Enabling Your Own Surveillance as a Service Offering
New tools to help dealers monitor, manage the equipment they install
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Dec 01, 2018
In the dealer/integrator business, recurring
monthly revenue (RMR) is like
finding a gold mine with several profitable
veins that can be mined. RMR
is an attractive means for a secondary
revenue stream.
Robert Messer, CEO of ABP Technology,
is bringing a new technology along that
will allow integrators the opportunity to
define their own RMR while offering a platform
for Managed Sensor Platforms (MSP)
in IP technology.
“The need to easily configure, manage
and monitor complex systems is essential to
provide support, care and maintenance to
ensure long-term system health and functionality,”
Messer said. “IPTechView helps
oversee and maintain systems based on IP
technology.”
IPTechView is Messer’s newest technology
and is an easy and simple management
tool for central command and control centers
for all IP systems that an MSP touches.
This ranges from servers to IP endpoints like
cameras, video storage, access control, IOT
devices and more.
“The solution is built to be an all-in-one
platform. No more toggling between different
portals and accounts or remembering
endless usernames and passwords,” Messer
said. “This makes things like submitting a
trouble ticket or monitoring the health of
a system simple. IPTechView can integrate
with all and any other cloud management
tools you may use, so you can see the things
that are most important to you at a glance
on a customizable dashboard. You can even
showcase your value to customers with
branded reporting.”
Messer got his start in the data networking
and security industry about 18 years
ago, and picked Dallas for a home base.
He’s not a native Texan, but likes the fact
that Dallas is in the center of the country.
With a warehouse centrally located and
easy access to a major airport, Messer feels
like he picked the perfect location to also
launch IPTechView, his new cloud software
platform for integrators.
As a specialty distributor, ABP Technology
has a host of products available for the
integrator, many of which fit nicely in the
datacom and telecom business. As for security,
ABP Technology can speak to Mobotix
products and Kentix environmental monitoring
systems. Messer and his staff have
introduced MxMSP for the Mobotix camera,
which is a multi-tenant, private and secure
remote setup, configuration and management
platform for Mobotix partners,
meaning integrators and resellers of video
surveillance solutions can set up recurring
monthly revenue.
The Kentix product line does a variety
of functions, including climate monitoring,
intruder detection, early fire protection, current
and network monitoring and acts as an
access control system. The Kentix device
came into the security world from data centers,
where they were used as a door sensor.
They are wireless and act within a MESH
environment and encrypted Zigbee.
Messer has grown his national specialty
distribution company selling IP-based surveillance
and access control to a staff of
about 40 people. Today the focus is on going
beyond the camera and server by selling decentralized
IP solutions, smart CPE, server
and cloud monitoring. His IPTechView enables
Integrators to ensure that everything
they sell on the desk, servers or cloud is all
up and running. The IPTechView software
monitors the escalation of potential threats
before they become disasters—get alerts for
faltering speeds, storage and uptime before
they fail.
Located in Farmers Branch, Texas, a
Dallas suburb, ABP Technology has an
ample showroom for customers to spend
time looking at and getting instructions
on the technology. The company also has
a training room that is used a couple times
a month for integrators who want to better
understand the technology that is available
to them. Messer said that his integrator
partners are well trained in the company’s
new technology and that ABP offers preand
post-sales support and regular new
partner training sessions.
“When you help others
grow their businesses,
good things happen for
everyone,” Messer said.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2018 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.