Features Research
IMS on VSaaS: Limited growth can be overcome

The release states:

Video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) must provide more for less — a key takeaway from this year’s MVaaS Summit hosted by Envysion, and held in Boulder, Colo., Oct. 7-9.
 
IMS Research Market Analyst Sam Grinter attended the Summit and states, “A VSaaS solution must return on the initial investment as soon as possible by incorporating multiple applications and functions to add value over a ‘traditional’ video surveillance system.”
 
Return on investment is achieved through limiting employee shrinkage, providing evidence to counter fraudulent claims, and generally increasing operational efficiency. A VSaaS solution can integrate with existing security cameras and typically costs between $125 and $200 per site per month depending on the number of security cameras. A key feature of a VSaaS solution is that security cameras can be accessed and managed remotely through an internet browser or tablet.
 
In a recently published report by IMS Research (acquired by IHS (NYSE: IHS)), titled The World Market for Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) – 2012 Edition, the Americas VSaaS market for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMB) was estimated to be worth less than $50 million. Considering providers in the market have been active since 2000, growth and uptake of VSaaS has been limited, something is holding back mass adoption of VSaaS solutions in the SMB market.
 
Grinter continues, “The on-going service cost and lack of knowledge of the potential benefits of VSaaS on the customers behalf, has limited growth. A VSaaS provider must justify why a company should invest in their VSaaS solution. Demonstrations and trial deployments have proved effective strategies for introducing new customers to VSaaS.”
 
If a VSaaS provider can combine multiple applications within their solution, such as remote access to the video with an integrated point of sale solution or other video driven business data system; the system could be used by both a marketing manager and a loss prevention manager. This enables the VSaaS solution to be paid for from both the marketing and loss prevention budget.
 
Grinter concludes, “Increasing the functionality of a ’traditional’ video system not only extends the application of the solution, but also spreads the cost of the service for the customer. This makes the entire solution a more attractive proposition. If more VSaaS providers follow this strategy the adoption of VSaaS in the SMB market could grow quickly over the next five years.”