Business Tools
VMS with VCA technology can move beyond traditional security by gathering business intelligence and driving decisions. Business Intelligence can count the number of people that come into a store and provide shopper conversion, said Debjit Das, VP of Marketing at Verint Systems. By using video surveillance as a business tool, it can be used to improve an end user's bottom line.
This is an exciting development for security, which has traditionally been used to protect businesses against risks to decrease expenses. Businss Intelligence can help to increase revenue. Any development in video surveillance that helps businesses decrease expenses or increase revenue benefits end users. By helping end user profit margins,, VMS providers will help their own bottom line.
Automation
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In certain verticals, VMS that can trigger security functions in the absense of people may be useful. Enter video surveillance automation. Gadi Piran, President,On-Net Surveillance Systems, said that a system with intelligent video analytics can combine multiple video analytic events using rules dependency to trigger an alarm and to minimize false alarms.
Automation can include lighting, door management and door unlocking during emergencies. It can also include more complicated tasks. “In shops, we can immediately alert security, with video and audio cues, if a cell phone or laptop is removed from the display case,” said Carlos Eduardo Bonilha, President, Digifort. “In schools, we can notify city police if a panic button is triggered. In hospitals, we can control the entry and exit of people in nurseries.”
Automation is important for remote sites. “Software features such as smart tracking of personnel, activities and events become very important, as the sites may have very limited security manpower looking at cameras over a very large area,” Lim said.
Usability
As video surveillance systems become more complex, VMS still needs to be simple to use. Buyers will need to balance their desired capabilities against user friendliness. Some powerful VMS offerings are also complex to use. End users should consider who their operators are and what their security needs are.
This is challenging as not just security personnel may want to access the surveillance system, but also administration and IT staff. Different users will have unique needs when accessing video. “There's a security customer who has certain wants and needs, as well as a business user and administrator, and [their needs] are not all the same,” Holtenhoff said. “Being able to have an interface that communicates with these different groups is important.”
No, Not Yet…
Regardless of the increasing VMS capabilities, poor customer communication means trouble. If the client has expectations that far exceed the capabilities of the VMS and surveillance system, they will be disappointed.
It is important to communicate limitations. For example, many surveillance systems nowadays are installed on networks that are already available on-site. In these cases, surveillance systems will need to work with the limitations of the available network. “If working with an existing network, sometimes we don't know what's already on there,” said Gerry Pittman, Manager of Global Security Technology – Building Efficiency, Johnson Controls. “Customers aren't aware that there are network limitations. They want what's best, but sometimes the network isn't capable.”
Often, users do not define what exactly they want from their VMS. Figueiredo discussed the confusion that can arise from a relatively simple installation: a VCA that issues tickets to drivers who run red lights at intersections. “Often times, the end user does not know what they want. Who is going to review the footage? Do they need video? How many pictures of the license plate do they need? Do they need to know what state it comes from? How do they want the pictures to appear on the screen? Do they want to review every ticket? Everyone wants to monitor traffic. Nobody has a clue of what they want. You need to educate the customers. You need to explain the options and that takes a long time.”
Decision Making
Vertical-specific VMS makes life easier for end users. There are many flavors of VMS out there with different features and capabilities. In this way, end users can compare VMS based on the features they deem important.
When a VMS vendor offers VMS for two different verticals, how different are they? “Roughly 90 percent of VMS features are the same regardless of what vertical they're in,” Holtenhoff said. “It's the last kilometer that makes the difference, but it's an important last kilometer.” All end users want to be able to efficiently manage their video surveillance system, but the application of the surveillance system will determine the importance of everything else