CUSTOMER SUPPORT!

CUSTOMER SUPPORT – The Biggest Con in the Industry


Most people reading the first line will not even bother reading this post of mine but still here goes my point of view.

India from a Security Industry Manufacturer perspective is a dream haven… Why?


Let’s examine the methodology.


The Security Industry works in the following hierarchy

Manufacturer – Distributor – System Installer / Integrator – Client / End User



Most Manufacturers are based out of India and manufacturing done outside India. Products are imported by the Distributor / System Integrator and then delivered and installed at an End User Site. So what happens when a product fails under warranty? The Process is simple the Integrator approaches the Distributor / Manufacturer to process an RMA (Return Material Authorisation ) which the Manufacturer processes and provides for a replacement / warranty repair. The replacement / repaired goods need to go through Indian Customs and duty needs to be paid once again for this and at the end of the day a replacement / repair process takes anywhere between 3 - 4 weeks.


The Integrator sits pretty because he hides behind this state of affairs and has this excuse of process and procedure. After so many years in this industry I know that the person who suffers the most is the client and end user who actually uses the product and actually paid to buy it based on his basic decision to go with any particular manufacturer.


The entire process ensures that the client loses around 4 weeks of time and god forbid if it is a Major component his entire security system is put at risk.


Today most of the big multinational names that operate here in India have offices and so called service centres in India... This was probably a brain wave of a sales guy and most of these guys go around using and putting these clauses in tenders that the manufacturer needs to have a service centre in India. After nearly 10 years of such experience the time taken for this is nearly the same and most times if the item is out of warranty then the standard answer is that the product is unrepairable / cost of repairs provided is higher than buying a new item…


So what do you call this? I call it the biggest farce and con going around in our Industry.



Which now leads me to the same point Customer Support!


What exactly is Customer Support? To me customer support starts much before a sale is done and continues till the life time of the product under its various stages of evolution..

1. Prior to sale Customer Support plays a role in provide the correct technical inputs for the application. From a CCTV perspective this is imperative... Most times sales guys promise the moon when factually the entire system cannot achieve the objective desired. Especially today where Video Analytics are specified. Unfortunately in today’s world and specific to CCTV, most sales guys don’t even know what they are selling… I had the experience recently of a chap who wanted me to sell his cameras come up to me and talk about his products when he had no idea behind the technology of the product he sold.
2. During the sale process the Sales guy needs to be actively involved along with his technical team to go through the BOM and ensure that it complies with the exact requirement of the customer.
3. Software expectation and the hardware to run this software needs to be perfectly in sync and should not cause a problem later on or for that matter the Sales team should ensure to educate the client to actually specify a bit above the minimum to ensure that the Hardware will be able to grow with additional updates to the software which may happen a year down the line. Every manufacturer has a cheat sheet which it shares to its sales guys showing the future path and time frame. This should be shared by the sales team with the future client to ensure that the client is aware if the growth pattern.
4. During the Sale / PO process the teams need to hand over the entire process to the project team and hand hold this team till execution so that what was promised is delivered.
5. Post Sales the Service team needs to stock sufficient spares to ensure that any failure is bridged by an immediate replacement and the client is not held at ransom by the process for replacement. Should this be a problem then the Sales team needs to be honest to indicate to the client to stock some spares as well. Sales teams rarely take this line because it reflects badly on them and contradicts most of the stand that they take in order to make a sale… being local company service centre, quality, low failure rate etc… Here the Sales team needs to educate the client and indicate the actual scenario by being honest and upfront about the process and hey... electronics can fail at any time however good the quality control… Space craft’s blow up on takeoff too…doesnot mean that quality control failed.
6. Ability to provide proper training and hand holding during change of teams at the client end.
7. Upgradation of software when available should be communicated to the client immediately.
8. At the end everyone should remember it is the client who invested in the System!

After nearly 30 years of experience I have been able to see only one Company in the world which meets or exceeds the expectation of Customer Support as I define it!



Sadly our Industry is still to learn what is CUSTOMER SUPPORT!

Security Consultants!

Who are Security Consultants?



Security Consultants are the most powerful people in this industry of mine. They are responsible for the design and specifications of most of the major projects and are extremely influential in the award of contracts.

Security Managers / Corporate administrators depend on these consultants to help them guide and design systems for their establishments.


Corporates use these Security Consultants to help them choose a System Integrator who will do the job at the lowest price based on factors written in the specifications by the Consultants.


So in short Security Consultants are the biggest links between the Manufacturer and the End Client.


Manufacturer’s across the industry fear consultants as they can either approve / disapprove a make for a project, put down a specification which a manufacturer can quote for or has minimal deviation impact while quoting for in a project.


Corporates and End User’s depend on these consultants to come up with a design and specification which will provide them with the best solution at the cheapest cost. Often the Consultants best design is actually the worst design since most designs are based on cost effective concerns.


Most manufacturers will go out of the way to please a consultant because the lack of knowledge of the consultant allows the manufacturer to brainwash the consultant with their product features. This knowledge gap screws a project from day one…..


Most Manufacturers will announce a product launch by hosting a launch presentation followed by lunch with cocktails and dinner for consultants.


Over the years I have observed that a particular Sales Guy is attached to A or B consultant since that particular Sales Guy would have a decent personal equation with the consultant.

Most consultants will specify a product of a specific make for most of their projects since they follow the one size fits all rule. This happens because a consultant who specified a particular product for a particular project got decent feedback from clients, price expectations were met and probably was even taken care of well by the manufacturer. This document then becomes his master document which is photocopied with only the cover page being changed across various projects. This may be applicable and may not make or have a major impact for a product like a fire detection or access control system but where it comes to CCTV it creates havoc….


Today’s Security Consultants play the consultant role for IBMS systems as a whole and this suits the End User as they have to deal with only one entity who seems to have knowledge on all the systems across IBMS. Most of these Security Consultants migrated from being MEP consultants or people who were once part of a system integrating company and as such this tells you the story of their knowledge base.


Most consultants are not respected by the Manufacturer’s Sales guy. I also fall into this category and the honest truth is that I have yet to see a consultant in India who has any idea about CCTV!


Most consultants will have a manufacturer write down the specifications from the manufacturer’s A &E Specification because he has no clue of what to specify....


This lack of knowledge creates problems to both the Honest System Integrator and also the Manufacturer but benefits the End User because of the Ambiguity that this lack of knowledge creates.


So what does it take to become a consultant?


A consultant needs to have knowledge and that too knowledge from experience of having designed and installed systems.


A consultant needs to be totally independent with a mind and spine of his own. This can only happen if the consultant is technically fully aware of the product he is dealing and specifying.


A consultant needs to also be a risk assessment person who can first check on the risk or threat perception, talk to the security manager on the various threats the company faces and then provide the alternatives to the client always with the honest intention of providing value to his client ( the End User ) long term.



A consultant needs to have the ability and vision to see across systems / products and specify products / systems which will benefit the End User long term from a cost to long term benefit exercise.

A consultant needs to be able to listen to people around ( The ART OF LISTENING IS THE FIRST FORM OF COMMUNICATION ) and understand from the ground level what the actual challenges are for each site independent of the Manufacturer product lines.


Finally a consultant needs to take onus and responsibility for the system design that they specify to ensure it meets and functions as desired by the Security Manger and Corporate Entity they are employed by in the first place.


What is the future? 


Will we have proper security consultants in the future? That my friends is the million dollar question… We need knowledgeable people from the industry to become consultants.


I do believe that if the industry has given me so much it is now time that I repay this industry by providing them with the knowledge base that I have been blessed to have acquired over the past 3 decades!


Until and unless we can formulate policies which are designed to benefit end clients and which are made out for specific projects we can never have an independent security consultant!


All views, feedback, brickbats welcome !

PUBLIC SURVEILLANCE

PUBLIC SURVEILLANCE


Public Surveillance today being used across the country as a whole is based on 3 types of CCTV surveillance

1. Public or Street based CCTV – In this Public Intersections and roads have Cameras installed on Electrical Poles or Buildings to monitor open public areas like streets and intersections.
2. Private Enterprise CCTV – In this Private organisations employ CCTV Cameras to monitor their premises and entrances.
3. Public Transport Areas – In this Public Transport areas are put under surveillance like Bus Stations, Airports, Railways Stations.

The Need for Public or Street based CCTV systems has grown rapidly in recent times and a number of cities have deployed cameras in hundreds and thousands to monitor these street and critical public areas. While the deployment has been universal the desired levels of surveillance has not been met at most of these areas due to various factors. Let us examine some of the challenges the enforcement bodies have faced & face while dealing and deploying with CCTV systems.



Problem Areas

1. Lack of Experts to advise on the deployment and most civic bodies have to fall back on vendors to provide the knowledge base and thus are driven by the local vendors available who may or may not be the best to advise in such situations.
2. Infrastructure requirements which pose the biggest problem.
3. Lack of Knowledge about technology which makes public tendering a serious problem by compromising on technology at the very first step.
4. Time process taken to finalise projects makes technology adopted for implementation outdated by the time the tender is awarded.
5. Technology implemented often is not upgradeable or scalable and thus restricts the law enforcement agency from adding additional resources or features.
6. Recorded footage quality is so poor that often nothing can be deciphered and the footage is of no use
7. Agencies not accountable for providing proper support during the Defect Liability Period and also not able to provide for proper post installation maintenance.
8. Staff are not properly trained to handle and run the systems installed.

Understanding the Problem


The biggest benefit that CCTV brings to the table is the ability to review an incident and playback the incident. The ability to do this means that images need to be stored for a reasonable amount of time and such incidents be archived for future reference. For such creditable information to be stored and played back the images need to be foremost of an acceptable resolution capable of clear identification and also irrefutable from an evidence point of view.

Transmission of such images over networks or communication devices over fibre / media poses the next challenge from a Public Surveillance perspective. To understand the first challenge of resolution we must first examine the type of cameras being used and the challenges we have to surmount.



Standard Resolution


Most times the resolution of recording used in Public Surveillance system is either 4CIF or D1. This is normally not sufficient a resolution to replay clear images due to the fact that most times cameras are placed at a height and the concentration of pixels does not provide for clear identification thus rendering the images as useless for evidence purposes. Additionally with the use of PTZ Camera ( Cameras which can move and remotely be zoomed ), the basic incident is overlooked as the Camera is pointing to another direction from the area of incident. Furthermore cameras which are used are of standard resolution (D1) and are fitted with wide angle lenses which further reduce the pixel density of the given subject within the field of view.



SOLUTION


Megapixel Cameras provides for greater density of images and thus allow for better forensic inspection and thus one can digitally zoom into specific areas of the image with little loss of definition to capture faces and license plates or objects left behind.


Additionally Megapixel cameras provide for better analytics to be performed for certain application which form part of Public Surveillance.


Megapixel camera lower cost of installation by reducing the number of cameras, reduced number of licenses, reduced number of network ports and thus reduced cabling.


Megapixel cameras also provide for replacing traditional Standard resolution PTZ camera with a Single High Definition Camera for example a 16 Megapixel camera will complete remove the need for a standard resolution PTZ Camera.


In low light conditions Megapixels cameras offer better resolution benefits compared to Standard Resolution Cameras.


Clearly Megapixel Cameras are ideal Public Surveillance application devices and can reduce the overall cost of the entire surveillance project. The Indirect benefits include reduced operator fatigue due to reduced number of cameras, reduced maintenance cost and reduced maintenance manpower.

****************************