Sep 2015 PRODUCT EXPLORATION
SPECIAL REPORT
Extracting the Best From You Analytics
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False alarms, or nuisance alarms, often deter users from deploying intelligent video surveillance systems.
SPECIAL FEATURE
PSIM: Critical Element in Safe City
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In a safe city project, the command center acts as the brain. Operators charged with maintaining the security and order of the city are constantly on the lookout for unusual situations and, in the event of an emergency, must respond to it quickly and effectively.
How Maintenance and Warranty Change With IP
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All would agree that product warranty and maintenance contracts are important; however, in reality, they are usually given second priority after price and performance.
Data Plays Key Role in Incident Management for Safe City
BUSINESS TALK
Social Media Marketing for Security – Is the Investment Worth It?
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Social media has undoubtedly become a major platform for marketing; however, research shows that the security industry is a bit of an outlier when it comes to this trend. a&s reached out to several companies to hear about their perception of social media marketing and its effectiveness.
PRODUCT EXPLORATION
Getting the Act Together for Smarter Highway Traffic Monitoring
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Monitoring traffic on highways come with a host of unique challenges, ranging from low light, vehicles’ speed, and operations in remote locations.
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a&s International, published by Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd., is a monthly professional publication for channel players in the worldwide electronic security industry since 1997. It updates importers, distributors, OEM/ODM searchers, system integrators and other product purchasers on product sources and identifies developments in CCTV, Digital Surveillance, Access Control, Biometrics, Intrusion Alarm, Intercom/Video Doorphone, Home Automation and other fields relevant to electronic security.
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Safe/Smart City Projects to Roll Out Around the World
Parson Lee Joseph Lee John Shi
Senior Consultant Consultant Executive Editor-in-Chief
Hubert Duh Charlie Wong
Managing Director / Publisher General Manager
Editorial
General Press Jill Lai Alf Chang Eifeh Strom William Pao Lisa Hsu Prasanth Aby Thomas Emily Lin
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mart city projects have had a
management systems and data management
global rollout. According to
solutions assist PSIM to make right
Frost & Sullivan, the global
decisions for the best-possible procedures
smart city market will be
and measures after certain events. In this
Michelle Shih
valued at US$1.6 trillion in
month’s cover story, we feature how PSIM
Corporate Management
2020. By 2025, over 26 global
functions for safe cities and how data
cities are expected to be smart cities, with
management solutions support PSIM to
more than 50 percent of them in Europe
make cities safer and smarter. Alongside the
and North America. On the Asian side, we
growing number of smart/safe cities in the
also have Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul,
world, we can probably predict an increas-
Sydney, several cities in India, and other
ingly important role for PSIM in the future.
cities.
Art Design
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Officer
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Interestingly, a venture capital company
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Depending on smart and intelligent
has also seen the growth potential of
solutions, technology, and sensors, smart
PSIM. This August, NICE Systems sold its
city projects can be divided into several
physical security unit to Battery Ventures,
major applications — smart energy, smart
a technology investment firm, for a total
building, smart mobility, smart health care,
consideration of up to $100 million. The
smart infrastructure, smart technology,
NICE physical security business unit will
smart governance, smart education, and
now become a standalone company and
smart citizen, according to the report.
be more focused on the high-end market
Following the development of smart cities,
sector. In the “News Feature,” we interview
the security industry is also making efforts
the American venture capital firm on their
Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd.
to keep cities safe and secure, in addition to
interest in the security business and NICE’s
improving efficiency.
portfolios.
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To build up a safe/smart city, the security
Hope you enjoy this issue!
devices act like sensors. The security
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Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd., a company formed by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd. and former A&S Group in 2009, is an integrated media service provider in the security industry. Our service covers magazines, Web sites, events and trade shows. The portfolio of a&s magazines includes a&s International, a&s Asia (above published in English), a&s China, a&s Installer, a&s Solution, and a&s Taiwan (above published in Chinese). a&s Turkiye, a&s Adria, a&s Italy, a&s India, a&s Japan and a&s Vietnam are licensed editions.
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jill.lai@newera.messefrankfurt.com 18
Q&A With Battery Ventures: Betting on PSIM
In early August, NICE Systems announced it will be selling its physical security business unit (PSBU) to Battery Ventures, an American venture capital and private equity firm for a sum of up to US$100 million. The new company will become a standalone company headquartered in New Jersey, U.S. — with offices in London and Singapore, and a R&D center in Israel — and will focus mainly on NICE’s situation management offering. BY Israel Gogol, Freelancer
he sale of NICE Systems’ physical security business unit (PSBU) is the second such move by NICE Systems — earlier this year, in May, NICE sold its cyber and intelligence unit to an Israeli company, Elbit Systems. The move was part of NICE’s strategy to focus on its core business in enterprise software and “off-load” other units. The identity of the buyer is what makes this deal different. a&ss spoke with Jesse Feldman, General Partner in Battery V ntures who lead the deal, to hear more about the Ve Ventures pote po tent ntia nt tia iall an and d future directions for NICE PSBU. potential
a&ss : Th a& Thee pu purc purchase rcha ha ase se ooff NICE PSBU by Battery Vent Ve ntur nt u es came ur cam amee as a surprise sur u pr p ise to the security industry. industry Ventures In n tthe h ppast he a t tw as twoo ye year ars rs th her e e we were ree m a y M&As of security an years there many ccompanies, co mpanies, bbut mp utt aall ll ffrom room wi w tthhin tthe hhe e iindustry. n us nd u try. What were the within proc pr oces esses th that at llead ead to tthe ea hee ddeal? e l? W ea eree yo yyou u actively looking processes Were forr in fo inve vest ve s me ment nt iin n th tthe e se ecu curityy iindustry? n us nd ustrry?? investment security Feldman: Feldma Fe man n: Ou O Ourr fo focu focus c s iss o on n te technology ech chno hno nolo logy g aand nd not sectors. FForr th Fo he pa past st 3300 ye year arss Ba B ttterry ha as fo ffocused cuse cu sed d ex eexclusively clusively on the years Battery has tech te chno ch nolo no logy gy ccompanies ompa om p nies es aand n w nd h ve iidentified dent de nttififie n ied d ph phys y ical security technology wee ha have physical aass a m arrke k t wi with th g rowt ro wth wt h po pote tent te n iall. PPrior nt ririor ior tto o th thee ac acq qu quisition market growth potential. acquisition wee w ere ac er ere acti titvely veely llooking ooki oo king ki ng g iin n th his sspace, pace pa ce,, we sspoke po oke w itith several were actively this with doze do zens ze nss o omp mpan anie an iees an aand nd ha have ve kknown n w no wn nN IC CE P PS SBU ffor or some dozens off co companies NICE PSBU titime me. me time.
a&ss : W a& Wh What hatt ddrove rove ro e yyou ouu tto o in iinvest nve vest ve st iin n NI NIC NICE’s CE physical CE’s securityy bbusiness secu u innesss un us uunit? it?? it security
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Feldman: Feld Fe ldm ld man: We W h have avve id ide identified entiified enti ed ttwo wo m macro acro themes that we beli be liliev evee will will push pus ush h the th industry in ndu d st stry ry to grow further. The first is believe thee ad th adv vent nt o kn nowle ledg dgee“b “bey eyo ey ond physical security” — particu ond advent off know knowledge “beyond particularl la rlyy ar arou ound und o peratition pe onss. IIn n th the past, security systems could tell larly around operations. you yo u if tthere here he re w as a b reach, today users can benefit from their re was breach, syst sy stem emss by em by g athering more data regarding their operations. systems gathering Th The he se ssecond cond is the continued improvement in technology used in physical security solutions. From these two perspectives, we identified NICE PSBU as a market leader with regard to the technology they have. I divide the NICE PSBU offering into three: the video
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manufacturers? Will NICE PSBU remain focused on software? What kinds of security companies are you interested in? Feldman: We do think that PSBU is a fantastic platform to grow organically and inorganically. One of our investment ideas in this opportunity is adding complementary products to the company. As an example, if we look at the PSIM product, it is VMS agnostic, but VMS is an important part that can complement it. There are of course many other systems that can feed in the PSIM but we think access control will be a natural complement to the portfolio we have today. Jesse Feldman, General Partner, Battery Ventures
management software (VMS), physical security information management (PSIM), and video analytics. The VMS platform which is stable and robust is an excellent core product for the high-end market. The PSIM product, Situator, is an industry leader in a sector we believe holds big opportunities; especially regarding operations management. Regarding analytics, my honest opinion is that a lot in the industry has been promised but not too much delivered. We believe that NICE’s new suspect search is the exception as it has made great inroads in using big data from video to make informed decisions and will deliver on its promise.
a&s : What is your future vision for NICE PSBU? What kind of strategy will it follow? How will it increase its competitiveness? Feldman: We are excited about the market opportunity in the security industry and we will focus on helping the company grow and become a successful standalone business. We have seen that while inside NICE the PSBU has executed very well. We believe that as a standalone business they will be more focused and more flexible. This will give better responses to our partners and customer requests. The plan is not to combine NICE PSBU with any of our existing portfolio companies; NICE will be a platform which will combine new investments in physical security. As far as strategy is concerned, we have seen a trend of companies in physical security focusing on vertical solutions and NICE PSBU will continue to play a role in this as well. NICE has a strong position in several verticals, transportation, finance, governments, and we expect those relationships to continue with continued expansion of NICE Situator in the operations field.
Betting on PSIM – The Future is Not Clear a&s : PSIM is also problematic in that sense. It promises a lot of value but when push comes to shove the integration efforts and costs are not simple at all. Feldman: True, we are aware of that; however, as part of our due diligence process we spoke with several customers and what we heard consistently is that even though it is a complex product to implement, NICE enabled successful implementation and services, so we do expect this will continue to be the trend with future installations.
a&s : Your initial press release mentioned “complementing NICE’s technology with strategic acquisitions.” Many of the recent acquisitions in the security sector have been hardware+software, are you also considering acquiring hardware
The transaction is scheduled to close during the third quarter of this year. There are several possible outcomes for the new company. Feldman points to the potential future growth of the PSIM market in which NICE PSBU has a successful track record of implementations. However, the PSIM market has long been a relatively small niche market within security, with high costs and pains associated with integration efforts and the lack of open standards in the industry. If the new NICE PSBU chooses to focus on “information beyond security” and operational management, this could potentially give the product the needed push that will increase its adoption rate. By focusing on operation management more, stakeholders (and not just security managers) can be tied into the system thus making it more justifiable. For this to happen, NICE will have to bring to the table not just technology but also a strong consultative capability in all operational aspects, which will help clients discover and solve the challenges in their respective vertical. An acquisition of an access control platform that will be combined with the NICE VMS could also open up more market opportunities for NICE. An access control and VMS combination will allow NICE to explore opportunities also in the mid-end and become more product-oriented, as opposed to PSIM deployments which are more project-oriented and high-end. Battery Ventures can give NICE PSBU a firm financial back as well as experience in converting a business unit into a standalone company. The acquisition of NICE PSBU definitely has a lot of potential, the new company’s performance will reveal whether or not Battery’s bet was right in its analysis of the market.
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Factors for Choosing
Manufacturing Location
Like all other industries, security takes many factors into account when deciding on manufacturing locations. However, there are differences between security and general consumer products that make the prospect of local manufacturing a difficult one. BY the a&s Editorial Team
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ags labeled “Made in Taiwan” or “Made in China” can be found on everything from t-shirts to computer components. In fact, manufacturing and sourcing products locally is becoming increasingly rarer. Costs, locations, market targets, viable infrastructure, and outright availability are becoming bigger and bigger roadblocks in trying to manufacture locally. In the security industry, like in all industries, there are several key factors that contribute to where companies decide to manufacture, such as the local infrastructure, availability of inexpensive but skilled workers, local government regulations, and ability to find a suitable site to build a factory. General feelings in the security industry are that the industry is still developing for local manufacturing. According to Scott Lindley, President of Farpointe Data, it is because security typically enjoys longer product lifecycles which better lends itself to off shoring.
WHY MANUFACTURE LOCALLY Certain product types, such as heavy, mechanical products, make good candidates for local production, as
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Per Ädelroth, VP, Operations, Axis Communications
Greg Hamm, VP, Sales & Marketing, Delta Scientific
Scott Lindley, President, Farpointe Data
they could be more difficult and expensive to export. Products with high import duty and/or tax are also good candidates, pointed out Per Ädelroth, VP of Operations at Axis Communications. Local manufacturing also provides more flexibility when it comes to transport and delivery of products. “When we can find cost effective alternatives with local supply chains, we prefer local manufacturing, due to shorter and reliable lead times as well as environmental aspects,” Ädelroth explained. “Moving production of components closer to the user’s market is part of Axis’ efforts to diversify its supplier base in order to further increase flexibility and delivery reliability, as well as to decrease environmental impact from transports. We strongly believe this will be an important part of our manufacturing and final configuration strategy going forward.” As part of this strategy, Axis has increased their focus on local manufacturing in Mexico for its customers in North America, and in Eastern Europe for European customers during the last few years. “We also offer ‘Assembled in America’ products in the U.S.,” Ädelroth said. Currently, Axis collaborates with six contract manufacturers in China, Mexico, Poland, Thailand, and South Korea to produce printed circuit boards and assemble complete products. The company now has more than 100 strategic component suppliers around the world.
PROVIDING COST-EFFECTIVE QUALITY Cost and product quality are two very important considerations when looking at manufacturing location. “The primary decision to undertake local manufacturing is cost,” said Greg Hamm, VP of Sales and Marketing at Delta Scientific.
A Reputation for Quality
While cost is obviously a primary concern, quality and reliability should still be of utmost importance. “Buyers need to look for companies that build their components ‘in-house’ rather than outsourcing,” Hamm explained. “They should be more critical of companies that are based in one country, yet outsource to another. In these cases, the project can suffer from improper product certifications or other issues.” Certain characteristics can help ensure that the best supplier is being chosen in order to produce the highest quality product. “Suppliers are based on criteria including capacity, cost efficiency, geography, work conditions, and environmental responsibility. As product designs are finalized, companies should engage in a dialogue with component suppliers to gear up production, securing access to a structured,
Fast-rising costs of doing business in China have contributed to some American companies relocating some of their overseas plants back to the U.S. This has its advantages. The words “Made in America” or “Made in Europe” may have more buying power, especially when compared to products made in Asia, as products produced in the U.S. or Europe are generally seen as higher quality and more reliable. “For those companies that do manufacture locally in the U.S. or Europe, this is a good thing to promote,” said Scott Lindley, President of Farpointe Data. In this sense, according to Greg Hamm, VP of Sales and Marketing at Delta Scientific, country of origin can be quite important. “Some countries contain manufacturers with far more experience than others. The quality and reputation of these countries are an obvious criteria to consider. Lesser known factors such as experience with world certifications, regulations, and protocols are also of paramount importance. These are the factors that can directly affect product reliability when it comes time to prove a purchase decision to the client.”
Certain product types, such as heavy, mechanical products, make good candidates for local production, as they could be more difficult and expensive to export. cost-efficient, and flexible production of high quality parts,” Ädelroth explained. “Continuous dialogue with suppliers helps build loyal partnerships, and in the end, allows for a reliable production planning that secures higher quality production volumes.” Ädelroth further highlighted that control of the step-by-step manufacturing procedures are critical in producing quality products. This is how Axis maintains their quality while outsourcing — by remaining in control over the assembly and quality control tests. “We select and qualify the component suppliers and their processes, we dictate how the products should be assembled and tested by the contract manufacturer, we provide the assembly equipment and fixtures, the test equipment, and we can access the test results remotely,” he said.
TO GO LOCAL OR NOT Despite the benefits, challenges such as cost and taxes still hold companies back from manufacturing locally. “Corporate taxes will most likely continue to be the biggest hindrance,” Hamm said. Government regulations in certain countries also act as obstacles; many countries have regulations that prevent or make more difficult the entering of foreign companies to their country. On the other hand, some countries may provide local benefits to manufacturers or tax benefits in order to increase manufacturing in their country. Regardless of where manufacturing takes place, maintaining quality products should outweigh production location. And, ultimately, whether local manufacturing is chosen will depend on each individual company’s market strategy.
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PSIM: CRITICAL ELEM In a safe city project, the command center acts as the brain. Operators charged with maintaining the security and order of the city are constantly on the lookout for unusual situations and, in the event of an emergency, must respond to it quickly and effectively. As such, they need tools with powerful incident management capabilities to aid them. PSIM, or physical security information management software, can be beneficial in this regard.
DEMONSTRATION
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TRAFFIC JAM
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ENT IN SAFE CITY BY William Pao
CHEMICAL PLANT EXPLOSION
WATER MAIN BREAK
ity command center operators deal with incidents, emergencies, and issues on a daily basis that can be quite complex to tackle. “Ranging in size and scope from traffic accidents, water main breaks, power outages, and criminal activity to mudslides, typhoons, and earthquakes, any and all of these events create a strain on emergency management personnel,” said Gary Nestler, Global Solutions Leader for Emergency Management in Smarter Cities at IBM. Against that backdrop, PSIM, which collects data from disparate sources within the city, analyzes it, and guides operators on what to do next, can be an effective incident management tool that helps authorities prevent, monitor, and respond to incidents or emergency situations. “PSIM provides a clear, intuitive operating platform for multiple systems from differing manufacturers and enables interaction between these systems,” said Stephen Smith, MD at Integrated Security Manufacturing. “The system presents operators with information and task lists to ensure that each incident is dealt with using the same process automatically, without the operator having to consult with their standard operating procedure manual.”
PSIM FOR SAFE CITIES While PSIM, as its name suggests, deals with information management from a physical security perspective, its role in a safe city application entails more than merely detecting or responding to fires, break-ins, or theft via integration with physical security systems such as video, access control, intrusion detection, and fire alarms. “Physical security is not the same as public safety — think managing a heated public demonstration or an active shooter that has exited a university campus. Nor does physical security equate to operational effectiveness —
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Data
Plays Key Role in Incident Management for Safe City Data is generated by various sensors deployed throughout a city. With a good analytics solution, command center operators can gain insights into what’s going on now and what might happen in the future. BY William Pao
ccording to statistics by Gartner, by 2020 25 billion connected devices will be in use. This will inevitably result in a proportional rise in the amount of data generated. “The world is undergoing a dramatic transformation as it transitions from isolated and often proprietary systems to ubiquitous Internet-enabled things. They are capable of generating data that can be analyzed to extract valuable insights and information,” said Todd Matsler, Segment Marketing Director for Channel Acceleration Division at Intel, the leading CPU maker whose business now also covers the provision of data and Internet of Things solutions. Indeed, data plays a key role in a safe city project, where administrators are constantly scrambling to find meanings behind this data and see if patterns can be observed and future events that have the potential to impact citizens’ lives can be prevented. Data analytics solutions can come in handy and help them in this regard. SEP 2015 Ɣ www.asmag.com
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIRED These solutions usually combine the infrastructure that lays the groundwork, the hardware that processes the data, and the software that makes everything work together. “For hardware, we provide entry blade servers. We also have the analytical solutions which convert massive amounts of data into actionable intelligence. An example is our intelligent video analytics software,” said Gary Nestler, Global Solutions Leader for Emergency Management in Smarter Cities at IBM, which
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has transformed from a hardware manufacturer to a provider of total solutions covering analytics, data management, cloud computing, and e-commerce, among others. As for Intel, it further provides the core that does the processing. “Our solution offerings include Intel’s large family of microprocessors — from Quark processors to very high performance Xeon processors. Intel platforms from Atom to Xeon provide hardware accelerators for media performance which is critical in a safe city environment,” Matsler said.
DATA ANALYZED These solutions can process and analyze a wide range of data — including structured ones like databases and spreadsheets that confine to specific data models — as well as unstructured ones. These are from “physical sensors like video surveillance, social sensors like Twitter, mobile phones, and others like GPS, building sensors, and IoT sensors,” said Koh See Kiat, Business Development Director of Global Safety Division at NEC. “Prioritization of sensors depends on the operational needs of the users.”
them. In the end, it predicts when the same thing might happen again. Data analytics allows us to gain insights into the future and take proactive, preventive action,” said Eric Leung, Enterprise Solution Senior Manager for Taiwan at Dell, which is now one of a few computer vendors providing end-to-end solutions that address users’ home and business needs.
CO-WORKING WITH PSIM Eric Leung, Enterprise Solution Koh See Kiat, Business Senior Manager, Taiwan, Dell Development Director, Global Safety Division, NEC
PREDICTIONS AND ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE In the event of an emergency, data analytics predicts the event’s impact on the city and provides actionable intelligence, telling operators what they should do next. “Our solution builds models that provide cascading impacts on critical assets, performs simulation to provide a ‘what if’ operating mode to simulate actions and responses before they are implemented, and accelerates collaborative responses through unified dashboards, near real-time missionspecific alerts and notifications, decision support analytics, and mobile accessibility,” said Nestler. “Modeling, correlation, data mining/business intelligence, and real-time analysis seamlessly provide the intelligence to create a dynamic, geospatial, and common operating picture, as well as analytic-based insights that speed decision making and time-toaction.” Even more, data analytics can calculate, based on previous incidents or patterns already established, the likelihood of an event happening in the future, allowing authorities to become proactive and take action before it happens. “At first, data analytics tells us what’s happening and how often it happens. Then, it correlates the data and sees if there are any causal relationships between
Today’s data analytics solutions co-work with PSIM, an incident management tool that, when deployed in a safe city environment, alerts command center operators of ongoing events and guides them on what to do. “We have successful integration to PSIM applications through our analytics platform,” said Koh. “These are ONVIF standards-based solutions from our partners and enable numerous analytics per video stream per camera. That is optimization and good ROI.” “PSIM mostly deals with response — that is, alerting operators of certain events and helping them take action. But we focus on the long-term forecast, predicting what might happen in the future so operators can take appropriate action now,” Leung said. “From our perspective, we enhance and optimize PSIM.”
WHAT MAKES DATA ANALYTICS GOOD According to Matsler, a good analytics solution should have various features. “These include world-class security as the foundation, automated discovery and provisioning of edge devices to ease deployment, data normalization through protocol abstraction to improve interoperability and aggregate data before sending it to the cloud, and broad analytics infrastructure from edge to cloud to turn data into actionable insights,” he said. A good data analytics solution must be flexible, agile, secure, and responsive, Nestler said. “If the solution cannot adapt to new situations and incidents quickly, while ensuring the emergency management community has continuous availability to a safe and secure platform, then the solution, no matter how functionally ‘good’ it is, fails,” he said.
Performance As opposed to other IT products, it is more difficult to measure the performance of data analytics solutions in terms of processing speed. “It all has to do with the complexity of analysis,” Leung said. “If you just want a simple execution of command, then our typical configuration of solution can process 1 GB to 2 GB of data in one second. If you want to do model-building on what is likely to happen in the future, the process may take one to two minutes, or even five. It really hinges on the user demand.” “We focus on ‘right time’ versus real time because this approach is linked to customer outcomes and not some artificial measure of speed,” Nestler said. “A good example is responding to readings from sensors, which are naturally fluctuating and will cause over-correction and damage. Using analytical techniques, and more data/time, in many cases will lead to better, more consistent results.”
DATA MATTER With the Internet of Things taking off and becoming a global phenomenon, data analytics will only become an even hotter topic in the years to come. Against this backdrop, future safe cities will further take advantage of data and find meanings behind them to make themselves smarter and safer, in the process enhancing citizens’ quality of life.
According to Gartner, 25 billion connected devices will be in use by 2020.
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The hospital industry is witnessing an increase in the need for security solutions, not just for safety but also to improve their functioning. But being a highly regulated industry, solution providers have to ensure they stick to the guidelines while providing the best integration systems.
Finding the Right Prescription For BY Prasanth Aby Thomas
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obust security systems are a must for any health care facility, not just for patients’ safety but also ffor staff t ff and d expensive i medical equipment. This has become all the more significant of late, as the hospitals look to expand their reach and provide round-the-clock service. Governments across the globe have recognized this, coming up with guidelines on standards to be set. In the U.S. the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has been the key law in this regard. “The overall demand hasn’t been any higher than it’s been the past two years in the United States,” said Greg Love, VP of Sales at AMAG Technology, adding that from a security standpoint, he has seen an increase in level 1 trauma centers located in inner city areas. Patients in such trauma centers are often gunshot victims, and better security systems are necessary to protect
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those vvi ict c im ims and ho ospittal al sta aff ff ffrom ro om alleg ged victims hospital staff alleged perp rp pet etrato orss w h m ho ay wan ay an nt to o ccause ausee m ore ore perpetrators who may want more ha arm m. harm. D Dem emand iiss n ot just justt in n th he U. U S. tho ough. h. Demand not the U.S. though. A di tto St Nib bb li k Global Gl b l Director Di t for f Healthcare H lth th h According Steve Nibbelink, Security & Healthcare Alliances at Schneider Electric, demand for health care security solutions comes from strong construction markets. “The demand in healthcare is in the new construction market in the Middle East, while other regions around the world (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific) there is less construction and more retrofit / upgrading of facilities,” Nibbelink said.
Katharina Geutebrück, CEO, Geutebrück Eryl Jones, MD, Assa Abloy Security Solutions
COMMON CHALLENGES TO COUNTER IN HEALTH CARE Identifying the common threats and concerns is the first step to providing the best solution. According to Katharina Geutebrück, CEO of Geutebrück, there are quite a few of them in hospitals. “There is a long list of threats — theft, vandalism, property damage, sabotage, kidnapping,” said Geutebrück. “But also the internal organization is at risk: there are drivers like understaffing as well as ill-treatment of patients and legal claims.” Sheila Stromberg, Director of Healthcare End-User
Analytics for Better Health Care Services
Secure Health Care Facilities Strategies at HID Global feels that threats can be broadly divided into those concerning the safety of staff, patients, and visitors, and those to the security of patient information and other data. The most important challenge could be general nature of hospital buildings and their operation. “Physical security threats can be difficult to combat because of the modern hospital’s typically large campus size and often geographically dispersed nature of many facilities,” Stromberg said. “It’s also difficult to support secure access from affiliated doctors who may work with many different institutions, requiring them to carry multiple badges for all the locations they visit.” Then there is the issue of visitors. Even if precautions are taken to counter issues such as unauthorized access, managing visitors is a sensitive issue. “Visitors are a challenge — some may pose a threat, all must be protected, and the challenge is more difficult during ‘after hours’ periods and in critical areas such as labor and delivery floors and pediatric wards,” said Stromberg. “On the information security side, threats to patient privacy take many forms, and safeguards must extend to electronically prescribed medications, as well.” To Nibbelink, a single major threat in this vertical is violence towards health care providers. Health care staff are the victims of workplace violence. To counter this issue, Nibbelink suggests hospitals to train caregivers to detect early warning signs of workplace violence, and ensure their policies and procedures address the process to deal with this behavior and the penalty for such unacceptable behavior. Perhaps the most important factor is not to figure out who is vulnerable, but the nature of threats that would rise at any time. Greg Hamm, VP of Sales & Marketing at Delta Scientific pointed out the concerns that exist in today’s world. “A common threat at health care facilities is terrorists attempting to break through the entrances to military hospitals, gang-related entrances to urban hospitals, and
Video analytics have become an integral part of security solutions across verticals today. According to Katharina Geutebrück, CEO of Geutebrück, it plays an extremely crucial role in hospitals since it can identify problems and raise alarms automatically. “Think of monitoring seriously ill patients after surgery or coma patients, not just in intensive care, but also centrally at the respective station,” Geutebrück said. “Intelligent video analysis is objectoriented, and is thus able to recognize, observe, and follow objects in an image. This makes it possible to automatically activate video playback when an alarm occurs, for instance when a seriously ill patient attempts to leave the bed.” And it’s not just useful in the hospital’s mainstream operations, but also in the administrative matters like parking spaces. “License plate recognition can help the security team identify those who leave the parking garage without paying, or people parking in handicap stalls who should not be. Video analytics can also be used for access control; it recognizes an authorized license plate and opens the parking gate,” said Greg Love, VP of Sales at AMAG Technology.
Video analytics is not just useful for security, but also for maintaining day-to-day operations at hospitals, like parking management.
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Identifying
Challenges Priorities
Seaport security is considered critical in any country and is often given priority over several other segments. But given their large size and the tough environmental conditions they are in, securing and monitoring seaports while being able to accurately identify potential risks requires an optimum combination of right equipment and trained personnel.
and
BY Prasanth Aby Thomas
to Keep Concerns at Bay
eing a major entry point in any country, seaports warrant special attention when it comes to security. Besides the obvious concerns such as unauthorized access, cargo theft, and smuggling, post-9/11 terrorist fears and piracy concerns have all made it vital that seaports are given a critical infrastructure status in nations across the globe. There are several important points to consider while providing security surveillance solutions for seaports. But to Louis Noriega, Physical Security and Port Operations Technology Consultant at Automated Port Solutions and former CIO of the Port of Miami who headed the team that implemented security solutions at the port, the one single key requirement that installers need to ensure is that security does not impede the movement of cruise passengers or cargo. “Congestion is the single main problem that seaports face today, in getting containers in and out,” said Noriega. “Anything that may slow down the movement would cause a negative impact on the bottom line of the port and its various partners.”
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CHALLENGES AND REQUIREMENTS IN THE VERTICAL Given the large number of equipment that goes into a seaport security solution and the complexity of integrating them, ensuring that non-intrusive security is indeed a core issue. But from a systems integrator’s (SI) or a solution provider’s perspective, this is only one among the many such concerns.
Juan Echavarria, Business Development Manager, South America, Mobotix Daniel Hearn, Director of Sales, Northeast, Pelco by Schneider Electric
Nick Swift, Business Manager for Maritime Security at Sonardyne International insists that conditions at seaports are some of the most difficult to implement an ideal security system. “The reliable detection of underwater intruders — and discrimination from marine fauna — is a notoriously difficult problem,” said Swift. “Any intruder detection system must work in the most challenging acoustic environment with ports being one of the most complex, thanks to reflections of dockside walls and constant noise from vessel movement.” To Aditya Morampudi, President of the India-based SI Morcorp Solutions, which installed the physical security solutions at the Vizag Seaport, the primary concerns begin from selecting the right equipment that can withstand the conditions and perform at the optimum level. Given the environment, a general norm would be ruggedized industrial products. “The major challenges are mostly related to the environment,” Morampudi said. “Salty air, due to the proximity to sea, dust, and the kind of cargo being handled in the port/terminal will all affect the physical
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Social Media Marketing
for Security — Is the Investment Worth it?
SEP 2015 2001155 Ɣ www.asmag.com Ɣ ww Ɣ www w.as aasmag.com magcom
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BY Israel Gogol, Freelancer ancer
Social media has undoubtedly become a major platform for marketing; however, research shows that the security industry is a bit of an outlier when it comes to this trend.a&s reached out to several companies to hear about their perception of social media marketing and its effectiveness.
n 2014, the Security Industry Association (SIA) released a major study conducted by the Josh Gordon group designed to improve the marketing effectiveness of organizations selling products into the security market. The study, which surveyed 1,090 security managers, systems integrators, and dealers/distributors, found although security buyers search and evaluate information on suppliers’
websites, social media (with the exception of “professional” network LinkedIn) lags far behind trade magazines. Among the key findings of this report was that despite the seemed importance of digital marketing, in practice, security industry customers still tend to rely on trade publications and shun social media. Among the reasons given in the report was that respondents from the security industry
belong to a relatively older age group and that social media seems to be “too exposed” for an industry that deals with security and protecting assets. We reached out to several companies who are actively present on social media platforms to hear from them what benefits social media gives their marketing efforts and why they maintain a presence on social media despite a low adoption rate by the security industry.
IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PICKING UP? The first question to our interviewees was if they feel there is wide-scale adoption of social media in the security industry. They all agreed that social media is not so popular and widespread adoption has been slow. Despite these setbacks, the consensus is that social media marketing is likely to pick up speed and its adoption rates in the market will grow. Therefore companies establish a presence on social media to prepare for the future. “On balance, our experience currently favors traditional media. We have a great deal of positive experience with printed and electronic trade media. However,
AnnaB oudinot, Content Manager, Hikvision USA Alistair Enser, Global Sales Director, Vanderbilt Systems LenaH eden, PR Marketing Manager, Axis Communications ThereseH ume, Digital and Social Media Marketing Manager, Oncam Technologies
the demographic of our customers will inevitably change,” said Alistair Enser, Global Sales Director at Vanderbilt Systems. “Social media seems likely to increase given the age of many social media users for whom the use of smartphones and online information is now second nature. It would be foolish to ignore the growing demand for social media and at Vanderbilt we have embraced it and for many of our employees it is second nature.” A similar view was voiced by Rachel Neiman, Director of Marketing Communications at BriefCam: “At this stage of the game, companies can still decide whether to engage in social media. But sharing is rapidly becoming the norm for getting information and soon it won’t even be a question of ‘are you in or are you out.’ Everyone will be in. So, that is the reason for at least creating — and maintaining — a presence, even a minimal one, on social media.”
BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Social media marketing has huge potential. Unlike trade shows or magazines which require substantial investment and expenses, even small companies with limited resources can use it to reach big audiences around the world. Another advantage is that since it is digital, it is measurable much more than traditional media. Marketers can quickly gain insight into what really interests customers in far greater detail than magazines or trade shows. “The analytics provided by each platform provides an opportunity to see how many impressions, clicks, likes, and shares a post received,” explained Kim Rahfaldt, Public Relations Manager at AMAG Technology. “Each time a post is shared, it receives more impressions. On social media I can see if people are engaging with our content, what type of content receives shares, and use that information to generate similar content to grow our community of followers and share our message.”
Cross-Platform Sharing The large number of social media platforms makes successful marketing challenging. In order to successfully get a message across, cross-platform sharing is necessary. Rachel Neiman, Director of Marketing Communications at BriefCam explained, “Cross platform sharing can bring out the strength of each platform. For example, BriefCam, as a company in the video field, has lots of content on YouTube — but it needs to be shared with the relevant audience and they are not on YouTube. For that reason, Twitter is most beneficial to us for posting videos from our YouTube channel, or for making quick announcements by sharing links to news stories, press announcements, or pages from our company website. Other platforms reach out to specific audiences: new players, like Yo and Meerkat, speak to a young audience. If you are active in China, register for YouKu and Weibo accounts, in the Far East, you’ll want to sign up for Line, if you have a very visual product, get an Instagram account. But in all cases, the idea is to share across platforms.”
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Maintenance Warranty Change With IP How
and
BY Israel Gogol Gogol, Freelancer
SEP 2015 Ɣ www.asmag.com
All would agree that product warranty and maintenance contracts are important; however, in reality, they are usually given second priority after price and performance. Nonetheless, warranty and maintenance are areas of opportunity to provide added value for both end users and channel players. 76
echnology changes the way we do business. In recent years, the surveillance industry has been shifting from analog to IP cameras, cloud technologies are gaining pace, and more sophisticated software applications are being introduced. These technology changes have also influenced offerings in terms of warranty and maintenance contracts. Systems integrators and distributors have been pushed to acquire new skills, change their offerings to give added value to end users, and make sure users
don’t suffer from system downtime. “The warranty and maintenance prism of view is totally different from the distributor position to the systems integrators’ and the end users,” explained Mehdi Moukite, CEO of Melint, a valueadded distributor in the Middle East. “From the end-user point of view, the most important is that the product is working properly with the expected features. From the distributor level, the only responsibility is the warranty of the products. This includes guaranteeing a certain level of service locally in the market, such as making sure there are
spare parts available, or a policy of full replacement. Distributors should also have a good relationship and continuous communication with the vendor through regular reports and tracking material returns.” Over the years, changes in technology have also brought changes in warranty terms and how distributors need to adjust their level of service. “For example, an electronic board of an access control controller or an IP camera is not easy to repair locally. Most of the electronic parts are built with miniaturization, efficiency of space, and electrical optimization in mind. Electronic boards today are thinner and smaller and with more components included in each one. This leads many companies nowadays to offer a warranty with immediate replacement of the product. The difficulty here is to manage and finance a stock for that,” said Moukite. In the case of Melint, technology changes have also prompted the company to offer its own repair service and not just deal with returns to the manufacturer. “We have a continuous maintenance program allowing our technical team to learn and improve their skills in repairing products, mainly electronic boards, even after the warranty period. It’s a key service in our offer, and most of our customers appreciate it,” he added. The growing complexity of equipment together with ongoing price decrease of equipment might change the security industry similar to consumer electronics. Today, when a home appliance or cell phone breaks, it is sometimes cheaper to buy a new product than to repair the old one. “I believe that the future will make maintenance and warranty easier. This is for two main reasons: the price decrease (easier to buy than repair), and also the quality of components and technological innovations improving the reliability of the products. For example, since the
Mehdi Moukite, CEO, Melint
Nicholas Yap, Director, Client Relations, ICD Security Solutions
introduction of power over Ethernet (POE), a lot of warranty issues coming from defective power supplies don’t exist anymore,” said Moukite. Warranty is very straightforward, as it is mainly on installed product quality. If a product fails during an agreed period of time it is replaced; maintenance is more of a relationship between the end user and the service provider. Maintenance programs continue after the warranty period and are considered a part of the product’s life cycle. This is an important client experience management process. As such it has many opportunities for delivering added-value and upselling offers. “Maintenance is more demanding now, not just in service response time. The need for extensive geographical presence across the locale is also more demanding. Clients want cost-effective and better management in service and quality,” said Nicholas Yap, Director of Client Relations at ICD Security Solutions. To better answer these demands, Yap emphasized the importance of centralized management platform (CRM system) deployment for clients’ service cases management, as well as a proactive routine preventive maintenance (RPM) to make sure systems are running properly and problems are identified in advance, otherwise, “when a client calls you with an issue, it is usually too late,” he added. RPM should include system checks to ensure functionality of both devices (hardware) and programs (software). This includes checking cables and batteries, data back-up, firmware and software updates, and customer training (at the operator level and the administrator level). To bring added value to the maintenance contract, ICD also provides free consulting as part of its maintenance service, “We provide free consulting for the client in issues such as future expansion, product life span, software
How to Choose a Maintenance Service Provider? Before choosing a maintenance service provider, Nicholas Yap, Director of Client Relations at ICD Security Solutions recommends asking the following questions and using the answers as a benchmark for comparison and decision making. • How will this service provider manage my cases? Does it have a centralized management platform? • How fast can the service provider respond to a call? Do they have extensive coverage in the region closer to my facilities/office sites? • How extensive is the provider’s inventory back-up? This is important to provide immediate replacement ement and minimize downtime. • How well can the account manager communicate with me? Will they also inform me about the latest technologies, products being discontinued, and possible replacements?
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Companies in This Issue Products of the Month • APACER TECHNOLOGY • QNAP SECURITY • SYNOLOGY News Feature • BATTERY VENTURES Viewpoint • AXIS COMMUNICATIONS • DELTA SCIENTIFIC • FARPOINTE DATA • MILESTONE SYSTEMS Product Exploration • CNL SOFTWARE • DELL
• PELCO BY SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
• IBM • INTEGRATED SECURITY MANUFACTURING • INTEL • MAGAL SECURITY SYSTEMS • NEC • NICE SYSTEMS
Vertical Market
Business Talk • AMAG TECHNOLOGY • AXIS COMMUNICATIONS • BRIEFCAM • HIKVISION USA • ONCAM TECHNOLOGIES • PURETECH SYSTEMS • VANDERBILT INDUSTRIES
• DELTA SCIENTIFIC
• SONARDYNE INTERNATIONAL
• FARPOINTE DATA
• TYCO INTERNATIONAL
• • • •
Special Feature • ICD SECURITY SOLUTIONS • MELINT
Next Issue
• ALLEGION • AMAG TECHNOLOGY • ASSA ABLOY SECURITY SOLUTIONS • AUTOMATED PORT
• PURETECH SOLUTIONS • SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC • SECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS • SIGHTLOGIX
SOLUTIONS
GEUTEBRÜCK HID GLOBAL HONEYWELL SECURITY MAHA ASIA
• MORCORP SOLUTIONS • MOBOTIX
Product Exploration
Vertical Market
VISITOR'S ENTRY CONTROL
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Special Report
Business Talk
SERVICE PROVIDER
CONVERSATION BETWEEN MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS
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