At Axis, we put a lot of resources into developing digital tools that help users simplify their work and save time throughout their projects, all the way from design to installation and operation. We collaborate closely with partners and customers to come up with the best solutions.
For a system integrator creating video surveillance systems, time is indeed money. There’s cutthroat competition and if you can wrap up your work faster, you’ll be able to create and send out even more quotations, targeting more customers and projects.
One of the most time-consuming things for a system integrator is having to go back to redo a quotation because the end-customer changed their mind about which cameras to use. The end-customers, on the other hand, naturally want to keep things open in order to purchase the best surveillance system at the lowest possible price.
More successful partners and customers
Although coming at it from different angles, both parties will benefit from Axis free online tools that tackle these challenges and even help with the next step. Göran Sandberg is a Tools Specialist at Axis:
The primary objective when developing and offering our online tools is to help make our customers and partners more successful.
“We put a lot of time and resources into providing tools that meet real-life challenges that our partners and customers face”, he continues.
This chiefly has to do with making it easier to find the right components and to reduce the time spent during all project stages, from design to installation to operation and maintenance of a surveillance system.
One reason why you’ll work faster, is that it takes much of the guesswork out of creating video surveillance systems. Two standout tools are product selector and AXIS Site Designer.
Getting it right from the start
“Product selector is an online component catalogue,” Göran explains. “You can have it open on your computer for instant access, and you can filter searches to quicker find what you want.”
“Using AXIS Site Designer, you can say goodbye to wasted time when you create projects and quotations,” explains Shawn Keating, Global Sales Engineer at Axis, who has extensive first-hand experience using Axis tools, working closely with partners and customers. He points out the filters that make it easy to find the right cameras and all the accessories, but also useful functions that help you get the bandwidth and the storage solutions right.
“With this tool, it’s so much easier to get it right from the start, which is a huge advantage,” Shawn says. “Video surveillance systems are often complex projects, and there are a million ways to do it.”
So, you will not only be able to put an optimized system together quicker and easier at the early project stages, the tools provide peace of mind going into the installation stage.
“There’s nothing as frustrating as getting to the installation phase just to discover that you’ve got the wrong components,” Shawn says. “It can be deceptively simple things such as having the wrong mounting accessories that stop the installers in their tracks.”
Will give you a competitive edge
When you’ve finished your system specification, you can easily turn it into documentation that makes it easy for the end-customer to understand what they’re buying. “The increased professionalism is a big benefit,” Shawn says.
As a system integrator, you need to be competitive, fighting for the projects in your region, and this will give you a competitive edge.
And if the end-customer should change their mind about the specification once they get the quotation, no worries. It takes mere minutes to update the quotation.
“Another advantage is that you can save your finished projects and solutions, which means that you can re-use them in future projects, so you will be able to save more time in the long-term”, Shawn says, “It also means that you can afford to target customers on speculation. If you don’t win the project, at least you haven’t wasted lots of time and effort.”
Customer-driven development
Several dedicated Axis teams work to continuously develop new tools and to update existing software, adding more functionality and interactivity. They come up with cutting-edge software tools, “sometimes even before our customers know that they need them”, Göran says, but the majority of the tools is developed based on interaction with customers and partners.
“We have a continuous dialogue with them, often through our sales engineers, to learn about their pain points”, he says. “We listen and try to adjust the tools to their needs. The bottom-line is that we’re depending on them and their input to do this successfully. It’s crucial that we work together.”
