GROWING PAINS
Quick IP adoption does not mean analog becomes obsolete overnight. “We need five to seven more years before IP sales outweigh analog ones,“ Esteban said.
“For example, we have so many different models, with prices ranging from $180 to $7,000, so education, training, and after-sales consultations and services become essential and differentiating factors.” Trust could be broken if distribution and integration partners cannot do a great job.
Lozano indicated that most of the solution providers within the market have been offering training and education in IP-based technologies to installers and end users for the last two to three years. “They have the knowledge, but not the confidence.” Sermex also restructured its sales force to have engineers, instead of salespeople, on the ground. “Local support is now a minimum requirement; on-site system design and engineering support will ensure IP does not get a bad name and eradicate bad experiences,” Lozano said. When it comes to IP, Macías could not agree more that there is definitely more that can and should be done. “Even in new projects, analog devices are still specified more, but I predict it will be very different in two to three years as IT managers get more involved and establish trust with certain solution providers.” Anixter is also working with and training more than 1,000 integrators and installers nationwide. “With IP, even power, bandwidth and software issues get magnified and become ever so important. Despite our efforts, some contractors remain very old-school; we need to explain value propositions more to persuade them to convert to new solutions,” Macías said.
To put it more simply, “if you don't do IP, you die,” warned Hernández of LRG. “But education at this point can be quite challenging if your audience doesn't know anything about networking.” When certain government bodies and state enterprises are rewarded for deploying Chinese products which sometimes lack the reliability and support required in security, the job becomes even harder.
There is, however, still a lot of room for growth and improvement in the country's network infrastructure.
“Corporate users are still paying $100 a month for an average upload speed of 128 kilobits per second,” said Alberto Treviio, IT Technical Support Adviser at Empretel.
Customer needs have also become quite varied, requiring solution providers to stock more which increases risk in return. “At the high end, IP market share has grown from 5 percent to more than 10 percent since 2008; at the opposite end, requests for budget offerings have also increased quite notably. Distributors and resellers need to transform quickly to one-stop shops, while offering quality service and support for free,” said Hernández of Syscom. His company has reserved TV commercials this year to target potential clients in the SMB and residential sectors.
Duarte also noted the phenomenon of surveillance cameras becoming commodities. “There is an average drop of 4 percent in pricing per year, so solution providers really need to differentiate themselves in terms of competitive pricing models, quality products and all-around technical support.”
“We have to be very demanding of our system integrators,” Tous-Mulkay said. “We are working on specializing and regionalizing their areas of expertise while working with more than 60 technology partners, so continuous training and certifications are vital in developing their knowledge base.” He feels a lack of credible market research and data can also make business development challenging.
For Magocad, a major challenge is juggling with new hardware and software companies all the time while maintaining annual growth rates of 50 percent or more. “That's why we provide five to six training sessions per month, both in house and on-site, to help our dealers, integrators and installers to always stay on top,” Hernández said.