Security Solutions as a Service

The security industry is in crises as the traditional input costs drivers are pushing prices to unaffordable levels. Fortunately, technological advances has led to improved efficiencies and reduced costs in the “solutions as a service” sphere. Margins that once were easily attainable on guarding and hardware are a thing of the past, while increased competition have forced security companies to cut margins down to single figures. Companies can either continue with low-margin traditional business, or they can adopt a new business model that offers long-term annuity income along with considerably lower expenses.

The move is towards an ‘as-a-Service (aaS) model’ where big capital expenditure (CAPEX) every few years is reduced to regular monthly operational expenses (OPEX) that becomes applicable only when a new sale is achieved. and provide the service provider with an additional income. Control rooms are a perfect example where a significant outlay of money is required to build, equip, and support its performance, with continual maintenance and upgrade costs thereafter.

Watcher Surveillance Solutions has installed its Watcher Video Management System (VMS) and Intelligent (AI) Software in its cloud environment which is hosted at Digital Parks Africa (DPA) in Midrand. Security companies that do not have their own control room can utilise this environment for full control room functionality. The VMS environment is web based and thus easily accessible from anywhere for a monthly fee. Thus, no need for capital outlay to acquire servers, IT systems and software.

Companies with an existing control room can now enhance their functionality with no additional capital investment, adding immediate value without the disruption of existing operations. Also, Watchers VMS and Intelligent software is vendor agnostic which means that video feeds from different camera manufactures can be viewed on a single interface. Surveillance software that is hosted in the cloud has the additional benefit in that the number of users can be increased or decreased monthly.

Also, hardware and software maintenance is managed by Watcher and the data centre has its own failover solutions and generators in case of power failure. False alarms in surveillance remain a massive problem. Watcher’s Intelligence (AI) software was designed specifically to manage detected events. The system notifies the surveillance officer in the control room of a potential threat. The officer will then view and verify the threat and dismiss it if false or act and escalate the threat if it is real. This monitoring service is also provided as monthly fee based on the number of cameras being monitored.

Watcher’s intelligent software functionality includes zone alerts, object classification, License Plate Recognition (LPR) and the ability to detect left or unattended items, weapons, or fire. Post-event analysis software allows users to analyse previously recorded video feeds making the search for a specific person or incident quick and easy. Watcher Surveillance Solutions offers a full surveillance service with 15 days video retention in the cloud. Watcher does not use edge storage at the site, because all footage is lost if the recoding devise on site fails or is stolen.

Watcher Surveillance Solutions has a Partner Programme where our Partners can earn up to 20% margin on monthly recurring revenue.