Proactive live video surveillance is hard. It’s not only difficult to economically and effectively monitor thousands of high resolution IP video cameras. It’s also a huge challenge to successfully build a video monitoring network and record, store, send, and manage terabytes of video security data.
Stealth Monitoring President David Charney and host Michael Harris of Kinetic Strategies discussed Strategy & the Surveillance Video Network in the Time Warner Business Class (@TWCBusiness) broadcast How Big Data & Fiber Can Transform your Business.
Broadcast topics include:
- Video Monitoring Network Growth for Business
- Business Communications & Live Security Monitoring
- Security Video Performance in an Internet Age
- Commercial Surveillance Service & the Video Network
- Business Intelligence & IP Security Cameras
- Performance & Commercial Video Solutions
- Strategy & the Surveillance Video Network
Here are edited comments.
Michael:
So you see a huge strategic advantage in being able to select a platform that’s able to grow immediately and that you don’t have to revisit, pull out wire, rewire, and basically try to change the wheels on a tire while it’s rolling.
David:
I fully agree.
I don’t want to have to take baby steps on fundamental services like electricity and bandwidth. You over-purchase and you don’t have to concern yourselves with the growth trajectories as much. You can sit back and focus on your day-to-day business instead of looking at this as a distraction.
That opens us up to bigger business opportunities. Instead of me selling to one, two and five location-type clients, which is how we started, now I have the opportunity to handle adding fifty new sites this year right away without flinching now.
It’s important to stay focused on your core business and make good, smart, scalable decisions on network bandwidth and network design up front to save time getting distracted from your core business.
Michael:
It sounds like it really buys you a velocity advantage.
David:
Without doing anything other than making a phone call and paying a bill to Time
Warner Cable Business Class, I can double my capacity right now. There doesn’t need to be a design discussion or hardware changes.
I have 50% scale waiting right behind me as soon as I’m ready financially as my customer base grows. That bought me time and focus on our core operations, instead of back-end infrastructure. It’s worth the value to have critical services like your bandwidth, network and design taken care of correctly the first time. That allows our team to focus on the real day-to-day business, which is what we do for a living.
Michael:
In your business, helping customers manage their total cost of ownership (TCO) of a solution like this is critical. How does the bandwidth and the network infrastructure that you have in place give you an edge in being able to address their TCO issues?
David:
Yes, absolutely. Total cost of ownership is certainly something that our clients take very seriously. All too often you think of making a capital investment in a camera system with Stealth. How do you spend less money on trucks driving out to service that equipment? So we tend to use high-quality parts and a high-quality labor force to install the parts. But the question is, after the site goes live, after Stealth starts monitoring it, how do you keep their maintenance and service bills down over time? We built multiple tools to move data. We have found that we are able to troubleshoot 50 to 60% of the service tickets we receive by working remotely and/or with our clients’ employees directly on site. This means 50 to 60% less truck rolls, service calls, and time-and-material bills or warranty plans that our customer has to purchase over time.
We have a unique factor because of all the data we pull back. We are able to save the clients’ money by doing things remotely and they absolutely love that. That’s a big part of why our customers love our services. Of course the number one reason is our being proactive to monitor video. But lowering the total cost of ownership that we provide with our customers is really, really important.
Michael:
And it sounds like you’ve turned that total cost of ownership strategy on your own business as well.
David:
That’s true. We definitely want to keep all of our costs down. We think we’re a lean and well-run organization.
In 2015 by building new data sets and data warehouses off of our existing data, we were able to improve our monitoring margins by over 10 percent. That’s interesting, because that means my labor force today in the monitoring department is about the same size as my labor force a year ago.
Why is that special? Because we just grew by 2,000 cameras this year or maybe more and yet our labor force is actually still the same size. So you can look at that as operational efficiency. But you can also look at that as profit improvement. There are real tangible dollars from that total cost of ownership strategy.
Michael:
David, its great having a chance to talk to you. You’ve got a real exciting business that you’re running.
David:
Thank you very much. I appreciate your allowing me to be part of your program. Hopefully it’s meaningful to our audience, Michael.
Michael:
Thanks, David. Companies like Stealth Monitoring are leveraging the new network to rewrite the rules for business. As David explained, the more your organization depends on its network, the more important network performance is to your success. Be sure to do your homework and choose partners that can give your business a competitive edge. For Time Warner Cable Business Class, this is Michael Harris.
About Stealth
Stealth Monitoring is a security industry leader in live video surveillance with over 9,000 video cameras watched nationwide. Stealth proactive video monitoring can detect and deter crime in cities in the U.S. and Canada while reducing security guard and other expenses. Stealth’s virtual security guard service can reduce or even replace security guards at a fraction of the cost. A remote surveillance Stealth operator can see unusual activity , activate a speaker warning to deter criminals, and call the local police.
Please contact Stealth today for more information to protect business. Visit our web site to see actual videos of criminals being apprehended.
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