I recently read that the iPad generates 400% more Wi-Fi traffic than the average wireless device such as the Android or iPhone.  In addition, there are nearly 9 million tablet PCs in use by SMBs today. ReadWriteWeb says, “…the iPad is poised to become the fourth largest consumer electronics category…” These are impressive facts and bold statements and what they indicate is a significant shift in the way we should think about computing. We’re not talking about cool apps to order plane tickets or trade stocks. We’re looking at bona fide computing on mobile devices that will rival-is rivaling-the computing performed on our desktops.

So what does this mean to the world of MVaaS? Prior to these statistics and statements, I have wondered what our MVaaS system would like: Perhaps a simplified dashboard or maybe a view into a single camera. But how useful would it be to view a video camera on a 4.5 inch by 2.3 inch screen on the 3G wireless network? We’re talking small and slow and more a novelty than providing a serious business function.

A small screen and slow network definitely do not lend themselves to the multi-camera power of the Envysion system (e.g., the user can view multiple cameras at a time in different variations). Clearly, having even two cameras up at a time is unreasonable on such a small screen at slow data speeds.

Enter the increased screen real estate of tablet PCs, such as the iPad, and the 4G network. Screen size is more than doubled and data rates increase two orders of magnitude. These new technologies will allow for realistic transfer rates and viewing of multiple cameras as well as running full-functioned applications.

Here’s a quick comparison of current and “quickly-becoming current” technologies that will change what it means to have MVaaS mobile (MVaaSm):

Current mobile computing environment:

Screen size (diagonal):

• The iPhone screen is about 3.5 inches
• The Android screen is 3.7 inches

Network bandwidth:

• 3G networks have data rates up to 2Mbps

Quickly-becoming current mobile computing environment:

Screen size (tablet PCs):

• iPad = 9.7 inches
• Android 2.2 = 10.1 inches

Network bandwidth:

• 4G networks can obtain data rates of 100Mbps (moving) to 1Gbps (stationary)

Moore’s law lives on. It will be exciting to see the tablet/iPad revolution develop.

Over the past five years, Video analytics have experienced quite a ride.  From much hyped tech trend to punching bag as results failed to meet expectations.  During that time MVaaS providers and Envysion specifically have frequently been asked our opinion and how we might fit with analytics.  Both MVaaS and analytics have each matured in their own right so how might they work together? 

For starters, in our view the first requirement in thinking about analytics in an MVaaS environment is hitting the ‘easy button’.  We see tremendous value in opening up video across an organization and across functions and to do that successfully its got to be easy.  Same would hold for analytics.  Can you make it easy enough for an everday user to ‘dial in’ and to consume data/reports that come out.   Next area that would be pretty key is accuracy.  Can it be consistent and reasonable level (90%+).  Use cases need to be reflective of anticipated accuracy.  In other words if you are getting 90% accuracy you can’t take that number to the bank on any given day/time.  But if you are looking at trends and see shifts and changes that could be pretty interesting.

So now the fun part.  What could you do?  We can get into some pretty interesting uses because if you inject analytics into MVaaS you can combine that data with data from a POS and other business systems that are already there. For instance, we can review the number of people that entered a store on any given day with the number of transactions to determine the conversion rate. We could also compare people counted with staffing to understand customer support ratios.  Video analytics and MVaaS also gets interesting because it can create value for multiple disciplines and functions across the organization. In the prior example, conversion rates are important to the marketer who wishes to increase business. What if a quick service restaurant owner could examine line times during different points of the day? The insight gained could allow their operations manager to staff accordingly rather than run the risk of over- or under-staffing. Perhaps the same QSR introduces a coupon and while it increases traffic, it also increases line time 20%. This is both an issue for operations (why is the line time increasing?) and marketing (how much additional business did the coupon generate?). Video analytics provide needed information for multiple groups within an organization to work together to solve problems that they may not have known about otherwise.

Net-net is these combinations could be pretty impactful and valuable to customers – so seems like combinations of MVaaS and analytics have merit.  Executing of course is no trivial matter.  Look forward to hearing about your experience with analytics and how you see value in combinations of MVaaS. 

In my last post, I discussed some reasons why LP systems fail and become nothing more than insurance policies. In addition to lack of end-user buy in, lack of staff to review and too complicated systems, here are two more reasons why I think LP systems fail.

4. Lack of follow through after installation

A video system has little value if it’s not used. Envysion’s customers realize that video can be used for more than just investigations into a robbery or vandalism. They understand the value of using video across the entire organization and because of this realize a 10-15% improvement in profitability. Unlink traditional video surveillance, Envysion’s MVaaS solutions transform traditional video surveillance and enterprise business intelligence from niche applications used by a handful of users into a strategic management tool that provides instant and unfiltered business insights to users across operations, loss prevention, marketing and human resources.

5. Video use remains fragmented within the organization

Envysion not only extends the use of video throughout the company, but our cloud computing platform also makes it simple to use video collaboratively.  In addition to designing an incredibly easy-to-use, web-based application, Envysion makes it easy to share important video throughout the organization. So a store manager can identify an employee suspected of stealing and send it to a LP specialist who can verify the theft and send it to the HR department to initiate action.  (see my earlier blog about teamwork)

Restaurants are beginning to remove salary freezes in an effort to keep their talent from seeking opportunities elsewhere as the economy slowly recovers. The paradox restaurants face is that razor-thin margins make it difficult to increase labor costs.

An angle of the discussion I would like to examine is with regard to shrink. If you buy into the belief that corporate cultural values come from the top, then it is very important to have quality individuals in management to instill cultural values across the organization. This ties to the concept of keeping honest people honest; setting precedence and examples for what are and are not acceptable behaviors in the workplace. With that said, it is of utmost importance to have quality individuals in leadership roles and pay them more in order to keep them around.

Daniel Pink has an interesting perspective on the money. In essence, pay (or “over pay”) for good, talented, driven employees (in the form of salaries, not wonky bonus structures). By doing so, you remove the issue of money, which can lead to resentment from underpaid employees, and the risk of good employees looking for fair or more fair pay elsewhere.

Coming back to shrink, if your organization has solid cultural values that lead to lower shrink, your margins will be higher, making it more affordable to pay your talent well. Not such a paradox after all – the egg came before the chicken.

Today’s loss prevention professional is inundated with new LP technologies every day. So it’s no wonder that many LP systems are only used reactively after an incident occurs. At Envysion, we believe success should be measured by whether or not our customers can proactively use video. We know that video provides valuable insights into the day-to-day operations of a business, but in order to be valuable this insight must be accessed on a regular basis. Based on our definition of success, I think there are several reasons LP products fail, becoming nothing more than insurance policies. Here are three of the top reasons for failure that I see and what we do at Envysion to overcome them.

1.      Lack of end user buy-in

With Envysion everyone in the organization has remote access to video, driving video usage by orders of magnitude. On the flip side, this means that employees, who are not familiar with video surveillance tools, may balk and being asked to review video on a daily basis. To help our customers overcome this challenge and realize the maximum value of our MVaaS solution, we work with our customers’ management teams and project owners to drive rapid company-wide adoption of video. We’ve developed a comprehensive training curriculum for our users and provide customer support seven days a week. For those customers who find themselves attempting to go from a handful of video users to hundreds or thousands of users, we have extensive corporate on-boarding programs that leverage industry best practices and our years of experience working with large retail, restaurant and cinema customers

2.      Lack of staff to review

Often customers deploy video surveillance only to become overwhelmed with the amount of video actually being recorded. If the customer is also utilizing a business intelligence software, the LP team can quickly become buried in a paralyzing amount data. Envysion’s MVaaS, on the other hand, transforms traditional video surveillance and enterprise-wide business intelligence into a strategic management tool that provides instant and unfiltered business insights to users across operations, loss prevention, marketing and human resources. Our easy-to-use platform integrates with business systems, such as POS, to enable users to quickly find and review important video, so they spend less time reviewing video and more time improving their business.

3.      System too complicated to use (especially if employees do not use on a regular basis)

Your video surveillance system is nothing more than an insurance policy, if it’s too complicated to use on a daily basis.  The Envysion application was designed with the end user in mind. We’ve incorporated familiar functionality from Excel, Google and Salesforce.com into our intuitive, easy-to-use application so most users can begin reviewing video with very little training.  We also track user statistics for our customers and help customers identify their key influencers and early adopters to smooth the transition from traditional surveillance cameras to Envysion’s MVaaS, ultimately increasing each user’s productivity.

Next time: Lack of follow through after installation, video use remains fragmented within the organization

Circling back to the Managed & Hosted Video Summit (see recap) a key focus was on partnering across the ecosystem.  Effective partnering can serve a number of purposes for MVaaS players.  Most importantly, it can accelerate growth.  Partners can deliver capabilities that you don’t have, can deliver complimentary value to fill out a solution for an end customer and of course can also deliver channels to market and/or scale to market.  Any of these if effectively executed can help accelerate growth.  A related benefit of these type of partners is the potential to enable MVaaS providers to focus on what their core competence and not dilute efforts at this critical time for the space.  Of course these benefits don’t come without a price - its critical to both sides of a partnership to set clear goals/objective and select well otherwise partnering can become a distraction and not deliver.

From a MVaaS & Hosted segment maturation perspective partnering is also reflective of validation of the space and the growth opportunity that is present.  When large incubmant players in the ecosystem start looking for MVaaS & Hosted partners as a path to participate in the growth they foresee they are accepting the shift that is occuring (to cloud computing and to the value prop offered).  At the Summit we heard discussion of a number of partnerships that I would say fall into this category.  A few that come to mind are Axis and EMC, Cernium and Sprint and Envysion and Sony.  Obviously I’ve got the most insight into the Sony-Envysion partnership so I’ll use that here.

In the beginning of June, Sony & Envysion announceda partnership to bring integrated solutions to market that combine Envysion’s MVaaS solution with Sony’s leading edge IP cameras and video surveillance technologies.  The partnership involves co-selling, co-marketing, as well as co-development of unique solutions that both companies will bring to market in the retail, restaurant, cinema and services segments.  Customers benefit from the complimentary nature of the partnership - MVaaS as a strategic management tool that delivers bottom line impact across loss prevention, operations, marketing etc and Sony’s leading technologies that accelerate and enable the solution and deliver one of the best known and respected brands in the world.  The partnership goal is to accelerate growth and adoption of the joint solution…the opportunity is certainly there and I will circle back over the months to share how its going.  From a segment perspective it is also additional validation.  The biggest brands and largest players in the world and across the ecosystem recognize the opportunity and potential disruption MVaaS can deliver and are jumping in the game.  Of course these are just the early plays, it will be fun to watch the next set of moves unfold.   Thoughts?