Hosted Video: Making a Bundle from Video Services

Aug. 14, 2013
Four ways to add value and increase RMR

A hosted video model presents a great foundation for building recurring monthly revenue (RMR) and long-term customer relationships. Your clients get the latest IP video technology and the ability to access their video anytime, anywhere without the usual upfront investment or having to worry about system maintenance. You get a stable monthly revenue stream from the service you provide.

But once you have a hosted video solution established, it is time to think outside the box. There are a number of value-added services you can bundle into your Video-Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS) offerings and increase your RMR even further. Here’s a look at three that might appeal most to your clients: video alarm verification, video openings and closings, and video guard tours.

1. Video alarm verification: False alarms are the bane of the security industry. In addition to enforcing financial penalties, many municipalities are enacting legislation requiring some sort of alarm verification before dispatching police to the scene.

This is a great niche opportunity for hosted video systems. Since video content is already accessed over the Internet, it is a simple matter to automatically stream a video clip to the alarm company’s central station for a quick and accurate visual verification of the alarm event. The hosted platform can even email video alarm notifications directly to the end-customer’s PC, laptop and/or mobile device. Bundling hosted video with central station alarm notification can help drastically reduce false alarms — a welcome relief to business owners, law enforcement and security professionals alike.

2. Video openings and closings: One of the most popular and traditional reports that central monitoring stations provide to their customers are business openings and closings, which help clients quickly identify which employee’s access code or card armed and disarmed the security system.

The basic flaw, however, is that without eyes on the scene, clients can’t determine whether the person who used the code/card was actually the employee. With video clips of openings and closings appended to the report, they can. Being able to visually verify that the correct employee engaged in the action stated in the openings and closings report empowers clients to enforce company policies and procedures with irrefutable evidence of misconduct.

3. Video guard tours: Some companies augment their electronic surveillance with foot patrols for an added layer of security. While extremely effective, this can be an expensive proposition once you factor in the outlay for guard services in addition to the onsite security system. Video-based guard tours are a great alternative to help cost-conscious clients maintain a higher level of on-premises security.

The strategically-placed cameras can be programmed to scan the area at regular intervals and stream short video clips to the central station. Operators would use those clips to visually verify the current status of each field of view. The central station could even append those clips to its reports, giving clients a more comprehensive account of onsite security.

4. Increasing RMR through integration: The natural evolution for hosted video systems is to capitalize on their ability to interact with central station service platforms that clients already use in the protection of their businesses. Bundling central station-based services with a hosted video platform not only enhances a client’s overall security program, it can turn your VSaaS into a far more lucrative RMR proposition.