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In this issue with you:
Vyacheslav TESAKOV, General Director of Ravelin-LTD
Mikhail LEVCHUK, Head of Marketing and Sales Department of Argus-Spectr
Alexey GINTSE, Director of Public Relations, AAM Systems
Evgeny KIN, Head of Representative Office, Nedap Security Management — Russia
Question for discussion
What criteria does a Russian customer use when choosing a TSB? Do these criteria differ from those accepted in the West? If there are differences, what are they and, most importantly, what is the reason?
Vyacheslav TESAKOV:
Unfortunately, most often it is the price! For many years we have been preaching the principle: «The selection of technical security equipment for an object is a strictly individual matter and does not depend on the equipment that we are currently promoting.» It is clear why this is so. It is necessary to meet the customer's requirements. And here the first question is: «Do you need the system to be there or to work?» Most often we get the answer — I want something cheaper. Most of them are like that. It is already a rule of our company to write two proposals at once: the first one is cheaper, and the second one is what it should be, in our opinion. Our proposal is not accepted very often. The main reason, as it seems to me, is that our clients have a poor understanding of how to properly build a security system. There are two reasons: either the task is not clearly formulated by the management, or this is done by a person who does not really understand what it is. For example, an employee of the maintenance service. They count on our proposals, while being completely unaware of either the price or the requirements. In the West, there is no such thing, there they always try to hire a special company, which in the future will either guard the given enterprise, or operate this facility. That is, these companies select equipment in such a way as to have a minimum of problems in the future at this facility. Moreover, if the alarm does not work in time at the facility, then the insurance company, first of all, will ask those who selected and installed the equipment. Responsibility remains. But with us, no. If something happens, the customer will be left alone with his problems. That is why he saves, anyway, he does not believe that this system will help him much, and he will have to spend money in any case.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
Model. The criteria for choosing a TSB are determined by the fire model and the criminal model, which the security system must withstand.
It is obvious that fire models in Russia and in the world are the same: a wooden chair burns the same way in all countries. And professionals in the field of building fire protection systems have long agreed on a single set of tests (smoldering and burning of wood, smoldering of cotton, burning of polyurethane foam, etc.), which a truly reliable system must pass.
With the criminal model, everything is much more complicated. For some countries, this is a Bedouin who recently got off a camel, for Russia, this is a savvy specialist who will give 100 points to many professional developers in the field of security systems. That is why we are forced to choose security systems that are called «banking» in prosperous Europe. Systems with increased detection capability in a wide range of temperatures, strictly regulated noise immunity in accordance with national standards, but at the same time affordable.
A memorable meeting with representatives of a respected French company. The debate about the advantages of Russian and disadvantages of French solutions ended with the following phrase: «In France, a person who understands the difference between a tractor and a transistor, and even more so, who knows how to use a capacitor to sabotage a notification transmission system, will find 1000 ways to make a living legally.» I repeat once again, this is not about the talents of developers from different countries, but about the differences in the tasks that they face.
To sum it up. The criteria for choosing fire systems in Russia and abroad, in my opinion, should be similar (price/quality ratio, technical support, etc.). The criteria for choosing security systems should be determined by Russian reality: high technical training of criminals.
Alexey GINTSE:
The customer is usually guided by two main criteria:
o whether the proposed fire alarm systems solve the main tasks that he needs to solve, in full or in part, and whether the fire alarm systems have the potential to solve problems that may arise in the future
o the cost of the proposed fire alarm systems
To put it even more briefly on behalf of a potential customer: «will I solve my problem, and how much will it cost me?» Of course, you can give a dozen more selection criteria, but these are always the main ones.
If we talk about the West, then the authority and reliability of the supplier often plays a much more important role there than here. This situation is partly due to a much more developed insurance system, when the introduction of a TSB from a reputable global manufacturer can, in addition to solving specialized problems, also significantly reduce the cost of insuring the facility, saving the customer significant funds.
Evgeny KIN:
In my opinion, in Russia and the post-Soviet countries, manufacturers and suppliers of TSB equipment have virtually no opportunity to engage in so-called direct sales. That is, the option when a manufacturer or distributor of one or another TSB equipment «comes in from the street», for example, to a large domestic raw materials company or to the office of the Russian representative office of any large food producer, bank, chain store and concludes a direct contract with the management of this company for the supply of TSB equipment, looks, at the very least, fabulous.
Usually, the head of the customer company's security service chooses from those offers of security equipment that land on his desk from the company (or group of companies) that services this customer both in terms of security systems and, most likely, in terms of a number of other systems over a certain period of time. In essence, our market, unlike the Western market of direct sales, is a market of service companies. Companies of this kind usually have their permanent representatives at the customer's site (if it is very large) or are in constant contact with its representatives, performing, in addition to installing the necessary security equipment, its full warranty service at the site. They are the ones who can dictate to the supplier of security equipment what items the latter should constantly keep in its warehouse, they are the ones who issue assignments for the development of the required software part of the security system.
Of course, service companies are not a know-how from Russia. It's just that, unlike the Western market, where both approaches are successfully used, the option with direct sales in Russia, I repeat, practically does not work.
Question for discussion
Why does such a criterion as the cost of owning a system practically not work in Russia?
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
At the moment, the particle «not» in the question is becoming smaller and smaller. I suggest considering this issue from the point of view of organizations that have to perform maintenance of security systems within the very (!) modest funds allocated by the customer. In other words, the cost of ownership has already been determined by the customer (based, sometimes, on very strange premises), — be so kind as to perform the entire range of necessary work.
Which specialist should be sent on request? What should be taken from the replacement fund? How to estimate the time required for repairs at the site? Now imagine how many sites can be visited per day, if we are talking about a large city? Taking into account traffic jams, a maximum of two or three. And what if this is not a city, but a region the size of Krasnoyarsk Krai, where distances are measured in thousands of kilometers. And how to fit into a microscopic budget for maintenance?
The only way to perform maintenance in good faith is to use the latest generation of addressable security systems. Only they can, for example, indicate the exact address of a faulty sensor, predict the time of the next maintenance, and most importantly, notify about it not only locally, but also centrally – to any point in the world. Only they are optimal in terms of cost of ownership.
Alexey GINTSE:
I think the whole point is that it is very difficult to obtain any data on this issue. The issue is closely tied to the problem of objectivity of statistical data, which few of us like to share, much less officially publish. Suppliers rarely provide them, and this is partly due to the fact that the customer almost never asks about it. Like, why bother if the information is not interesting to the customer and does not affect his decision-making.
For our customer, a positive review from business colleagues who have practical experience in operating a specific TSB will be much more significant.
Evgeny KIN:
Perhaps some will be surprised, but this criterion, in my opinion, is not very popular abroad either. At the last annual seminar for business partners of our company, which was held at the headquarters in Holland, the issue of taking into account the cost criterion when preparing an offer for the customer was given special attention. Specific examples were used to demonstrate the possibility of reducing the overall costs of owning a latest-generation system. A special refrain at the seminar was the idea that, unfortunately, very few of the company's partners use this criterion when working with the end customer.
In Russia, this practice has not become widespread, probably due to the fact that the customer's representatives who make decisions about installing a particular system at a facility and the representatives of the same customer who will subsequently have to operate this TSB are often not in close contact with each other. And the initiator of calculating the cost of ownership, in my opinion, should be the customer. It is obvious that the TSB equipment supplier and the servicing company will undertake these calculations on their own initiative only if the expected result turns out to be beneficial for them.
Question for discussion
Price/quality ratio. Is expensive equipment always truly reliable? And, conversely, is cheap equipment always bad? Which component does the Russian customer focus on first of all?
Vyacheslav TESAKOV:
Most often, the price of equipment corresponds to the quality. With one exception: equipment for video surveillance systems — here such a criterion is not always met. Cheap equipment often works well, but not very reliably. The probability of operation, the number of errors — is higher, the quality of the video image — is worse. It can be used at facilities with a low degree of responsibility, where the security system plays more of a deterrent role than a guard. The Russian customer is guided in a peculiar way. If it is a private facility, then the equipment is selected according to the «price/quality» criterion. If it is departmental or state, then either strictly according to the project, or according to the «senior ordered» principle. Designers most often choose the equipment that they are used to designing, they are interested in reliability secondarily, their task is to comply with the standards. And if there are no standards, then they are ready to design anything.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
Undoubtedly, the Russian market is very sensitive to such a parameter as «price». But I am sure that for the customer the determining factor is not the price of a separate box, but the price of a «turnkey» solution. In other words, the following amount: cost of equipment + cost of installation + time of decommissioning of the facility (and therefore lost profit) + cost of maintenance + the possibility of expansion in the future.
Of course, you can pay a little for the equipment, but then pay twice for installation, lose money due to the facility being idle (for example, a hotel), and continually bring the unviable back to life. And many of our partners have found the necessary optimum «total price/quality».
Alexey GINTSE:
I won't be afraid to repeat: a normal customer is guided, first of all, by the ability of the proposed equipment to solve his problems. If they are effectively solved with the help of cheap equipment, it will be quite logical to use it (which is what most customers will do). It is more difficult when the issue can be solved only with the help of expensive TSB. In this case, a balance of interests begins: how much the customer is ready to pay for solving his problems, taking into account their number and complexity. Sometimes the customer reduces the number of «wants» to a certain reasonable limit, allowing him to fit into the available budget.
If you answer the question directly, then of course there is high-quality cheap equipment and low-quality expensive equipment, but if the customer expects to solve a large and complex problem using low-budget equipment, he will most likely leave empty-handed, or will find additional funds to purchase powerful multifunctional (and expensive) equipment.
I would like to make a small lyrical digression and give an example. In the course of my work, communicating with many partners in different cities, I receive information about the practice of using equipment from a well-known and popular manufacturer operating in the low price segment to build integrated security systems (ISS) at large enterprises. Equally unflattering comments from installers are not taken into account — customers continue to demand this equipment because it is cheap, and no other arguments about the potential «headache» are considered by them.
This does not mean that this equipment is bad — it means that there is a scale and complexity of the task, which the ISS either corresponds to or does not. Of course, you can take part in circuit racing in a Zaporozhets, citing the lack of funds from the team to buy a racing car, but no one does this, because the result is known in advance.
Evgeny KIN:
Of course, the high price of TSB equipment in most cases also determines its high level of quality. Although there are exceptions. Expensive new-model equipment from «pilot» lots may initially not correspond to the general level of brand reliability. But serious manufacturing companies usually quickly eliminate this difference. In addition, equipment of a certain price range can often be more expensive than its «classmates» due to the lack of the necessary technologies and production capacities by its manufacturer, as well as the demand in the market for high-quality, mass and therefore lower-cost production. Unfortunately, domestic manufacturers are often guilty of this, and are not limited to the TSB market.
Question for discussion
«Consult with professionals» — this recommendation to customers has become a common place in the advertising products of the TSB market. Do they consult? To what extent can an installer or seller influence the customer's choice?
Vyacheslav TESAKOV:
The answer is short — if the customer is ready to listen to the advice of the seller or installer! Quite often, he already has his own opinion, this from the advice of «friends», and he asks for «appearance». Convincing the customer is a troublesome and thankless task, he subconsciously believes that they are simply trying to sell him equipment at a higher price. In our country, everyone understands everything. This is a big problem.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
They advise and consult. Without maintaining constant eye-to-eye contact, it is impossible to survive in our rapidly changing world. Is it possible to influence the customer's choice? Of course, there would be a desire and ability!
Alexey GINTSE:
It all depends on the customer's mentality. If he is absolutely sure (no matter whether reasonably or unjustifiably) of his own qualifications, then no «advice from a professional» will help. Most people still listen to advice, especially if it comes from an authoritative specialist. A competent installer and seller is a valuable resource, which in most cases customers use «as intended». An experienced professional communicating with the customer is also a psychologist who can always smoothly lead the partner to a competent decision, even if the customer initially had a different opinion. If he cannot correctly influence the customer's choice, then, most likely, after a series of unsuccessful projects, he will drop out of the race, acquiring a negative reputation. Appeals to the customer like: «well, you asked for this yourself» do not work for long.
Evgeny KIN:
In my opinion, in most cases, when choosing a TSB, the customer will stop at an offer received from a company with which he previously had a positive experience of communication. It can be said that large customers look at the TSB market through the eyes of their service companies. In other words, the customer chooses from what is offered to him by representatives of those companies (including installers and sellers) whose choice he trusts and can clearly imagine the entire cycle of work in the field of choosing a particular TSB solution from the moment of purchasing equipment to its launch in operating mode at the site. How professional and objective the opinion of these «close persons» is — a question for a separate article. But the general picture with large customers looks exactly like this.
Question for discussion
Does the market always form truly high-quality offers? That is, sellers offer the best price/quality ratio, installers have the knowledge and training necessary for installation, etc. If you assess the situation rather negatively, how, in your opinion, can the problem be solved?
Vyacheslav TESAKOV:
Of course, everyone acts as their conscience tells them. Both sellers and installers. There are many stories. For example, we often formulate high-quality proposals, which people then take around the city asking to do the same, but cheaper. And you know, they find them. True, the quality is not always maintained, but it is definitely cheaper. This problem can be solved in only one way: by creating professional communities. So that they include those who are responsible for their words. And secondly, it is necessary to insure objects without fail, so that in case of problems the insurance company can ask those who installed, who designed, who recommended. Two or three precedents and a lot will change.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
The market is people, and people are by nature quite inert. We get used to using standard solutions, we have no time to raise our heads and look around in search of something qualitatively new. However, the events of the last year and a half have shaken many. No one wants to repeat the fate of the dinosaurs, for whom the signal from the tail to the brain and back went so slowly that they had time to eat the tail.
Installation organizations – the main “movers” and “brakes” of our industry – are forced to look for new ways to build a sustainable system for their business in order to meet the client’s requirements both qualitatively and on time, using a relatively small staff of professional personnel. Qualified personnel, knowledgeable, searching.
Based on my personal experience of traveling around Russia, I assess the situation optimistically. We are lucky, we work with professionals and for high-level professionals.
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