The small and medium business (SMB) market segment spans across many types of businesses and facilities. These include offices, retail stores, manufacturing and storage facilities, restaurants, and more. From the manufacturers' perspective, the definition of an SMB is not according to the business type, but usually defined by the number of channels they require. In most cases, systems under 16 channels are classified as small; there is a larger variance in defining larger systems. While some manufacturers will define 30 cameras as medium, others may stretch this even further, up to 100 cameras.
Over the past few years, this segment has seen a growing interest from manufacturers. This is the result of two parallel developments. The first is a decreasing market size for higher-end segments. The relatively wide-scale adoption of IP cameras https://www.gwsecu.com/products/h.265-ip-camera-series.html in the high-end market is pushing manufacturers to look for "greener" markets. The second development is the lower price of video surveillance equipment, which has made these systems more affordable for SMB clients.
"Since the marked economic recovery, particularly in the U.K., we are seeing SMBs needing to upgrade from legacy systems that are failing to provide adequate protection of property, assets, and staff, as well as proving to be expensive to maintain," said Brian Song, MD of IDIS Europe. "In addition, the recovery has seen many businesses grow, so companies are moving to larger premises, which in turn, means office fit outs that include security installations. So we're seeing really strong growth in the SMB sector right now and we expect that trend to continue."
One of the main characteristics that tends to be common in SMBs is that video security is generally not business critical. "For example, if we compare SMBs to a large airport or a casino, in case the video security is not functioning, the airport will have to close down that area of the airport. Casinos also have strong regulations regarding video coverage. SMBs don't generally have hard requirements linking their video security to their business operations," explained Janne Jakobsen, VP of Professional Products at Milestone Systems.
Video is most often used post-incident as a reference to see what happened. Nonetheless, businesses are slowly expanding the use of video surveillance.
"In the past, video was used as a form of insurance, in case something happened. We find that customers who start using the video data as part of their business operations achieve many benefits and use it more consistently," Jakobsen said. "Some of these areas include employee training, improving business efficiency and effectiveness, supporting business operations remotely, accepting deliveries remotely, and generally linking video data to other sources of data such as point of sales, access control, and so on."
Similar views were voiced by other manufacturers as well. Brien TerBush, Global A&E Manager at Aimetis also pointed to the option of utilizing video analytics for better business performance. "While there is additional cost, analytics can have a dramatic impact on SMBs. Applications like people counting and dwell time can provide additional business intelligence that improves productivity and profits." Analytics can run on an IP camera at the edge or on the server in which case video feeds from analog cameras - connected to the server with an encoder - can be analyzed as well without the need to upgrade them to an IP camera.
SMB expectations of their systems are similar to other clients. Demands for price, performance, return on investment (ROI), and low total cost of ownership (TCO) are universal. The one feature most commonly cited as an important feature for SMBs is remote viewing. "Remote viewing is more important to SMB's because they're not likely to have anyone on-site to monitor the system. In addition, managers are interested in access to video that support the business processes," TerBush said.
SMBs also have a special need for simplicity. Unlike large enterprises, SMBs do not have the resources to deal with complicated systems. This includes installation, configuration of the cameras and NVRs, on-going IT support after installation, and the personnel to monitor the systems at all times. "Small- and mediumsized businesses typically have modest resources in-house to scope, deploy, and maintain video security systems. With this in mind, these customers are looking for solutions and providers that can help manage these processes," said Kevin Saldanha, Senior Product Manager at Pelco by Schneider Electric. In this sense, offerings from different manufacturers are conceptually similar. Systems for SMBs usually focus on simplifying the installation process, making sure the system is compact enough not to take up too much space on-site and providing pre-installed and pre-configured software which allows plug-and-play installation.
Many manufacturers offer an end-to-end solution in which one supplier provides the complete solution: cameras, NVRs, monitors, VMS, and network accessories. This offers a seamless integration of the equipment and simplifies the installation and work process. Systems integrators (SIs) who choose to build a system from different components must of course make sure that they are all compatible with each other.
What SMB customers look for in video surveillance may depend on the size of the business. "If it's a really small business - such as just one or a handful of small sites - then they generally look for inexpensive, bundled solutions - traditionally analog, but sometimes IP if the owners/managers are looking for some new features like mobile access to the video. Large businesses with lots of small sites also traditionally use analog systems, but are rapidly gravitating toward IP since they need to be able to easily access and manage the systems from remote locations," explained Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President of Americas at Oncam.
CLOUD TECHNOLOGY - NOT THERE YET
Cloud technology and video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) seem to be an ideal option for SMBs. VSaaS promises low TCO, low maintenance, and the ability to scale up or down according to the business needs. However, bandwidth limitations make it suitable only for residential or very small businesses at the moment.
"Most customers in the small- to medium-sized business market are not opting for cloud storage since it's still relatively more expensive than local storage over a period of time. Customers prefer a ‘local storage, remote access' model - that is, the video is stored at the sites, but can be accessed remotely," added Edulbehram.
"For medium-sized organizations, integrity of data in the cloud starts to become a consideration and the bandwidth issues resulting in poor performance become the major obstacle to adoption. After all, the medium businesses want to upgrade to IP-enabled and HD surveillance https://www.gwsecu.com/products/hd-coaxial-4-in-1-camera.html to encourage operational efficiencies, not face bandwidth issues that slow things down, and defeat the upgrade decision in the first place," said Song.
Bandwidth limitations make streaming video and cloud storage impractical. Most SMBs do not have the bandwidth necessary to upstream the video in high definition and will have to transmit video at a much lower quality (lower resolutions and frame rates) than what their systems are capable of. "In addition, streaming video to the cloud could interfere with other Internet-connected applications, such as credit card transaction and point of sale systems," added Brandon Reich, Senior Director of Surveillance Solutions at Pivot3.
However, despite not opting for cloudbased storage, SMBs increasingly use the capability of remotely accessing video that's stored on-site.
IMPACT ON CHANNEL PLAYERS
In recent years, margins for security SIs as well as distributors and resellers have been gradually eroding. Lower prices and more complex systems mean that SIs have to invest more in support and training, eroding margins even further.
To compete with lower prices, SIs are shifting to solution sales which highlight their skills beyond security sales and camera installation. "We do recommend for each of our channel partners to consider enhancing their skills toward more full solutions and service models. This includes pre-sales consultancy, integration programming, and post-sales service and maintenance. This makes the partner less able to be replaced, even with advances and changes in technology," said Lawrence de Guzman, VP of APAC at Vicon Industries.
In this sense, end-to-end solutions have an additional benefit for SIs. Since the systems come pre-loaded with most of the software configurations and settings, the integration between the different parts of the solution is usually smooth. This cuts down on installation time and minimizes the chances of a project overrun that can hurt profitability. "End-to-end solutions and good supporting tools will be more and more important for the channel partners to maintain their margins since it will simplify design and reduce costly support and training," explained Johan Lembre, Director of Global Sales Solutions at Axis Communications.
PUSHING BEYOND DIY
Although manufacturers see SMBs as greener pastures, their future expansion into this segment is not guaranteed. A potential future threat for SMB systems is DIY kits that are now available online and from big box retailers. Currently the quality of these kits is still not on par with professional systems, but their pricing and similar features (i.e., remote viewing) show they have the potential to affect the SMB business, at least for very small stores in the beginning. This only further emphasizes the need of SIs to deliver extra value beyond installation.
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