Integrating Innovation: Part One, Unified Platform Considerations

This article is presented in two parts. “Integrating Innovation: Part Two, Technological Augmentation” may be read here.

All too often, modern organizations are faced with an overwhelming variety of options to meet their safety, security, and operational needs. This is caused by an abundance of choice, and often amplified in complexity by the need to determine the best point from which to begin developing their own unique solution. For end-users, system integrators acting as trusted advisors and consultants help alleviate these challenges, though with the number of options within the market today, security providers may also face difficulty determining the best solution to offer their customers.

This article series is designed as a starting point for both system integrator and end-user exploration and as a supplement to deeper research. This article will specifically focus on single vendor offerings holistically, including architectural considerations and a high-level overview of on-premises, cloud, and hybrid architectures. Part Two will address expansion into technologies like door solutions, network audio, wearable surveillance, and specialty devices as well as review how single vendor solutions benefit both system integrators and end-users. It will also include use-case information on non-traditional augmentation of Video Management Systems (VMS). These articles aim to create a foundation from which to begin the decision-making process on which systems and technologies to consider adopting.

Single Vendor Solution Benefits

Single vendor, or end-to-end (E2E) solutions, are suites of software and hardware offered under the brand umbrella of a single manufacturer. There are a wide variety of benefits associated with all single vendor solutions that ultimately provide increased efficiency for system integrators and cost savings for end-users; these include, interoperability of devices, a consistent programming and user interface, and a single point of contact for sales, engineering, education, and technical services support.

Consider the following scenario:

There is an issue with a customer’s system which has hardware from manufacturer A and software from manufacturer B, and both manufacturers technical service agents are pointing toward the other as the origin of the problem.

This situation benefits no one as the time spent rectifying this problem is eating into either the project’s bottom line or the customer’s wallet.

With a single vendor solution, these situations are generally avoided as all devices and their respective OS have been vetted to work with their own software. This means that deployment time is greatly reduced, system integrator knowledge applies to that manufacturer’s entire suite and across all products, and if technical issues present themselves, that manufacturer's technical support is familiar with the entire offering from end-to-end and can provide a holistic and faster resolution to an issue. It is valuable for both system integrators and end-users alike to understand and determine the level of technical services support provided by their chosen single vendor manufacturer.

Manufacturers may also offer courses and certifications in their respective products. A single vendor offering will be an easier lift for both system integrators when it comes to training technicians, as well as end-users when it comes to training operators. When choosing a solution, consider any courses that are offered in an official capacity or the ability of manufacturer’s representatives to provide customized and tailored training programs. When paired with a unified interface across all offered technologies, this lowers the educational burden holistically and ultimately improves deployment efficiency and lowers total cost of ownership.

These systems also provide simplicity in procurement. Manufacturer-specific design tools and a single point of contact for sales and engineering offer the ability to easily create a system design and determine a bill-of-materials. This allows for a single project registration for system integrators and an easier to understand and holistic bill of material for the end-user. Ultimately, these benefits help save time, increase the system integrator’s efficiency, and improve the end-users overall experience as a customer.

Open versus closed considerations

Another consideration to grapple with early on is the architectural nature of a system. Single vendor systems may be closed (proprietary) or open architecture, working only with that manufacturer's hardware or offering integration with other systems and hardware, respectively. In addition to technological openness, they may also have tightly controlled closed dealer networks or offer dealerships to any system integrator who can demonstrate basic competency. Each option provides specific benefits and challenges.

For technologically closed or proprietary systems, the integrations between devices are normally extremely tight and robust. However, keep in mind that by limiting the options to a single vendor alone, issues like supply chain, recalls, or new problems that cannot be solved by that specific vendor’s hardware can cause significant disruption. Open architecture systems provide system integrators and end-users the benefits of a single vendor solution while simultaneously offering down-the-road flexibility if required. Given that hardware and/or software is non-proprietary, if a customer matures out of what is offered by the single vendor option, many of the components of the system may be reused within a more advanced software, or the existing single vendor software may integrate with other non-uniform systems.

Both proprietary and open-architecture single vendor solutions may have an open or closed dealer network. Closed dealer networks provide well educated and well-versed system integrators who may have improved deployment and troubleshooting capabilities, as many times manufacturer specific training and certifications are required to become dealers. This provides an additional layer of benefits for system integrators because a closed network creates a buffer between dealers and prevents saturation of a market with uneducated resellers. Open dealer networks provide customer choice with the ability to request a new system integrator; however, many times open network dealers do not focus all their efforts on that single solution and may have limited time working on the offering or manufacturer’s certifications. End-customers should be acutely aware of the benefits and detriments associated with a technologically proprietary system and/or a closed dealer network.

System architecture

While assessing the viability of any single vendor offering, it’s important to simultaneously determine if the products and solutions offered are suitable for solving the identified problems. This is especially important for systems that will undergo growth as an organization expands and matures. This can be broken into two separate categories: how the system is accessed and/or the architecture on which it resides, and what hardware categories are supported. These two categories will be examined in this article and later in Part Two, respectively. It’s important for both system integrators and end-users to consider system flexibility, development, and market tenure when assessing these features, functions, and capabilities.

Architecturally, systems will come in three flavors: on-premises, cloud-based, and hybrid. For on-premises systems, software resides on physical servers that normally also store retained video. Cloud-based solutions have software residing off-site, normally hosted by the manufacturer, and may have recordings housed either on a customer site (on the surveillance cameras or other devices themselves) or off-site within the cloud. Finally, hybrid systems are a combination of both solutions deployed for a single customer that are accessible within a unified interface. All modern security systems will have both local and remote accessibility, with many featuring client software, web-access, and mobile apps. This architecture does not refer to how the system is accessed, but how information is routed and where video and data are stored. There are both benefits and challenges associated with on-premises and cloud solutions, though those won’t be covered here. The main point to consider is whether a solution being assessed has the required capabilities and options to combine on-premises and cloud-based options for maximized flexibility.

In addition to whether the system provides on-premises or cloud functionality, or a combination of both, it’s also important to understand the hardware offered across the board for single vendor solutions. This, combined with use case examples, the benefits of a fully integrated offering, and final concluding thoughts will be reviewed in “Integrating Innovation: Part Two, Technological Augmentation” which will be published in June 2024.

Continue reading Integrating Innovation: Part Two, Technological Augmentation here.