Milestone XProtect Corporate (XPCO): Multi-Audience Selling to the Clients' BenefitTodd A. Vojta16 Dec 2008 10:40: / The conversations around the Enterprise and Corporate platforms are significant and should happen every time. While at the outset they appear very similar, they in fact offer very different solutions. Too many people that don't fully understand either the software's capability or the customer's needs end up not showcasing the true strength of each platform. It comes down to a discussion about how many cameras or how many physical locations – and that's it. When they do this, it's a complete disservice to the customer, and the wrong product gets sold – or worse – lost to a lesser competitor. All of us at Paragon Solutions Group, Inc understand that the sales cycle starts by setting the right expectations from the beginning, with both the security side of the house as well as the IT side. This basic strategy is paramount – and has allowed us to successfully sell XP Corporate to several clients. One thing we at Paragon pride ourselves in is our ability to bring all of the different facets of a client's infrastructure together to the same table, at the same time. Sounds simple right? "Bring together all of the minds involved with the project, educate them on the benefits of the solution, answer any questions that they may have, dispel any myths or pre-conceived notions they may have, and convince them that we (and by extension Milestone) are the right fit for their application." When you break down what's really happening here "behind-the-scenes", it's actually quite remarkable. Until now, the realms of "Physical Security" and "Information Technology" have never really needed to coincide. Oftentimes the past of these two titans is fraught with complications, failed projects and shattered expectations. Which party is to blame? Before the finger-pointing ensues, Paragon's answer is simple. It's neither party's fault – it's the integrators'. In the past, integrators have developed sales strategies that involve one party or the other, but neither both simultaneously. The result: the party that has been left out of the decision-making process instantly becomes alienated and is then forced to make changes to their processes (oftentimes painfully) that could otherwise have been avoided. The solution: multi-audience sales processes. To help illustrate this point, I'll draw from past experience and give two examples of outcomes derived from failed sales/implementation processes. Imagine first that a new IP security project has been commissioned by the Physical Security department of a large campus environment. Intrinsic details are mapped out, defining chain of command, camera control priorities, coverage zones and patrolling schedules. The integrator has gone through painstaking detail to ensure that all of the client's needs are met and the system will perform to all specifications. Implementation time comes around and the IT department is then asked for 300 10/100 switch ports, spanning 6 buildings and, most egregious yet, a whopping 78 Terabytes of disk space upon which to store the recorded video. After the EMTs revive the Director of Information Technology, the brakes are applied – and the project fails. Next imagine a new IP security project commissioned by the Information Technology department of a large campus environment. Complex dataflow diagrams, VLAN charts, IP Address maps, Gantt charts and project expenditures have been planned down to the last byte on the last spindle. The project goes in exactly as planned and the keys are turned over to the Director of Security, who sits down at his shiny new workstation and has a high-resolution megapixel image of the "Pep-rally This Thursday, Go Team" banner – completely incapable of seeing the hundreds of people passing through the corridor behind it. Obviously these are exaggerated examples, but it may surprise you to learn how often these things happen. Although when looking at the situation from a distance it seems oblivious to most, the answer lies in the discovery process and sales presentation of the solution. The fantastic thing about the Milestone XProtect Corporate solution is the fact that it lends itself perfectly to our model processes and strategy. Milestone products, regardless of the flavor, have the best end user interface in the world. Milestone XProtect Smart Client is the prized jewel of our presentation as it pertains to people who will actually be using the system on a day-to-day basis. Everyone who touches it absolutely loves its user-friendliness and feature-completeness. Therefore, our sales strategy leads with a presentation geared toward the Physical Security folks in the audience. We go over all of the fantastic features that Milestone can support. These should be very familiar to those of you reading this document, so I won't waste your time here. Once we have the Physical Security people absolutely flabbergasted with the feature-functionality of the solution, the multi-audience portion of our strategy kicks in. We ask the Physical Security staff to tell us if they could have a system to perform exactly to their specifications, what would the system look like? One important thing to remember here is that, more often than not, Physical Security people are not Information Technology people. They simply do not care about the underlying mechanics of the system, as long as they can have it do what they want. Therefore, we find it best not to encumber them with the back-end details at all. They simply need be assured that their experience, no matter where it takes place in the environment, will remain sound and stable. We turn to the now skeptical and often cynical Information Technology portion of the audience – as years of experience have taught them that this procedure is not unlike that of a root canal. We then have system engineers with incredible knowledge in not only the Milestone solution – but equally importantly, network infrastructure and design – begin firing very pointed questions as to the underlying infrastructure and procedures currently employed by the client. Questions asked include topics like network topology, switch port density and consumption, the exact type of network hardware employed by the client, trunk consumptions, domain infrastructure specifications, the existence/specifications of Microsoft SQL environments on the network, etc. Typically, at the end of the Q&A process, three important things have been accomplished: 1) We have an idea as to what exactly it will take to successfully implement the Milestone platform into the client's environment. 2) We have an idea as to how involved the Information Technology staff would like to be in the management of the system. 3) We've put the Information Technology staffs' mind at ease about our ability to deploy the solution. Should the solution seem best fit for the Milestone XProtect Corporate solution, the room instantly becomes ten-times "geekier". The great thing about selling XPCO to Information Technology people is that they get incredibly excited about the way it's managed. Everything has been designed around the ideals and specifications IT professionals want to see. From the look of the user interface, to the ability to employ multi-casting (yes, we have that conversation right there in the room with the bewildered Physical Security folks blinking at the whiteboard), to the ability to multi-stream and cascade archiving schedules across volumes from multiple locations and multiple storage types, all from a centralized management location – nothing has been left to chance. Even the die-hard uptime junkies who demand five-nines of uptime – XProtect Corporate (if deployed correctly with virtualized environments and fail-over servers) does not disappoint. The result of this conversation leaves the Physical Security people impressed, the Information Technology people drooling for more – and we, as the integrator, feeling extremely confident in the steps ahead. Ultimately, there is absolutely no reason in the world (price included) that integrators should not be focusing qualified clients toward the Milestone XProtect Corporate product. It simply outstrips the competition in every way. Your engineers will thank you for it, your clients will thank you for it – and so will your reputation. Rate this article0 comment(s)Post a comment |
Todd A. Vojta