Verkada has built a reputation on giving away things for free - free Yeti Tumblers, free trial cameras and now free temporary systems for government and health care users during coronavirus.
Inside this note, we examine:
How the program works
Why it builds on their competitive positioning
Why it can hurt integrators and rival manufacturers
However, Verkada has gotten literally no PR out of this announcement, save for us, who tends to be critical of Verkada. So I don't think offering this is worth it for the free press but it may be worth it to get into more accounts faster.
I've been working closely with them for quite a while now, I really like them. They do approach the business differently than traditional security manufacturers, but they've also been very responsive whenever I've pointed out problems that arise from that.
I don't really feel like their offering cuts integrators out of the game, since there still needs to be infrastructure work done. The most important aspect of this is the threat assessment and device layout, which still needs to be done by a security professional.
My advice is to leverage the technology and highlight the things security professionals need to do, and explain to the customer what is automated, and how their total cost of ownership of their new security system is far less expensive than traditional systems. It keeps us relevant without discounting the tech due out of fear of being replaced by the machines.
At the moment they emailed me the offer I was directing and screening traffic into a Covid-19 testing site.
I understand, there will be healthcare organizations who would openly welcome any product at this point that may help them or at least allow them to look like their tightening up. The assisted living facility market within healthcare would likely be ripe for this.
To me the timing felt cheap and opportunistic. Every other phone call, text, or email from the industry I’ve received since our first patient died in early March has more generally focused on ways the integrator or manufacturer can help. Even security vendors we have not and may never do buisness with have donated us sanitizer, masks, and/or food. Never once leading with a product, more often opening the conversation by asking about how they can help.
I disagree although I see how it could be interpreted that way. If it was 1 or 2 cameras or 30 days I might feel different. $15K worth of product for 90 days in facilities that might not exist that long sounds like a pretty good deal. 10 cameras is plenty to be useful in a scenario like this.
If they were to buy masks and sanitizer - they would just drain the market of it like everyone else just so they can give it away for feel good points. With this program it's letting them use what they already have and are good at - for free.
Agreed on the title, I probably just didn't have enough coffee today.
Right now, we aren't carrying any temperature / fever products. I would rather miss out on the opportunity than sell people "security theater," and lose the trust that people have in the SCW brand. A thermal camera with a 3 degree variance means that false positives and false negatives will abound and you won't be any safer with it.
I do have a team looking into some of the 0.3 variance products that you have talked about, but most of those brands don't work with retailers or sell direct, so I am not particularly hopeful in that regard.
Other manufactures, like us, offer temporary license for healthcare organizations, but don’t use the situation cynically for PR. This is time for action and solidarity and not public relationship. Do more, talk less
Other manufactures, like us, offer temporary license
But Verkada is giving hardware, 10 cameras, and a remote viewing station. There's a hard cost to that. We criticize Verkada regularly but I see this as being a substantive move.
I don't agree. I think they are aggressively taking advantage of their resources when others are constrained to further accelerate winning business.
This is the Silicon Valley SaaS model - don't worry about short term sales and marketing costs, worry about getting people on-board, concentrating on the end game of a massive recurring revenue base.
Spot on. The key is to do it tactfully. I can't even count how many presentations I skipped out on after less than five minutes because their approach and attitude was bad, even if the product was interesting. Sensitivity to the current situation, while also coming from a place of helpfulness is key.
It's also important to remember that new business relationship building is hard, almost close to impossible at times like this. Strengthening existing partnerships and creating a buzz within vertical markets that you can make an impact in is the smart move, and Verkada clearly sees that.
That's a reasonable point in favor of Verkada. The client, though, would know upfront when the 90 days are ending. That's part of the deal of getting equipment for free.
I still think Verkada overall takes more risk than the end-user in this specific deal.
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Comments (17)
Eric Gutierrez
04/07/20 03:20pm
This is good PR for them. Many companies are doing or will do something similar - we are doing the same.
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Michael Gonzalez
04/07/20 06:54pm
I've been working closely with them for quite a while now, I really like them. They do approach the business differently than traditional security manufacturers, but they've also been very responsive whenever I've pointed out problems that arise from that.
I don't really feel like their offering cuts integrators out of the game, since there still needs to be infrastructure work done. The most important aspect of this is the threat assessment and device layout, which still needs to be done by a security professional.
My advice is to leverage the technology and highlight the things security professionals need to do, and explain to the customer what is automated, and how their total cost of ownership of their new security system is far less expensive than traditional systems. It keeps us relevant without discounting the tech due out of fear of being replaced by the machines.
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Undisclosed End User #2
At the moment they emailed me the offer I was directing and screening traffic into a Covid-19 testing site.
I understand, there will be healthcare organizations who would openly welcome any product at this point that may help them or at least allow them to look like their tightening up. The assisted living facility market within healthcare would likely be ripe for this.
To me the timing felt cheap and opportunistic. Every other phone call, text, or email from the industry I’ve received since our first patient died in early March has more generally focused on ways the integrator or manufacturer can help. Even security vendors we have not and may never do buisness with have donated us sanitizer, masks, and/or food. Never once leading with a product, more often opening the conversation by asking about how they can help.
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Matthew Nederlanden
I don't know if it is just me, but I originally through "Temp" in the headline was the abbreviation for "Temperature" rather than "Temporary."
When the article loaded, I thought, "Huh, I clicked on the wrong link."
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Other manufactures, like us, offer temporary license for healthcare organizations, but don’t use the situation cynically for PR.
This is time for action and solidarity and not public relationship. Do more, talk less
Create New Topic