I recommend that you check out this post at IPVideoMarket.info.

The post seeks feedback on an idea to establish a marketplace where buyers of video solutions can find experts to help them with their purchase.  Given the rate of change in the marketplace, including the impact of new solutions like MVaaS, I’m certain that buyers would welcome assistance in narrowing their choices and assuring that they are purchasing a solution right for them.  

From a selfish perspective, video solution providers (at least those with a superior product and service) would also be major beneficiaries.  When buyers are armed with information, they make better and quicker decisions.  

I’m hopeful that this idea takes off!

Sitting here on a Saturday reflecting on the upcoming ASIS conference in Atlanta this coming week.

This will be my 3rd ASIS since starting Envysion and I feel like I finally understand the lay of the land well enough to maximize my time there this week.  The first time I went I just walked around not knowing anybody and couldn’t tell who was relevant for me to talk to, so I just talked to whoever I could trying to sort out the various industry players.  The second time I went I had a much better sense of how we fit relative to the various players and potential channel partners, but I didn’t know any of them so I spent my time trying to meet folks by just walking up to their booths and engaging in dialog.

We also had some meetings set up for us by one of the industry insiders that had joined us (Jackie Andersen).  The meetings were all of the “here’s an interesting company that you’ve never heard of or met that you might want to meet variety”.

This year is already different and I haven’t even left yet.  I am going not only knowing who the relevant players are for us – we are already in active discussions with many of them – but also with specific mutually agreed upon objectives lined up for each partner and potential customer to advance our relationship.

I’m excited to have this be the first ASIS that results in more than just a better understanding of the market!  I look forward to catching up with a number of you at the conference and for the rest I’ll post some thoughts on key takeaways either from the show or when I get back.

Now back to 6 year olds and soccer…

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I had a series of posts in June asking the simple question, who’s bigger, Salesforce.com or GM? (I, II, III, IV)

The series concludes here, indicating that Salesforce.com’s market capitalization remained slightly behind that of General Motors.  At least this was true on June 4th.

Well, some things have changed.  Most who are interested in economic issues are well aware of the challenges now facing GM (and for that matter, Ford and Chrysler).  A multi-billion dollar bailout  may be next.  It has not been an easy run for the ”Big Three” automakers.  GM’s market capitalization has been battered (~$6.1 billion).

Salesforce.com has also faced some challenges.  While they set company records with their 2nd quarter profits, the results were short of investor expectations, and the stock plummeted 8% in one day.  The San Francisco based company is now valued at ~$6.6 billion.

Perhaps this is an unfair comparison, especially given the very difficult situation in the auto industry.  Still, who would you rather own?

John Honovich rated managed video as one of the top 3 emerging technologies in Video Surveillance for 2008.  We here at Envysion are flattered to be mentioned as the segment leader!

I think John has it right that it’s going to take several years before managed video is as big as the general IP video market is today.  J. C. R. Licklider wrote back in 1965: “A modern maxim says: People tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in five or ten years…”.  Bill Gates said something similar in the 90’s.  It’s not uncommon for even only incrementally new technologies to take 3-5 years to reach critical mass.

The speed of market acceptance and adoption of managed video will also take time.  Technology and bandwidth are not barriers, but only with the right mix of centralized and distributed software, storage and video streaming.  Envysion is doing it today.

However, operating a managed video system at scales of over a millon cameras is something that’s going to take considerable “know-how” that only comes from having “been there and done that” over years of learning.

Managed video may be plug-and-play at the edge, but scaling up all the systems necessary to keeping everything running well together is not plug-and-play.  Fortunately we’ve accomplished similar feats in the telecom space building the backbones of the Internet and voice over IP systems.

In 5 or 10 years, a million cameras will feel like just the start.  It’s crystal clear to me that there is enormous growth potential for managed video.

There are more ways than ever to communicate using video.  Of course, there is video conferencing, either via a special phone device like a Polycom or software on your computer like Skype.

But whole new segments of video communication have emerged in the last 3-5 years that most of us probably never thought would happen.  YouTube is increasingly being used as a visual collaboration tool and it isn’t only for entertainment, but also increasingly for business.  There are ton’s of informational videos, how to and product demos out there.  Now, take this to the next level.

There is a concept called Visual Networking in which anyone can immediately talk, see and share content with a few people or thousands of colleagues or friends”.  An interesting startup company called Bada Networks (formerly Amity Systems) is building technology just for this purpose.

Here’s a good article in network world about Bada.

Image via Wikipedia

IP Video Market Info released a search engine designed specifically for the video surveillance professional.

John Honovich, founder of IP Video Market Info and frequent commenter to this blog, describes the new optimized search engine in this press release.

Let’s hope that word spreads and the search engine is successful!

I posted a while back about getting to know the folks at Protiviti at a conference.  A very good customer of ours happens to be a very good customer of theirs so we started talking.  They are thought leaders in the world of loss prevention and provide consulting services to retailers to help them drive profitability in their businesses.

I was on a plane yesterday and was reading a report they put out recently that assessed capabilities and needs in loss prevention at a large number of retail and restaurant operators.  There were a number of interesting takeaways from the report, but the one that I found most interesting was what executives (not just LP executives, but VP and C level execs at the surveyed firms) thought needed the most improvement in their LP efforts.  #1 was Internal Theft.  Tied for #3 was Measuring/enhancing exception-based reporting ROI.

Both of these issues are squarely impacted by video, so this is a good sign for providers that are investing in video capabilities that can help reduce internal theft and be used to provide or augment exception-based reporting systems to help improve their ROI (by providing visual context of what really happened behind the numbers that are spit out of the exception reporting system).

Tomorrow I’ll post some thoughts on the exception reporting topic as we’ve had a number of prospects pose some interesting questions on this front.

This certainly comes as no surprise. Technomic’s revised economic forecast for full service restaurants in 2008 is a mere 1%, adjusted for inflation. This is down from nearly 3% just last year.

I own an SUV and wouldn’t dream of selling it in today’s market. What does one do until the market comes back? You make some small investments to improve it’s efficiency. You also make darn sure that you operate it in a manner that produces the most miles per gallon.

Same goes for restaurants. Take the time now to invest in operational efficiency and the technology that will get you there. At the end of this cycle, the top line will grow again and the bottom line will swell. Hold off for this future valuation. It will be well worth the wait.

Casual-dining deals faltering in tough economy

TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 11, 2008)

Outback Steakhouse parent OSI Restaurant Partners’ move to sell its six-unit Lee Roy Selmon’s chain became the latest victim of the tightened credit markets, as the deal fell through because the buyers could not obtain financing.

According to a June filing with federal regulators, OSI revealed that the purchase agreement, announced last October and expected to close last December, had expired.

An investor group led by its NFL Hall of Famer namesake founder and Selmon’s president Peter Barli said last October that it was purchasing an 80-percent stake in Selmon’s with plans to grow the concept to 30 restaurants in five years.

The current status of the deal remains unclear, and OSI officials could not be reached for comment as of press time. The filing said the company also had shelved plans to sell the 37-unit Roy’s Restaurant chain because of poor market conditions. Still, OSI indicated in the filing that it would continue to evaluate exit strategies for its non-core chains, which include Selmon’s, Roy’s and the 38-unit Cheeseburger in Paradise chain.

The stalled deal joins others in the casual-dining sector that also have lost steam, including Brinker International Inc.’s unsuccessful efforts to sell Romano’s Macaroni Grill or Sizzler’s decision in June to hold off on a sale of its 300 domestic locations until market conditions improve. Last month, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc. closed its lone Taneko Japanese Tavern about three months after disclosing that an attempt to sell a controlling interest in the intended chain prototype had fallen through.

Some transactions, however, have survived the tough economy, such as the $11.3 million deal that took Max & Erma’s private. Pittsburgh restaurateur Gary Reinert Sr.’s G&R Acquisition Inc. bought the 106-unit chain earlier this summer.

Pending deals include Planet Hollywood International Inc.’s offer to buy Buca Inc., parent of the 88-unit Buca di Beppo chain, for 45 cents a share, or $9.7 million.

Image by FadderUri via Flickr

In a recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), venture capitalists invested over $7.4 billion in the second quarter.  This is on par with the $7.5 billion invested during the first quarter, and continues a general and steady upward trend since 2002. 

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.