Sometimes it takes me a couple of times before what should be an obvious truth sinks in.  Usually someone says something that I don’t fully internalize, then I hear it again, then I read something that triggers a thought, then it dawns on me and I wonder how I didn’t get it in the first place.

In this particular case, that obvious truth is this: we aren’t doing a good enough job of describing what MVaaS is and why you (or our customers) should care.  We’ve gotten some good comments on the blog to that effect.  Our esteemed colleague John Honovich pointed this out.  And true to form, I read a marketing guru piece on the subject on the plane ride home today that finally sealed the deal.

While I love our service and the new category that we’ve established and I (and the rest of the people that post on this blog) can spend hours telling you why its different and why its valuable and why it will help you improve your business, most of you won’t make it that far, frustrated (or bored) because you don’t know what we do or what MVaaS is besides another acronym.

We need that simple statement that describes, without buzzwords who we sell to, what value we provide and why we are different.  We’ve done this exercise a number of times and have several versions of this (don’t ask why we didn’t share these on the blog already – my ego can only handle missing one obvious truth a day) I think I’ll wing it here and see what we get.  Usually these exercises take forever as you labor over each and every word, so forgive me if it isn’t perfect the first time – the point is to help you understand what we do as soon as possible, I can drive myself and my team crazy later wordsmithing the bejeezes out of this.

What is MVaaS and what are we selling?

For operators of multi-unit businesses that want to improve their operations, we provide easy remote access to live and recorded video that can be tied to point of sale and other systems, enabling users to improve profitability and their customer experience but without causing a strain on the companies IT staff or network

I’m already resisting the urge to wordsmith.  In fact, with blogs I think I can wordsmith this and you won’t even know so I may just do that. 

What do you think?  First, do you understand it?  Second, is there a better way to say it?

Let me know your thoughts.  If you tell me a couple times (and I haven’t already reached my epiphany limit for the day) it may actually sink in.

My last posts MVaaS and Enterprise Hosted Video Compared and Managed Video as a Service Explained, introduced the difference between MVaaS and Enterprise Hosted Video as well as the common benefits they both provide. This is the second of 5 posts in a series about the differences. (The previous was MVaaS Total Cost of Ownership).

This second post discusses the implication of managing software at your premise versus the SaaS model.

When video management is hosted by the enterprise, the IT organization takes on full operational ownership of that software. There are several advantages of this situation. First, the IT organization has complete control over change management. All modifications to the software such as bug patches or minor/major version upgrades are implemented by the IT staff. As such, they can be easily coordinated with other projects.

However, this benefit of Enterprise hosted video may, at times, be a problem. Over the past few years, I have met with entry level, mid level, and senior level IT staff from dozens of retail chains. There is one common theme to all of the people I have met: they are up to their ears in alligators and don’t have time to take on a new project. The implication of this is that they generally don’t have time to perform the management tasks of an Enterprise video system and so the software itself slowly rots. This software rot not only can cause failures of existing capability but usually results in very slow introduction of new features as well.

MVaaS solves this problem by outsourcing all of the software management into the network. Users never encounter outdated software because they run the version in the network, which is continuously improved and advanced.

What about the software that resides in the DVR? I think the same general argument applies. Enterprise hosted video systems can provide mechanisms to automatically upgrade remote DVR software. But, just as above, IT time staff will be required to initiate the upgrade.

MVaaS systems can provide remote DVR upgrade as part of the service offering and thus provide the same benefits as described above.

Therefore, if your IT staff are overburdened, MVaaS may provide an opportunity to add video management without adding to their daily work load.

My last two posts MVaaS and Enterprise Hosted Video Compared and Managed Video as a Service Explained introduced the difference between MVaaS and Enterprise Hosted Video as well as the common benefits they both provide. Today, I’ll begin a 5 part series that discusses some of the differences.

Total cost of ownership is a well known analysis method to determine the overall cost of purchasing a system. Let’s consider how this applies to MVaaS versus Enterprise Hosted Video. For the sake of this discussion, I’ll assume that the cost of purchasing and installing camera equipment, as well as the cost of the DVR hardware/software is identical for both models. The focus of this post will be on the cost of the server-side application that manages all the remote DVRs.

To begin with, let’s assume you are going to implement the software as a hosted service within the Enterprise. Below is a list of costs you are going to incur:

• Cost of the hardware server to run the application
• Server license costs (application license, operating system, database)
• To maintain some level of high availability for the software, you need to double the costs above for a warm standby server in the event the primary server fails. (If you choose not spend this cost, then your enterprise hosted service will be at greater risk of being unavailable.)
• A percentage of IT staff expense for configuration, installation, and network setup of above hardware and software. (The network configuration will be non-trivial; a later post will explain this further).
• Annual software maintenance and support fees. Annual hardware maintenance support fees.
• Ongoing operational expense (datacenter expense for electrical power and cooling).
• Ongoing IT staff expense for server management.

Whereas an MVaaS model has

• Monthly subscription fee
• A percentage of IT staff expense for consultation to insure users have unfettered access to the MVaaS server web site (much less than above, due to the fact IT need only allow HTTP port 80 access to a web site, which they undoubtedly already do for other sites).

Clearly, if the monthly MVaaS subscription fee is reasonable, then MVaaS has a lower total cost of ownership than comparative enterprise hosted software.

(Authors note: if anyone would like to provide me with appropriate pricing for an Enterprise hosted server software license fee and general sizing of the hardware needed, I would be delighted to build a detailed spreadsheet view of above comparing to Envysion Video).

Image via Wikipedia

SaasBlogs has an interesting question on pricing for SaaS companies – When should software be sold pay per use? 

Why did I find the post, and related comments, so interesting?  Specifically because the question is central to almost every business, and answering it requires thoughtful consideration.

The author postulates that there are two primary pricing options for SaaS applications – fixed recurring fee for unlimited usage (FRF) and pay-per-use (PPU) (author’s note: my acronyms for this post only).  Vendors of SaaS offerings should choose each according to the value acquisition of the customer.  For example, if the customer benefits greatly from sporadic usage, allow them to PPU.  However, if they can continue to benefit as usage increases, provide the FRF model.

I understand the positioning, but would advise MVaaS providers to proceed with caution.  In my view, PPU is risky for MVaaS software vendors, and should rarely be implemented. 

Why?  There are several reasons. 

1. PPU models communicate to the customer that they are first and foremost an opportunity for increased revenue.  Don’t believe me, what do you think of ATM user fees?  Yea, me too.
2. PPU models discourage usage.  There is no surer way for a customer to question the value of a MVaaS solution than to have them under-utilize it and fail to realize all of the available benefits.
3. PPU models introduce uncertainty.  Humans detest uncertainty, and decision-makers are human.  The certainty of $50 per month, no exceptions, is comforting.
4. PPU models are not typical in the software space.  Be prepared to answer tough customer questions on how the PPU model will save them money in the short and long-runs.  Otherwise, be prepared to congratulate your competitors.

Recently our Strategic Partner Channel Manager showed me a clip from a local Denver Pizza Store.   Having deployed MVaaS, they were able to view their “workforce” of six effectively stand around for 15 minutes drinking soda while one of the delivery drivers slept  on the Make table.  Prep areas needed attention as did general cleaning because in a restaurant there is always something that needs to be done.  At first blush, the video is extremely entertaining until you put yourself in the store owners shoes. 

Effectively the owner spent about $20 in labor costs and violated a number of health codes.  What’s the big deal, well in a single digit profit business, everything.  Knowing the owner, he’ll use it to manage process adherence and teach employees the correct practice.  He’ll look at his staffing models and adjust them to reflect projected business and likely he’ll remove the unmotivated workers in hopes of attracting a more respectful work force.  Rising costs coupled with unmotivated workers continue to be a recipe for disaster, MVaaS can help…

My kids swim, that is what they do.  The lessons learned from competing in a sport that requires them to practice at 5:00 a.m. four to six times a week are incredible.  But the move that the Colorado State Swimming Organization made, including Paralympians at the Long Course Meters State Meet, in Colorado Springs (July 24-27th) was brilliant.

Normally, the Paralympians compete at a separate meet held after the State Championships.  Instead, this year these amazing athletes were included and swam along side the kids.   Many are going to the Paralympics in Beijing in a few weeks.   It was incredibly touching to watch the respect that these great athletes were given and that they in turn reciprocated.   In addition, watching them adapt what we might consider handicaps in to a competitive swim stroke was a great life lesson.  We all having limiting factors, these athletes showed us how they chose to deal with them.  

My 12 year old son, said, “those guys make the best of their handicaps and that was really motivating to me.”  On so many levels, having the Paralympians in the field was a great lesson; one of acceptance, perserverance, support, respect, social repsonsibility and accountability.  Afterall, isn’t that what sports is supposed to be about?  Thanks to a great move by the CSI, it is this weekend…

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.

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.

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…