International. From a market analysis developed by Milestone Systems, led by Janne Jakobsen, its vice president of professional products, it was deduced that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be the main protagonists in the electronic security industry; every day there are more businesses of this type that migrate from analog systems to IP-based systems.
In addition to representing most private companies, in recent years SMEs have been understanding video surveillance in a different way, not only as a system to address negative cases, but they see it as a creative tool for training activities, monitored access or the study of customers through analysis of video information. Thus, this trend has led this segment of the market to invest in higher quality equipment.
The keys to boosting the SME market
According to Milestone's analysis, the features most requested by end users in small and medium-sized businesses are price, accessibility, reliability, compatibility, and ease of use.
For SMEs, the price of a product or service has to be adequate to consider it a viable option, that is, the solution has to be adjusted to the client's budget. The trick of this type of business is to spend the least possible budget to face a current need, thinking at the same time about limiting additional costs for possible future changes.
On the other hand, the owner of an SME usually has little experience in the subject of video surveillance, so it is also essential that the facilities are simple, with remote access and with an intuitive and easy to use interface. That gives the owner the peace of mind of taking action from wherever he is.
Another elementary aspect is to install a system with a wide support for the different cameras. Because in the SME market it is important to have the possibility of connecting literally any camera by cost issue.
There are also some features that these types of companies expect to be included in all video surveillance models, especially those that resemble traditional analog functions, such as live viewing and playback of recorded data. Some of the simplest features, such as basic maps, have also become common in the industry.
In general terms, the most important thing is usually the way the system is used, rather than the specific functions. Small and medium-sized businesses are beginning to use video information as part of their business operations, are making huge profits and employing it more consistently. For example, they use it in employee training, efficiency improvement and business effectiveness, as well as remote support of business operations and remote acceptance of deliveries. In general, in the connection of video information with other sources of information such as points of sale and access control, among others.
Thus, the decisive factor ends up being the ability of the product to adapt to the environment of SMEs and help them with the situations that arise.
