The recent launch of the Australian Axis Experience Centre (AEC) saw the who’s who in systems integration and electronic security gather in Melbourne to tour this state-of-the-art facility.
Unlike any other facility of its kind, the AEC is much more than just a showroom; it is, as the name implies, an ‘experience’ for both systems integrators and their customers alike.
To help better understand the value of the new AXIS AEC, we spoke with several of the region’s leading systems integrators to get their thoughts regarding how the AEC differs from other facilities, the value it brings to their organisations, and how it is helping them solve real-world challenges for their customers.
According to Andre van Duiven, Managing Director at Sektor New Zealand, “Everyone has a demo room of sorts, but this goes well beyond a simple demo room. What strikes me immediately is the entire process that Axis has created that sits behind and supports the experience centre. This includes things like the ability to collect customer information, then send customers the relevant components of a demo directly following their experience in the AEC and so on. There’s a whole system here. It’s not just a hall to showcase flashy products. It is more of a journey.
Danny Berkovic, Country President at Securitas Australia, adds “it is also good to have a facility like this that brings a new level of professionalism to the security industry.
In designing and building the AEC, Wai King Wong, one of the driving forces behind the Melbourne Axis Experience Centre and Regional Director at Axis, stated that “It was important for us to create a facility that wasn’t just product-focused. We set out to create something that provided our partners and their customers with a solutions-based approach to tackling today’s complex security challenges.”
According to Paul Sims, National Sales Manager at JD Security, “The solutions-based approach Axis has adopted is really important. Not all customers understand security, so they sometimes overestimate or even underestimate what can be achieved. The ability to walk them through different scenarios tailored to their exact needs, using a facility such as this, allows us to paint a picture of exactly what is possible and then demonstrate that solution to them. This is something that hasn’t existed on this scale before. Creating a facility like the AEC, and making it available to businesses like ours, so we can bring our customers in and show them what we are talking about, how it works, what it can do, and find out if it meets their expectations takes a significant amount of risk out of our work while greatly improving customer outcomes.
Andre van Duiven adds, “I also love the way that Axis has made it industry-specific. Regardless of whether the customer is in healthcare, parking, retail, aviation, or data management, we, as systems integrators, now have the ability to show the customer only what they need to see, tailored to their specific security challenge, and then walk away from that demonstration with a very clear understanding around the business benefits that the technology’s delivering for that industry and customer.”
Andre continues, “A very important part of our role as a systems integrator is to convince customers about the benefits of new technology and show how that tech can enhance their business. You can talk about it until the cows come home, but this experience center enables you to demonstrate what you are talking about. That is a significant benefit for my business. The benefit for our customers is that it enables them to better understand the value they’re going to get from this technology. Furthermore, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this experience takes a lot of the risk out of the decision for them. They have seen the technology in action. They have a better understanding of its capabilities, limitations, features and functions. It becomes less scary and makes the decision process easier.”
“I couldn’t agree more”, states Dean Monaghan. “I’ve never seen a product that doesn’t work on the PDF. But the real world is a different story. So when a customer can touch and feel a product and put it through its paces, it definitely de-risks the decision for them.”
“I see it slightly differently in terms of the value for us”, states Danny Berkovic of Securitas. The market Axis represents is very competitive. We choose to work with Axis because of the quality and the reliability of the product. To that end, we are often justifying to our clients why we give preference to or why we work with high-quality products like Axis because they aren’t always the cheapest. Quite simply, it’s because we’re examining the total cost of ownership. Initiatives like the Axis Experience Centre really help us demonstrate that value to the client upfront. And the breadth of products on display, as well as the depth of the display, allows us to showcase the value of that brand to the client. It helps them understand what they’re getting as well as how it works, how the integrations come together, et cetera. What we really want to show the customer is that, in the long term, the money that they may spend upfront, which is a small premium in the grand scheme, often results in long term or larger savings.
“For me, one of the biggest benefits of the Axis Experience Centre is the ability to show customers how we can help them solve real-world challenges” states Andre van Duiven of Sektor.
Axis have such a depth and breadth of use cases they can draw upon, both from overseas and locally. This gives them an ability beyond most other companies in this market to demonstrate the real-world applications of their products. Those use-cases that you see in the Experience Centre take our customers on a journey that parallels their own challenges in many ways. It means the customer doesn’t have to translate what you saying, they can see it and understand it for themselves.”
Of course, while the new Axis Experience Centre is a milestone in security planning and design, the value Axis brings to its customers goes well beyond just the AEC.
“Having a relationship with an organization like Axis provides two very important benefits to our organization” states Danny Berkovic. “Firstly, there is the quality and reliability of the product they produce, which is very, very important to us. Secondly, it has never been more important to have a relationship, a close relationship, with good suppliers, like Axis, than when we’ve been experiencing supply chain interruptions like we have in recent years. And I don’t feel those supply chain issues are going to be resolved in the near term or immediate term.”
“This doesn’t mean that Axis can necessarily work miracles that other suppliers can’t, but we’ve had very good experiences with them and what do get is very good transparency and reliability. If we know what to expect, we can deal with that. But that transparency requires a lot of trust and open communication. I think the culture at Axis has proven itself to be one of trust built on reliable, honest communication.”
According to Dean Monaghan, “from our perspective at Convergint, there are two important reasons why our relationship with a strategic partner like Axis is important. Firstly, the channel, to me, is of equal importance to the quality. We’ve been a partner of Axis for 20 years. Cameras get smarter, better, cheaper but the channel remains extremely loyal and strong. Throughout all that has happened in recent years, they haven’t wavered. The commercial channel Axis brings to our organization is easily as valuable as the product itself.
Secondly, the emphasis Axis puts on cyber security cannot be understated, especially in today’s environment.
Paul Sims agrees stating “Without a doubt Axis has added a lot of value to our business in addition to being extremely involved in what we are doing. They’ve made us better as a company in a variety of ways and so when internally, whenever we discuss our decision to partner with Axis, we are in no doubt that we have made the right decision.
For more information visit https://www.axis.com/en-au/axis-experience-center
