Why Integrators Have a Real Opportunity to Embrace VSaaS in 2021
VSaaS/Cloud-based opportunities have actually increased the innovative options that integrators now have to build a risk-resilient business.
The Cloud is set to offer more and more powerful applications that will help grow an integrator’s business organically, making it a natural fit for organizations that want to stay on the cutting edge of security technology.
Integrators are all about establishing value. The value of technology for the end customer, ROI for decision-makers and partnership to their manufacturer partners. Integrators essentially accomplish this value-driven approach by constantly looking for ways to innovate and establish their business to be more risk resilient — and to provide the same kind of resilience to their customers by delivering a security solution that reduces the overall risk to the organization.
The secret sauce? Managed services. And more specifically, video surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS).
It’s true that the very nature of security integration has changed over the last few years — and the change has accelerated amidst the challenges of 2020.
The historical significance of integrators in the market as relying heavily on large-scale projects to increase the bottom line has often resulted in detrimental consequences when these projects are put on hold or withdrawn altogether as a result of economic uncertainty. In those times, innovation has played a key role for forward-thinking integrators, along with the goal of providing a more service-based approach.
As a growing segment of the market, VSaaS/Cloud-based opportunities have actually increased the innovative options that integrators now have to build a risk-resilient business while simultaneously embracing a more digitally transformative approach for existing and new customers. Perhaps the most successful integrators are ones that look toward leading-edge, not bleeding-edge technologies emerging in the marketplace and becoming well-versed in their advantages so they can raise that awareness with existing and potential customers.
As we’ve seen many times, customers don’t necessarily have the time to seek the latest and greatest innovations that would make the most sense for their business, and more traditional integrator-end customer relationships are built on the trust and knowledge brought to the table by the partnership.
Integrators are well-served to evaluate these solutions and look for ways to leverage them to bring additional value to the end customer through business optimization, data services and aggregation.
Future-Proofing Your Business
It’s been recently touted that integrators are being pushed out of the equation when it comes to VSaaS/Cloud video with some thought to believe that specific players in the VSaaS/Cloud video market and their reach directly to end-user customers would render the integrator obsolete. On the contrary, managed Cloud-based services play a large role in future-proofing an integrator’s business resiliency.
But I tend to stand by the statement: Cloud is the veritable Emerald City on the Yellow Brick Road of security. You no longer need to “look behind the curtain” to understand that it is a powerful tool for integrators to build their business and for end-user customers to better manage their incoming sensor data. And what makes it even more powerful and integrator-friendly is being able to be agnostic; unlike end-to-end solutions that lock you in to both proprietary hardware and software, Cloud-based video provides integrators the flexibility to recommend nearly every camera manufacturer alongside Cloud video services.
The Cloud is set to offer more and more powerful applications that will help grow an integrator’s business organically, making it a natural fit for organizations that want to stay on the cutting edge of security technology. The added opportunity of becoming experts on VSaaS/Cloud capabilities will help create more opportunity in the marketplace, elevate your business to be experts, and allow significant growth through predictable recurring revenue.
As integrators, the question should always be: How can I do more for my customers? In the end, it’s all about value, service and the relationships that integrators build with their customers. Integrators should look at VSaaS/Cloud video options as an increased opportunity to deliver valuable services to customers beyond the practical applications of hardware and cabling installations, etc.
Nigel Waterton is Chief Revenue Officer for Arcules.
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Mix cloud and managed and you get the best of both for any type customer, including those with branch offices where the big locations have the same software and login. Same system. Much of today’s cloud isn’t true cloud but more of an appliance with upload (think dvr with ftp) but the marketing is still the same. And it still works great for the customer (provided you don’t steal the appliance within a couple minutes!).