager because he is their largest seller of the product.

I just wonder what is the relationship between the ADT account manager and Eagle Eye.... What kick backs or gifts is he getting from them. Because from the day I was introduced to him he bragged about how great Eagle Eye and my opinion is it is an extremely basic system.

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Hans Kahler

Eagle Eye Networks
In reply to Undisclosed End User #4 | 10/03/19 02:20pm

I'm sorry to hear that you're not impressed with our product. I would be glad to talk to you to see if there are things we can change for you. You should be able to add a user without calling your integrator.

As far as our relationship with ADT goes - they are one of our partners and very good one. However they sell other video products and we work with other partners too. I manage the relationship with ADT at a corporate level and I can assure you that there are no kickbacks.

Please feel free to call our office and ask for me 512-473-0500 and I will do whatever I can to help you. I'm around today and tomorrow.

- Hans Kahler, VP of Operations & Business Development

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Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Undisclosed End User #4 | 10/03/19 02:49pm

It sounds like your issue is with ADT not Eagle Eye. If you can't add or remove users it's because ADT didn't enable your account as an administrator. My firm has installed hundreds of Eagle Eye systems. Our customers have full control of their accounts, they can add/delete users and enable select cameras for select users so users only have access to cameras that they choose. I agree with your statement that the platform does not have many options that traditional VMS systems have, however the cost to install Eagle Eye is much less than installing a quality VMS (Exacq, Avigilon, Milestone etc). Also you can add new features (analytics, notifications etc) very easily with no hardware changes. Most major VMS systems can't offer this without purchasing hardware. Eagle Eye also requires a good internet connection with enough bandwidth to support the number of cameras on your system. So far we have had no complaints from our customer base on the platform. It needs to be setup correctly, perhaps ADT didn't do that for your installation. Call Eagle Eye directly, ask them for a referral for a good dealer in your area and have them come look at your system. You aren't married to ADT, there are plenty of quality integrators that also install Eagle Eye. In my opinion (25 plus years in the industry) Eagle Eye offers a good alternative for a traditional VMS.

As for your statement about the integrator being gone after a traditional VMS system is sold, I strongly disagree. When a customer spends thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a surveillance system they have high expectations from the company that sold them the equipment.

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Undisclosed End User #4

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 10/03/19 05:05pm

I've been in the industry for well over 30 years. Not one VMS I have purchased or had installed did the integrator stick around after the sale. All they have done after the sale was respond to service requests.

And even at that, often times I've had the techs who came to my site actually tell me and or the manufactures tech support that me the client knew more about the system then they did. So again other selling me a product I don't see the value. Software updates were never performed by them. I did it myself. All they would ever do is sell, install, and return to send a product out for repair. I loved getting a bill from an integrator for a service ticket that when the tech arrived he called the manufacture and provided his tech number, then handed me the phone (physically telling them he was handing the phone to another the who knew more about the system.

Sometimes, when looking for a new solution, I've had to tell the integrator about a new product (that I knew about), asked them if a solution existed and they responded after a couple of weeks of research, sorry the product does not exist. Then I show them the product and they are amazed.

I've used large and small and huge integrators. All the same. Nice people but no better than a car sales man. Sorry to be blunt. Oh and I have three very good friends who have been in the industry for 25 - 30 years as integrators.

I've been around to have used National Gardian, Security Link, Security Link from Ameritech, Security Link from ADT, ADT, ADT from TYCO, TYCO IS, Convergint, JCI, Stanley, etc and a whole host of small local only companies. Way to many to list. Some are not even in business any more. Just some of those former large companies listed. So I am well aware of the integrators.

Again my issues with product don't include just ADT its the product. I just have seen and used more robust VMS's than this over the past 30 years.

Maybe you are that unicorn. You know that fictional character that does not truly exist in the real world. But this is the world I live in. Not to say individual techs are not good or even great. But over all integrators are just car sales men. They sell you a product and walk away. And often times the techs are not that good. I've had more than one conversation with integrators (the company themselves) when I found a great tech and told them I don't care what you have to do but you will not screw this up for me. You will keep him happy if you continue to want my business. I will only allow this guy on my property. I've also told more than one, that tech XYZ is not allowed back on my property ever again.

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Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Undisclosed End User #4 | 10/04/19 02:03am

You don't consider service requests sticking around after the sale? What specific features are you not getting with Eagle Eye? What problems have you run into with Eagle Eye?

I like the product but it's not a fit for all applications. It depends on customers needs and expectations.

Perhaps you should have spent more time demoing the system and it's capabilities before deciding to purchase.

I would recommend taking Hans's offer and reaching out directly. Not sure if you have a bridge or a cmvr but the cmvr's are a traditional vms appliance that store recording locally and then backup to the cloud. You can also log directly into the devices locally on the network without needing to use the cloud interface to view live cameras.

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