Four Questions That Prevent Buyer’s Remorse On Mobile Security

A mobile security system can look flawless in a proposal and still disappoint once it is running in the field. The spec sheet says one thing, and a cold January says another. By then the budget is spent, the site is exposed, and someone has to explain what went wrong.

Most buyer’s remorse in this category comes from questions that were never asked. Vendors naturally lead with their best numbers, and the first answer you get is usually the easiest one for them to give. The fix is to ask the second and third question. Four areas deserve those follow-ups: uptime, repair, integration, and cybersecurity.

Uptime: What Counts As Up?

Start by asking how the vendor defines uptime. Some count a unit as up if any single device is online, even when three out of four cameras are down. That number looks good and tells you very little, because what matters is whether the cameras watching your site are working.

A better question is what the uptime is with every device running. Then look hard at the figure itself. If a vendor quotes 99.9% for units in the field, ask whether that is cloud or unit uptime, and ask to see fleet data.

Ask for a full year of history, including January and February. Less sun makes those months the hardest for solar-powered units, and a chart that shows only June proves very little. The stakes are high. A system with 70% uptime is down about 110 days a year, which means more than three months of missed alerts and unwatched sites.

LVT (LiveView Technologies) counts a unit as up only when every device on it is up. Across a fleet of more than 15,000 units, from northern Canada and Alaska to the southern U.S. border, LVT® Units are capable of maintaining 96%+ uptime over 365 days.

Repair: Who Fixes It, And How Fast?

Every deployed unit will eventually need hands-on attention. Plan on a work order within about six months of deployment, whichever vendor you choose. What differs is how many problems need a technician and how long the repairs take.

Ask who does the field work: in-house technicians or a service partner. If it is a partner, ask about the service level agreement. That partner also serves other companies, so repair windows can stretch to several days and in many cases weeks. Then ask for the vendor’s mean time to repair (MTTR) and ask to see the data behind it.

Also ask what happens before a technician is dispatched. Some systems send someone to a site just to power-cycle a camera. Software that corrects common faults at the edge can resolve many incidents without a visit, and it keeps working when connectivity is lost.

In LVT’s fleet, a unit averages about three serious incidents a year that need human attention. Self-healing software on each unit handles the large majority of incidents on its own. Mean time to recovery is about 0.7 days when no work order is needed and about 13 days when a technician has to go out. 

Integration: Can It Work With What You Already Have?

Vendor lock rarely announces itself. It shows up as a requirement to use proprietary hardware, software integrations that all run through the vendor, and data that flows into the platform with no way back out. Ask three questions: Can I use the hardware I already own? Can I use the viewers, analytics, and response services I prefer? Does data move in both directions?

Two-way data matters because no single vendor solves every problem. You will connect other systems, and those systems need to exchange information. A platform that only takes data in is a closed system, whatever the brochure says.

LVT is open. Customers can use LVT as the viewing endpoint or choose a partner for that role. LVT works with partner viewers, AI analytics, real-time crime centers, and alert response services, and its partners share data in both directions.

Openness only works if it is secure. LVT invests heavily in cyber security and follows industry best practices to protect the systems and video that customers entrust to us. And because customers own their data, they decide what is shared, with whom, and for how long. 

Cybersecurity: What If The Device Is The Way In?

It is natural to assume a vendor made security its top priority. Ask anyway. When a unit connects over cellular, an IT team may decide it is not their network and therefore not their problem. The risk is still yours.

Two kinds of attack matter. In a device compromise, an attacker takes control of a trusted device and moves sideways to reach what they really want. Cameras and other internet devices are among the easiest to compromise, which makes them useful doors. 

Ask how the vendor keeps a device from being taken over or from reaching out to a bad actor. Ask how data is separated and protected and who monitors the network. Treat security as if it’s not there until you have seen it.

LVT uses a three-boundary architecture. Edge units connect to a private communications network that LVT operates, with its own subnetting, routing, and monitoring. That network connects to a private cloud where LVT’s services run, and the public internet is a third, separate boundary. LVT can see traffic on its network and control what goes to and from the internet, an approach designed to address both device compromise and data theft.

Ask The Next Question

None of these questions is hard to ask. The discipline is asking a second one when the first answer sounds good. Ask for definitions, and ask to see data.

Sign up for a demo and see if you qualify for a risk-free trial. For a checklist to take into your next vendor conversation, download the LVT Buyer’s Guide.