I don't see the value of mobile PoS in QSR. Can you comment on the fit?

I agree with the commenter above. The other distinction I would make is the target market of these offerings. Envysion, more than anyone else with the VSaaS label has focused at building a solution for multi-site retailers/restaurants. Most of the other solutions are residential or SMB focused. To that end, I'd actually be surprised if Envysion ran into these other 'VSaaS' providers.

Thanks, Hayley, lots of systems having PoS integration. It's not a unique feature to Envysion nor managed video.

I am still a little confused on the workflow. Let's say I am the cheese sampler and you are the auditor. Who can you tell if I bought the cheese? When you see me eating the sample, there's no other known information about me. At best, it seems you could guess that I bought the cheese if I picked it up but I am not sure how you can know via PoS unless you first scan forward and find me at the register (which will have to be manual because you don't have any knowledge of the subject personally).

Hayley, how do you do that efficiently? Let's say I am the manager/investigator/auditor. I watch the video but then what? Do I just watch in real time and try to see if someone picks up a block of cheese after eating a sample?

Second, what does managed video enable that I cannot do with a 'regular' DVR and a remote client?

Darren, What do you do if someone asks a basic 'how to' question? - e.g., I can't find video from last tuesday, i am not sure how to export a video clip, etc.?

When you say you have online help, do you use an embedded chat tool? In other words, how do you help? Do they need to call in a phone number?

Hi Darren, Do you require a Java Applet or Flash to run in Firefox? Are any functionalities restricted in Firefox that are available in IE?

If you are using managed video, why do you need the integrator of the future? Why do you need an integrator at all? Without having to configure servers on site, the need for skilled integrators goes down. Why not simply get an installation company to drop in cameras and cabling?

The SSN piece talks about policy and software development, Stanford MBAs, etc. Managed and hosted video reduce the need for such complexity and sophisticated personnel.

Why is 2010 going to be a 'game changing year'? No doubt managed/hosted video will continue to gain adoption and recognition but it's not clear what specific technologies, trends or events is going to make it 'game changing'?

It seems more likely that 2010 will be more of a steady increase but not a dramatic breakthrough. Granted IMS prediction is fairly vague (move into the limelight) but I am curious to understand more of what specifically will happen.

Thanks for sharing what you are seeing in the retail market. I think all 3 themes make a lot of sense.

I am wondering if your retailer customers/prospects are concerned about going out of business in the next year (or if they should be concerned). I was just reading the NYTimes article on the poor 'back to school' sales figures. I am wondering how long some of these retailers can continue with such downward pressure on prices and volume. Thoughts?

"I fundamentally disagree with the premise that the future of Video Surveillance as a Service is eliminating on-site recording"

While I do not believe that eliminating on-site recording is practical (now or in the near term future), most of the vendors and industry people who are excited about this are advocating/premising the eliminate of on-site recording. As such, it needs to be addressed.

SaaS model appeal: "scalability of the solution and the ability to continually update and enhance the service"

For video surveillance, i think remote upgrades from the managed provider are a nice to have. Most users would certainly welcome but I don't many would pay more or choose one vendor based on that feature.

For scalability, I just don't think remote access of video surveillance is as important as remote access of e-mail or CRM. I do think some organizations will choose a vendor because of this feature (especially in QSR where the sites are so distributed) but I don't think this will generally be the case in many other surveillance markets (offices, hospitals, utilities, etc.).

"We’ve seen customers drive 10-15% improvements in bottom line profitability by using our service extensively as part of their standard operating practices. "

What features are driving these improvements? How much comes from managed video versus PoS integration and exception based recording? I think most of the value drives from the later, meaning that if you suddenly stopped offering managed video but still provided PoS and EBR, that the profitability improvements would be similar.