This year’s event will see Darren Rewston’s CheckMySystems business setting up a stand at the NEC in Birmingham for the very first time. Given this fact we were naturally keen to find out more from Rewston about the key challenges which new – and emerging – exhibitors like CheckMySystems need to be able to overcome when preparing to put their best foot forward at this pivotal event.
We also asked Darren about how the CheckMySystems’ team are hoping to capitalise on the opportunities presented at IFSEC International and maximise the return on what, for them, is a major investment.
Info4Security (I4S): Why did you choose to attend IFSEC International, and what are the main goals/achievements you hope to realise from doing so?
Darren Rewston (DR): By any measure IFSEC International is a landmark show. In fact, it must rank as one of the biggest of its type in Europe, if not worldwide. Given IFSEC International’s status this offers an attractive platform for security-related businesses such as our own to showcase their capabilities to like minded buyers.
As a relatively new concern – we’re now into our third year of operation – it’s not surprising that we are really focused on getting CheckMySystems’ name and message out there and educating the marketplace about what we can do.
The primary goal of our attendance this year is really to expand the customer base for our CheckMyCCTV health and operation monitoring software solution, especially in the UK. As part of this we plan to have a number of our RVRC (Remote Video Response Centre) partners on the stand over the four days of the show. They will be able to give visitors a first hand account of their experiences with CheckMyCCTV, and most notably in terms of how it has performed across the hundreds of sites they monitor.
The main target audience for us during IFSEC International 2012, in terms of new business, is going to be UK security installers. Already, we are seeing a growing take-up for CheckMyCCTV from installers who are keen to ensure that their customers’ CCTV faults can be automatically flagged-up, whether they be with a camera, hard disk, recording or network connection failure, without necessarily having to always rely on time consuming – and costly – site visits or the end users themselves spotting problems which may be days or even weeks after a failure occurs.
I4S: When did your preparation for the show begin, what did that preparation entail and what’s the company’s commitment to the event in terms of manpower/logistics?
DR: We first started thinking about IFSEC International 2012 at the turn of the year, mulling things over as to whether it was the right vehicle for us and if it was going to be possible to exhibit within our limited budget.
As a potential first time exhibitor, naturally it was important for us not to make a hasty decision. When it became evident that we could make this happen we saw it as an exciting opportunity to get in front of so many people. It’s going to be like having hundreds of meetings over a few days while staying in one place rather than having to drive the length and breadth of the country!
In terms of the process, we have adopted a shell scheme and will be cladding the walls in black plastic incorporating the CheckMySystems branding, to keep it clean, simple and effective. We have been determined not to display bullet points all over the place, something which happens far too often. For us, we are going to use the CheckMyCCTV software as our focal point with a central demonstration area and a large 40-inch screen.
When it comes to manpower and logistics during IFSEC International we have put arrangements in place so there are representatives from three of our partners on stand at any one time in addition to CheckMySystems representatives. The advantage of doing this is that if a prospective customer comes along with a certain requirement or questions regarding how our CheckMyCCTV solution can be implemented in real life our partners will be on hand to discuss this with them.
Ultimately, this process benefits all parties because more people are using CheckMyCCTV, our partners gain some new business and the end user has the right solution for their needs.
I4S: In years gone by it has been themes such as IP, hybrid solutions, the emergence of networks or video analytics that have characterised the show. Is there a key theme you can see on the horizon that might well frame the 2012 event?
DR: I think that one of the major themes coming to the fore for 2012 will be taking a managed approach to CCTV through automation.
CCTV needs to be thought of more as a managed appliance which can use analytics and other advanced techniques to provide an intelligent, automated capability. Remote health monitoring is obviously an example of this.
The move is really towards doing things in a more intelligent and efficient way and ultimately using less manpower to do more work.
I4S: What’s the key focus for the company at this year’s show?
DR: The key focus for us will be to establish CheckMyCCTV as a brand, a product that is attractive to new customers and offers an intelligent and economical way to monitor the status of security-critical CCTV systems. We are looking for quality installers who place a high priority on customer service and fault response.
One of the areas we will also be emphasising is the fact that over the past, from a compatibility perspective, we have been adding more and more supported brands into our CheckMyCCTV solution which obviously broadens out the scope of our potential customer base in terms of the installed equipment we can work with.
To put this into perspective, we have now increased the number of CCTV brands we are compatible with to 20 through a major R&D effort and will be highlighting the most recent additions – namely Vista, Samsung and Dallmeier – during the course of the show.
I4S: Can you briefly outline the new solutions and products that will be displayed and discussed by the company?
DR: The new capabilities we will be showcasing at IFSEC International 2012 are centered around our CheckMyCCTV software. CheckMyCCTV is an automated health and operation monitoring solution which has been designed to be as intuitive as possible, with features such as a unique on-screen ‘traffic light’ warning system, making it easy to identify issues on remote systems at a glance on one screen.
The latest innovations being demonstrated for IFSEC International will include a web viewing option, allowing customers to view the status of their CCTV installations using a smart phone or web browser, and Google map integration so the status of multi-site CCTV systems can be displayed on an interactive map.
Other advances we plan to unveil range from customisable daily status reports to the ability to produce a detailed CCTV audit report for all attached CCTV systems, highlighting the brand, model, software version, connected cameras and other information about the system.
I4S: Are you targeting end users, installers/integrators or perhaps consultants this year, and what’s influencing your decision here?
DR: As mentioned, security installers are a specific target for us given the advantages that we believe can be realised through adopting a proactive approach to maintenance for remote CCTV systems something which CheckMyCCTV is well equipped to support. We can do this directly or more usually through our Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC) partners.
On the ground we have seen that installers who’ve implemented CheckMyCCTV have be en able to reduce their costs while providing a higher level of service above and beyond what could, potentially, be delivered by traditional scheduled maintenance visits.
Of course, it’s also important that other groups such as consultants understand the benefits that CheckMyCCTV can bring to their clients, and from the other end to encourage end users to talk to their security providers about how CheckMyCCTV can ensure their CCTV systems are protecting their buildings, assets and staff at all times.
I4S: Are you targeting any particular vertical sector at present? If so, why? What opportunities do you see emerging?
DR: Certainly the retail sector is proving to be particularly lucrative for us. CheckMyCCTV is now being rolled out across a growing number of big name retail operations – with more in the pipeline – as part of their CCTV maintenance strategy to ensure that their CCTV systems are operating correctly at all times across multiple outlets.
Beyond retail, CheckMyCCTV is also ideal for large organisations with geographically dispersed infrastructure such as the utilities, transport operators or unmanned sites.
I4S: What will be your immediate priorities in the post-IFSEC period?
DR: Immediately after IFSEC International it will be be all about following up on the leads, and hopefully expanding our customer base on the back of this effort.
We see IFSEC International as being very much like a preliminary meeting to show what we can do and demonstrate the software, but this will all be in vain if we do not put a concerted effort into our post-event activities.
In addition, if people come to us and say that they have 100 sites which use a certain CCTV system brand we do not support then this is obviously feedback we need to target our R&D efforts on after the show.
I4S: What’s the focus for the company likely to be in the six months from June to December?
DR: For the longer term we will be announcing additional brand compatibility over the summer, one of which has a large installed base linked in to RVRCs and continuing to fill in specific gaps that will help us to support large-scale projects.
We also want to move to a position where we can set-up partnerships with CCTV equipment manufacturers so they are working to be compliant with CheckMyCCTV rather than, at the moment, the onus being placed on us to be compatible with them.
The path we are looking at to do this would be to provide them with an SDK that they could then work from.
I4S: Can you offer your views on the subject of convergence in the security space, wherein information security and physical security are being brought closer together?
DR: There is certainly a drive towards convergence or integration. We see it in CCTV where more and more capabilities are being brought in that can be delivered from the same resource. Video analytics being a case in point, where this can be used for security and wider business management.
When you look at bringing together physical and electronic security it certainly makes sense to use software and advanced systems to make things more efficient, and ensure that manpower is being deployed in a more cost-effective and event-driven way, whether this be to handle specific incidents or to conduct essential maintenance.
I4S: Are there any enhancements/improvements you’d like to see introduced at IFSEC International by show organiser UBM?
DR: Something which might be worth considering for the future is a start-up area for people that are new to the security business and who have something innovative to showcase or need a meeting point.
There are many small businesses who have groundbreaking technology and software that they would like to show off but a conventional stand just isn’t a practical proposition so they end up being overlooked.
Perhaps there could be a dedicated floor area where start-ups can have a table and possibly a pop-up banner, or everything could be supplied by the organisers, so for a small cost they can still have that all important presence.
I4S: On the macro level, what are your views on the current business landscape and the economic conditions prevailing in the UK?
DR: There is little doubt that the wider economic conditions in the UK have been problematic for the past four or five years and the spectre of a double-dip recession is far from ideal.
The reality is that any upturn, when it comes, is probably going to be very slow and it’s unlikely that we are going to see levels of growth comparable to those in the last decade anytime soon.
I4S: In addition, can you tell us your opinions on the present state of the UK and international security markets?
DR: Considering the security market, what we are finding from a CCTV standpoint is that a significant proportion of UK customers seem to be holding on to older systems. To put this into perspective, a snapshot survey we undertook recently of 300 systems put the average age of the installed systems at 4.5 years when we might have expected it to be closer to 2.5 to 3 years.
It’s often said that the UK is not adopting IP but perhaps this is because we are not in the right part of the cycle at the moment. People appear to hanging on to their old DVRs.
Gauging the sentiment among the installers and wider CCTV industry that we speak to, people are saying that they are seeing a bit of an upturn but it’s really too early to say if this is a blip or something more concrete and, crucially, what the longer term will hold.
I4S: Are knowledge levels among your key customer audiences showing a continual elevation in focus and breadth?
DR: We are certainly finding a greater understanding of what we are offering. People are starting to appreciate the operational benefits of our CheckMyCCTV concept and there has definitely been an upswing in demand as a direct result of this over the last few months.
Of course we have had to put in a considerable effort to bring things to this stage and IFSEC International will certainly help in this regard.
The hard reality is that people buying CCTV systems, historically, have not been asking the question: ‘How will I know the system is working?’ There has been a tendency to assume that CCTV is a fit-and-forget solution, something which is not mirrored by the reality on the ground as evidenced by the aformentioned survey. Worryingly, we found that 75% of these sites had one or more issues that were likely to impact on the operational performance of the CCTV system.
I4S: What’s the company doing to promote the Corporate Social Responsibility/’green’ agenda?
DR: When it comes to promoting the so-called ‘green’ agenda this is fully in keeping with what we are doing on the ground. A case in point is the fact that our customers are able to undertake remote diagnostics of their CCTV installations rather than necessarily always having to send a person to site.
Certainly, when you think of the large geographical spread of the retailers that CheckMyCCTV covers, for example, the number of sites for a customer can amount to several hundred. When you add-up all the savings in terms of man hours, fuel and emissions, taking people off the roads and out of their cars, we believe that our approach can make a significant difference to energy usage.
The good news news is that our experience has shown it’s perfectly possible to drop down to only one scheduled site maintenance visit per year and use CheckMyCCTV to advise when additional visits are required, rather than pre-planned visits which need more resources and may not be as effective.
CheckMySystems at IFSEC International 2012
Hall 5 Stand C116