Video Management Software (VMS) has been a primary element of a video surveillance / physical security infrastructure and there has been a number of mergers and acquisitions of VMS companies of late. One of the market leaders in the VMS space has been OnSSI (On-Net Surveillance Systems, Inc.) out of Pearl River, NY. OnSSI has been known as a leader in the North and South American markets for VMS software and recently acquired SeeTec, a VMS software company out of Germany.
SecurityHive’s Stan Lewis recently chatted with OnSSI’s VP of Sales and Marketing Ken LaMarca to discuss how OnSSI plans to maintain and grow their position in the VMS market.
SecurityHive: What was it about SeeTec that made you want to acquire them?
LaMarca: SeeTec proved to be a good fit for OnSSI in many areas. They are a software only company, which fit well with our desire to remain hardware agnostic. Recent VMS acquisitions by hardware companies are already proving how difficult it can be to remain true to all partners. Being a truly open platform, that can work across most hardware platforms and with most technology partners, is important to OnSSI.
As a pioneer in network-based video management systems, SeeTec had developed a highly efficient recorder technology, incorporating many interesting features including non MAC licensing, management redundancy, automatic HD utilization optimization and ease of configuration. This recorder technology was particularly interesting to OnSSI, as we have been in an OEM relationship for our recorder technology for many years.
The acquisition allowed us to bring a simple, powerful and completely independent VMS product, fully owned by OnSSI, to market in the form of Ocularis 5.0.
Additional benefits of the acquisition included greatly improved global presence, the ability to provide extended hours of technical support and higher levels of Global Professional Services to better support our multi- national customers.
SecurityHive: How were you able to update to the 5.0 SeeTec recording engine so quickly?
LaMarca: Analyzing and testing the SeeTec recording technology was part of the acquisition research and evaluation process. The similar design and structure of both company?s products and the highly skilled development teams from both companies allowed us to introduce Ocularis 5.0 within two weeks of the acquisition.
SecurityHive: Outside of Germany, where is SeeTec strong?
LaMarca: In addition to Germany, SeeTec has a strong presence in France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey and South East Asia, with sales and support offices in each of these locations. This geographical footprint provides exceptional synergy to OnSSI?s strengths in North and South America.
As we continue to focus on global development, a greater presence in AMEA will be the beneficial.
SecurityHive: What are a couple of the synergies with SeeTec that made them the clear choice?
LaMarca: There are many synergies between our two companies including global sales coverage mapping, strengths in the development teams, similarities in business strategies and philosophies and product architecture. The recording engine in SeeTec?s Cayuga VMS was an important factor for OnSSI also. Incorporating it into Ocularis 5.0 provides benefits such as easier installation, recording efficiencies, hard drive benefits and reduced processing power requirements.
Also of great interest was SeeTec?s expertise in business video intelligence (BVI), which provides a logistics suite of products that can be combined with video for a powerful combination to track products, manage processes and assess behaviors.
SecurityHive: What other acquisitions are in the works?
LaMarca: There are other specific technologies that are of interest to us. But that is all that can be said at this time.
SecurityHive: OnSSI’s Ocularis has been one of the dominate VMSes in the market, what is OnSSI doing to stay dominate and to gain market share?
First, we are to continuing to build on Ocularis 5.0. It already offers an extremely good value in the way of increased benefits and reduced cost for end users. Dealers and Integrators will benefit from the faster installation and increased profit margins. Technology partner integrations and camera support will continue to be developed. Unique, innovative and simple StayCURRENT software upgrade plans allow customers to take advantage of new releases, while minimizing out-of-pocket-expenses.
Next, we need to make sure users of Ocularis 4.X understand that we will continue to support them and their product with new product releases and feature sets. We have even developed an innovative way for 4.X users to migrate to 5.0 and take their legacy recorders with them! This hybrid approach allows customers to keep their 4.0 features, while enjoying the benefits of 5.0 for new system expansion.
Lastly, our approach to the reseller channel and the way we manage it is changing. OnSSI has recently reduced the number of Authorized Channel Partners (ACP) and instituted a multi-tiered pricing structure that rewards ACPs who lead with and support Ocularis 5.0 products.
This three-prong approach will allow OnSSI to remain dominant and gain market share globally.
SecurityHive: Where do you see the VMS market heading? There seems to be talk about PSIM and analytics and continuing to throw in the kitchen sink into a VMS?
LaMarca: We continue to find new and innovative ways to bring additional value to customers through Ocularis. One of these values is the ability to bring third-party system data into Ocularis for alerting purposes. Our Event Fusion Engine can take this data and create meaningful events for an operator. Ocularis is a PSIM and can intelligently interpret incoming data to give operators more time to react to real threats and imminent situations and not be distracted by nuisance type alarms.
SecurityHive: With the new 5.0, what are some of the useful new features that you have added? The SeeTec recording engine was integrated very quickly. With those inventible hiccups, how quickly will the next release be available?
LaMarca: Ocularis 5.0 includes a number of new features including no longer needing to license camera MAC addresses, which makes the installation and configuration faster and easier, improved hardware utilization with hard drive optimization and load balancing, 256-bit AES encryption between, client, servers and recorders for increased security, automatic daily configuration backup, alarm recording with increased retention time, camera priority recording settings and reduced processing power requirements.
I expect the next Ocularis 5 release will be in Q4 of this year.
SecurityHive: Every VMS is touting “openness” – What integration partnerships are you touting and what are some new potential integration ideas that you see coming?
LaMarca: A good number of comprehensive third-party integrations were just completed for Ocularis 5.0 including one way integration of TCP/IP data and events for banking/ATM, access control, asset tracking, license plate recognition and point-of-sale through a common interface developed by Technology Partners. In addition, the integrations listed on our Technology Partners page of our website, http://onssi.com/technology-partners, currently supported by Ocularis 4.2, are being developed for Ocularis 5.0.
Although other VMS companies may tout ?openness,? OnSSI is an open platform, hardware agnostic company that is not owned by a hardware manufacturer. Because we embrace this strategy, we can have a true open and trusting relationship with all of our technology and hardware partners.
SecurityHive: If someone has thought about OnSSI in the past and maybe didn’t go with your product, what do you say to those customers today?
LaMarca: I would ask those customers to take another look at OnSSI. In the past we were thought of as an expensive and very comprehensive solution. Today, we are much more than that. Ocularis 5.0 opens new doors to prospective customers with an exceptional value proposition for users and channel partners with a refined reseller strategy with exceptional profit margin structures. We offer easy to understand and implement optional StayCURRENT software upgrade programs, exceptional technical support and Global Professional Services s well as an expanded new global reach.
New products, new integrations, new value propositions, simpler programs, a refined sales channel, world class technical support and Global Professional Services with a new global reach.
This is the new OnSSI.
Ken LaMarca
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
On-Net Surveillance Systems, Inc.
http://www.OnSSI.com