You may have read some earlier posts about how we are making some changes to be more customer and market driven.  Part of our near term plan was to relaunch the Envysion Video service based on some new capabilities, some large customer wins, and our PCI compliance.

As part of our efforts I’ve spent the last two weeks talking to a variety of media people, analysts and bloggers.  I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned from that experience later, but I did want to call out a good assessment that John Honovich did over on his IP Video Market Info site.

Here’s the article.

I definitely enjoyed speaking with John as he really gets this space and was able to provide me some insight as well.  You should definitely add him to the list of blogs you follow.

Yesterday, I posted an article describing the Enterprise Hosted Model of deploying a security application. Today, I will describe the MVaaS model.

The basic difference is that in the above picture, the security application software is not installed at the enterprise. Instead, the application resides in the network, hosted out of a datacenter (referred to as the MVaaS datacenter in the above diagram).

DVRs can still be deployed at each location. However, instead of communicating with a server component that resides in the datacenter, the DVRs communicate with the application that resides in the network.

When a user interacts with the application, they point their web browser to the application in the network.

There are several similarities of these two models. For instance, in both models, the user can access the security application via HTTP/HTML, i.e., with a web browser. The web server simply resides in a different place. In the enterprise hosted model, the web server resides in the enterprise datacenter; in MVaaS, the web server is hosted on the public Internet.

Both models can provide a centralized management console that allows one-stop control of users, roles, access lists, and configurations of DVRs.

Either model can support integration with business systems, such as point-of-sale systems. The data from all locations can be transferred back to a single location (typically, the server in the datacenter at the enterprise or the MVaaS datacenter in the network). This enables searching, reporting and alerting over multiple stores simultaneously.

There are also several differences between these two models. In general, they fall into 5 categories:

1. Total cost of ownership
2. Software and change management
3. Complexity of the network
4. Sharing and collaboration beyond the enterprise
5. Disaster Recovery

Over the next few posts, I’ll dive into each one of these in more detail.

Occasionally I get the following question from someone thinking about deploying video in their company for the first time:  How are the employees going to react and will this create a “big brother” like atmosphere that is counter to our open and trusting culture?

I have a number of responses to this question, ranging from the cold/analytical to the more warm and fuzzy (can someone loan me some F? For those in the Myers-Briggs world, check out my ISTP profile for why the latter may be difficult for me)

Everybody’s doing it.

Okay, this is not exactly the most thoughtful response, but it is pretty accurate.  If you are in the retail, restaurant, or just about any other market, it is likely that a high percentage of players in your space have already deployed video.  If you hire employees that have experience in your industry, and given the high turnover in many of these segments it is likely you do, then it is fair to assume that they have worked in companies that use video.  Therefore your deployment of video is going to be par for the course and nothing new for a good portion of your employees.   Pretty logical argument, but not one that typically resonates as everyone believes that their company is different and culture is something to seriously protect.

Aren’t you already monitoring them?

Another stab at logic to dispel the concern.  The big brother concern is that you don’t trust your employees and that you are suddenly going to watch their every move.  If you trust your employees so much then you probably don’t audit your stores or have a loss prevention group.  Oh wait, you do audit your stores and you do have a loss prevention or risk group.  Huh.  Checking on your employees to make sure there aren’t any intentional or unintentional mistakes that might be costing the company money.  Sounds kind of big brother to me.  Only difference between using accounting and exception reports to conduct audits and using video is that you don’t have to guess what really happened when you use video.  Again, very logical but again not the most effective argument given how important companies view their culture.

Game Film

The strongest argument I have used to counter the big brother fear is to make a sports analogy.  The way I think about the value is very analogous to how sports teams use video. All football, basketball, and other team sports rely heavily on video to improve their team’s performance. Despite having set plays (standard processes), a quarterback and coaches that are involved in the action (managers and area managers), and plenty of people watching and/or impacting the performance (on-site management, rest of the employees, customers, etc.) these teams religiously use video to examine each game to understand how they performed and how they can learn from their performance to do better next time. In the heat of the moment, even the best quarterback or coach can’t know exactly what is happening in every aspect of the action. They use video to break down successful and unsuccessful plays so that they can figure out what worked and what didn’t and then review it with their players so that everyone can benefit.  This is what good companies do with video, and this can be part of a strong, trusting culture.  This is an argument that has had more impact because it offers an explanation and not an excuse for deploying video.

My final comment on the subject is usually this  - If you are concerned about your employees perceiving your video solution as Big Brother, don’t use it that way.

A common question is what is really the benefit of using MVaaS versus simply hosting the software at my enterprise? In other words, why not just buy a software package that supports all the MVaaS features via a web interface, but install it myself in my datacenter?

I am starting today a series of posts that will explore the pros and cons of these two scenarios. To begin with I’ll start with a diagram of the enterprise hosted model.

The general model is that the customer deploys an enterprise video management system in their corporate datacenter. Each remote location is connected to that datacenter via a VPN. Remote video is captured at each location using a DVR and all the DVRs are interconnected via the VPN network. Typically, a user could connect to the enterprise hosted application and then interact with any of the remote video sites

I call this configuration the Enterprise Hosted Model. I’ll introduce the MVaaS model next. After that, I’ll provide a series of posts with the pros and cons of each model.

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The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter used the phrase “creative destruction,” to describe a process in which the old ways of doing things are endogenously destroyed and replaced by new ways. In his view, this was part of a cycle of economies going through growth and recession.

We’re not technically in a recession until there have been two consecutive quarters of negative growth of real GDP or economic growth. But 70% of the US economy is consumer spending and consumer spending is growing extremely slowly. Discretionary spending seems to be what’s really taking the toll right now as noted by this article in Business Week. Yet some of the less exciting staples of the economy are actually humming along such as food and fuel.

What about security? IMS reports a slowdown in growth of network video to 30% for 2008, down from 42% last year. 30% growth doesn’t sound all that bad to me. Now that’s just for network video growth, which they note is less than 20% of the overall video surveillance market. Hybrid video systems (that is, video systems that support IP network video and analog video) would seem to be positioned well either way the market moves over the next year or so.

There are a few takes on how the reduced growth in the economy will affect the broader video and security market from some video/security bloggers. John Honovich claims that there are too many IP Video Surveillance Software suppliers that are either not supplying value or are not differentiated. There sure are a lot of them and it does seem like that there will be consolidation or a reduction in the number of IP Video Software suppliers.

Steve Hunt blogged an insightful article recently on the same topic but with a different twist. His main point is that if you supply value, you’ll survive. To supply value however, you have to stay close to your customers.

I’d say the software (and service) suppliers that provide real value to their customers will survive if they can control their costs and connect with their customers. Perhaps some creative destruction will occur along the way video as innovative entrepreneurs create new ways to deliver increased value to customers. Those who aren’t producing value to the end customer however might want to read, “Change or Die”, available now at Amazon.com!

“Shrek” is one of my favorite movies. I especially like the exchange between Shrek and Donkey, when Shrek compares Ogres with onions. If you don’t remember the exact dialog, you can get the transcript from The Internet Movie Database imdb.com, a fabulous source for all you movie buffs out there (warning: it’s pretty fun to explore, so only go there if you have time!). Here’s the clip:

Donkey, of course, doesn’t get it and responds with his own example of a layered thing, “Parfaits have layers, why can’t you be more like a parfait?”

Like Ogres, onions - and parfaits - good marketing programs have layers, too. Marketing tactics, taken individually in one shot will not drive sales. Rather, the layered approach works best. Direct mail, layered with a follow up e-mail push, followed by a trade show appearance, layered with a relevant press release, will hit prospects in several places in a short period of time. Layered together, these tactics create an overall impression and raise awareness, which sets the stage for a sales person to engage with the prospect.

Not quite the kind of layers Shrek had in mind, but, like Donkey, I enjoy taking a metaphor in my own direction!

Based on my research of B2B marketing and positioning, there are as many opinions as to whether a tag line is important as there are tag lines. Some marketers believe that tag lines are a throw-away; I believe that’s because most B2B taglines aren’t memorable and/or don’t say anything about the product or service.  On the flip side, there are marketers who think tag lines are critical to communicating the essence of a brand in a pithy and concise manner. But they only work if they’re actually pithy and concise.

A well-crafted tagline can have impact:

1. as a distillation of the overall positioning
2. as a means of giving dimension to your brand
3. as a “teaser” that entices your target audience to ask for more information

Do you know the B2B products or serivces associated with each of these tag lines?

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If you want to have some fun testing yourself on other ”famous” B2B taglines, click here for the Gibson Marketing Group test on B2B taglines. If you’re like me, you won’t do very well on the quiz.

How have you dealt with your limiting constraints?  Were you successful?

In Scott Beck’s address to the team at Envysion, he shared two specific strategies that he has utilized at the companies he has founded and led.  Thanks again, Scott, for sharing your insights!

Alignment

The alignment of a company is of utmost importance.  And it does take long for it to become unravelled.  We need to know ourselves.  If we have a relative weakness, as a company, we need to align our resources and efforts to improve.

Of course aligning resources is a top concern for the leaders of an organization.  However, it does not stop there.  We all have a responsibility, especially in start-up companies, to contribute.  If 80% of the company waits for 20% to improve, without assisting, 100% of the organization suffers.

Energy

Scott has perceived that energy in an organization is shared.  All employees contribute to the environment.  They either consume energy, are energy neutral, or create energy.

All employees need to ask themselves “What is my job?”  The answer is not only to competently perform the duties as detailed in my job description.  An organization requires more of their people.  We all need to remind ourselves that we are responsible for contributing in other ways, including adding positively to the energy and culture of the organization.

As Scott stated so succinctly, “Create contagious enthusiasm!”

Envysion is in a mode of perpetual accelerated change.  Cultural change is everywhere in the business, and expectations have risen dramatically.  Having responsibility for the sales and marketing part of the business, there is no where where expectations have changed more.

With change comes the traditional set of emotions; fear, excitement, uncertainty and more.  What I have seen from my team in terms of behavior change and attitude are all over the board.  I have seen people step up and out of their roles and lead by example, I have seen people embrace the change and outperform even their own expectations and I have seen a few people’s attitudes deteriorate, as status quo went away. 

Attitude has been the compelling differentiator for those people who are moving forward within the business and bringing renewed energy.  Victor Frankl, a Nazi concentration camp survivor wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but…the last of human freedoms - to chose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to chose one’s own way.”  Attitude and energy are infectious, viral and my key measurement for the team going forward, as guess what, things in the future are likely to change…

Scott Beck met the team at Envysion yesterday morning.  On behalf of Envysion, thank you Scott for taking the time to speak with us!

In his address, Scott shared his thoughts on what is required to create successful businesses.  These include an attractive and addressable market, a compelling value proposition for the customers, and a committed management team.

However, even for companies that have all of this, success is not guaranteed.

Why?  Scott’s term for it was limiting constraints.  All organizations (and for that matter all individuals) have constraints that limit their effectiveness.  This is somewhat self-evident.  We are all imperfect, and the organizations that we create are likewise so.  What is most important is how companies react to their limitations.  Companies that fail in this regard severely impact their opportunity for success.

What are the limiting constraints that you have experienced in your organization?  What have you done to overcome them?