Unlocking the Future of Physical Security with PhySaaS – Josh Dickinson's Journey
Join us for an enlightening episode of The Wireless Way with Josh Dickinson, leader at PhySaaS (Physical Security as a Service). Hear about Josh's entrepreneurial journey, from starting in telecom at 16 to co-founding multiple successful companies. Learn about PhySaaS’s unique approach to physical security, incorporating advanced AI and Verkada hardware into a turnkey solution for businesses. Josh details the state of the security industry, the importance of integrating physical security into cybersecurity, and practical advice for partners looking to enhance their offerings. With engaging insights on market trends, customer profiles, and the ROI of security solutions, this episode is a must-watch for tech enthusiasts and business leaders alike. Don't miss out on Josh's unique perspective and invaluable advice!
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:38 Josh Dickinson's Career Journey
02:48 Founding PhySaaS
04:21 Understanding PhySaaS and Its Offerings
06:00 State of the Security Industry
10:20 AI Integration in Security Solutions
12:24 Event Highlights and Industry Insights
15:22 Access Control and Compliance
17:13 Innovative Security Solutions: License Plate Reading Cameras
17:30 Integrating Access Control Systems with Emerging Technologies
18:18 Partner Profiles: How to Sell Security Solutions
18:42 Six-Step Process for Simplifying Security Sales
21:01 Maximizing ROI and Overcoming Security Challenges
24:57 Trends in Security: New Builds vs. Existing Structures
29:11 The Importance of Managed Security Solutions
30:31 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of The Wireless Way.
I'm grateful that you're here.
I'm grateful for my guest, JoshDickinson.
He's the leader, at PhySaaSPhysical Security as a service.
A little bit about him before webring him on.
He's an entrepreneur at heart.
Let's get that outta the way.
This guy is a businessman andloves and as a heart for the
(00:21):
channel.
Successfully helped start twoseparate companies and taking
them all the way to market.
If you've ever done that, andmost of you that are trusted
advisors, you know what that'slike.
You started your company, someof you have been doing it for a
long time.
Some of you're just starting, soI think you're gonna really
enjoy this conversation.
The throw behind starting acompany, building it, shaping
it, evolving it to fit the needsof partners and agents, and then
(00:44):
continue grinding until there'sa real company with efficient
processes.
Important word processes andjust as important products that
make impacts and a value that'sproven.
That is what drives him.
And if anyone that knows JoshDickenson will be nodding their
head right now going, yep,that's the Josh I know.
After being in the channel for,or for 20 years the channel is
(01:06):
his passion.
I think you can see that.
If you don't know Josh you'llpick up on that today in this
conversation.
Josh, welcome to the show.
I'm glad we were able to getthis lined up and meet today.
josh (01:18):
I really appreciate you having me.
I can't wait to share kind ofthe story behind Fi.
And the security of as a wholein general?
Chris (01:24):
No, that's it's, I feel like it's such an overlooked
area, but yet such a criticalarea and has been for a long
time.
Before we get to that though,tell us a little bit more about
you, man.
What's not the bio and how didyou get here?
josh (01:37):
Yeah.
I started my telecom, my, my it,whatever you wanna call it,
career.
When I was 16 years old, the dayI turned 16, I walked into
M-C-I-M-C-I world com.
I was, by the time I was still16 or before I was ever 17, I
was promoted to a supervisorrunning a top five team in the
country for the next four years.
Slinging long distance.
So you have at and t paying at15 cents a minute, 5 95 monthly
(02:00):
fee.
I have 2 95, 5 cents a minute.
Four free blockbusters.
Stay on a line.
So doing all the long distancestuff back in the day.
Went from there to a softwarecompany, built that up.
Took off to Real Links, whichwas a small MSP aggregator.
Was there for about 12 years.
I was still channel focused.
And then from there they soldoff to GTT and my partners and I
(02:21):
started Hyper Core networks,which was another MSP
aggregator, which turned into aworldwide, aggregation company
that got sold to Nitel.
And even at Hyper Core the lastsix months, we were working on a
security, me a security product.
Because there's a hole in thechannel.
It's a huge miss as far asopportunity there.
Just because it's the samedecision makers anymore, the
(02:42):
same people that make thedecision on a telecom side or
the same people that make thatdecision on the security side.
'cause it's all cloud-basedanymore.
So started PhySaaS with JohnReed and John Page.
He's our part, my partners inthis.
And so it is been a fun ride.
It's completely different fromthe hyper core.
Hyper core is verytransactional, very easy as far
as just the process goes.
(03:04):
This is still the same.
It's just a little bit morecumbersome.
It's a real solution sale versusjust a transactional.
Here's your price.
Which one do you want?
Chris (03:12):
Nah.
That makes a lot of sense.
Going back to when you were 16,e even before that, did you ever
consider yourself a techie?
josh (03:19):
Oh no.
So I'm not the gadget techiedetail person.
I'm a big picture.
I don't own tools.
I don't own hammers orscrewdriver in my house.
Like I don't like.
Details I details are for, to,for someone else to figure out.
I like big picture.
I like the process.
I like the figuring out how,what's missing, how do we bring
it together type of environment.
(03:40):
So no, I don't own tools.
I'm not techie.
I'm more of the sales talk topeople, relationship person.
Chris (03:46):
There's a lot to be said about that, and that makes a lot
of sense that you're thisentrepreneur guy.
'cause big picture, it is hardto be a big picture guy if
you're stuck down in the depthsof the details.
And you need both.
That's why I think your partnerwith some really sharp, smart
guys that, have that skill settoo.
But yeah, that everywhere yougo.
There's, yeah, gosh, I might getjumped on by the Apple people.
I thought, Steve Jobs he hadWozniak or whatever his name
(04:08):
was, Steve Wozniak or, he wasmore the engineer.
Steve Jobs couldn't build aniPhone, if you put a gun to his
head, but he knew what he wantedit to do, he knew what the
outcome was supposed to be like.
And that, that's really cool,man.
So let's jump to the topic athand.
PhySaaS, there's a lot of as ofservice acronyms out there, and
it's really unique that youguys, incorporated into the
company name.
(04:29):
So tell me more about FI SaaSand then, when you're done with
that, I'd like to learn a littlebit more about state of the
security industry.
josh (04:36):
So PhySaaS itself, physical security as a service,
as you stated?
Basically what we've done iswe've taken all of the Verkada
products.
We are the only Verkada MSP outthere, so all the Verkada
hardware, the licensing.
We basically take all of thatand we turn it into an opex
model.
We amortize it across the courseof a term of traditionally three
or five years.
(04:57):
We add some management piecesinto it basically making it a
turnkey solution for thecustomer.
We have six easy steps to take'em from start to finish.
We project manage and we doeverything along the way for'em.
We've revised our process andrevised our process over and
over again to make it extremelysimple on partners.
Taking that customer and justmaking'em feel secure,
understanding what theirproblems are, what they're
(05:19):
trying to solve for, and then wealways have a solution.
So if you're not familiar withRicotta itself, ricotta's the
only platform out there thatbrings your cameras, your doors,
your alarm monitoring.
Your panic buttons, your airquality sensors, your guest
management and brings it under asingle paned glass.
So if you think about yourtraditional, if your home
environment, you have a app foryour ring doorbell, an app for
(05:41):
your garage door opener, an appfor your a DT, you have a dog or
a tiger somewhere in your house,you have a safe, none of that
stuff.
Talks, communicates, integratesthe Frita system, it all pulls
everything together so you canhave visibility and.
Day, all your locations, all thedifferent solutions right
through at your fingertips.
And then going into the state ofthe industry as far as security.
(06:05):
75% of companies right now placephysical security as one of
their foremost priorities.
Over the last five years, 60% ofcompanies having counter
breaches of some kind of sort inthat physical security world.
So whether it's somebody being,something being stolen, whether
it.
An employee being harassed,something along those lines.
And the average cost of securityis about a hundred thousand
(06:25):
dollars every single time.
That's just the average cost.
So you have costs that are waymore expensive, you have costs
less, obviously, but for ahundred thousand dollars every
as the average, that gets prettyexpensive, especially if you're
in a, an area that's gonnacontinue to get vandalized or
continue to get broken into.
So that's really where PhySaaScomes into play is we're making
(06:45):
it easier for that customer tobuy easier for that partner to
be able to sell into and expandtheir portfolio with that, make
it more sticky.
And the product itself is secondto none.
Just the technology itself.
Chris (06:57):
And five.
SAS has been around for a coupleyears now.
Right?
josh (07:01):
Yeah, actually two weeks from now will be two year
anniversary June 1st.
So yeah, so we're off to theraces.
65% of our customers aremulti-location.
I think it's going back to theexact same reason I just said is
that it's bringing everythingtogether from all aspects, but
at the same time, the managementover the top customers don't
have that.
That management group anymore,that security team to be able to
(07:23):
manage everything.
So we do everything start tofinish.
We do free truck rolls even,right?
So we're monitoring the camerasfor up, down, the camera's down
for 15 minutes.
We automatically open a troubleticket, communicate with that
customer, and then start thattruck roll process so that way
they have that shortenedliability.
And it's a 10 year hardwarewarranty with ricotta also, so
there's no over the top costs.
(07:44):
Later on.
There's no gotchas.
They only pay what they paymonthly and everything else is
included.
Chris (07:49):
Wow, that's fantastic.
And that's where it's all going,man.
It's everything as a service.
It's a subscription model, it'smanaged services, so that's
right in line with where a lotof the rest of the channel is
going.
And these nearly two years, I'msure you've been on numerous
discovery calls, as youmentioned, multiple deals closed
with large multi-sites.
(08:09):
Is there a common thread thatyou just, you hear on every call
or, in terms of a trend maybewith the end user?
Is the commons, are the problemscommon or do you feel like it's
all over the map on why peopleneed your service?
I.
josh (08:24):
There's probably three or four main areas that people are
trying to secure, or there'sthree or four different things
people are trying to solve forwhether it's protecting their
people.
I.
Protecting their assets,protecting their property.
It's normally one of those threethings.
When you protect your people,they feel more secure, they have
better productivity, they wantto be at work.
Obviously protecting your assetsin your property, that's money
(08:47):
out the door one way or theother.
Otherwise.
So that normally falls into oneof those three buckets.
Chris (08:53):
Goodness.
And that makes a lot of sensetoo.
And I'm, I'm thinking if I'm apartner listening right now
that, that makes sense.
But is there, it almost seemslike it's not really, I.
Necessarily industry or verticalspecific all those things exist
all throughout business, but areyou seeing is there any sweet
spots that you feel like if fora partner, if they have this
(09:13):
vertical in their portfolio,they should just go after it?
Are you seeing any trends therein terms of the profile or the
type of customer.
josh (09:21):
Yeah, some, it seems to fall in that mid-level to
enterprise level customermulti-location, as I mentioned,
is a huge aspect of it.
'cause instead of them having.
Four different apps perbuilding.
It brings everything under thesingle pane of glass.
So that seems to be a big trend.
But we'll do, a two, two camerasfor a gas station, or we'll do
160 cameras for a manufacturingwarehouse.
(09:44):
As far as niches, cardealerships seem to be a big
thing right now.
HOAs, nursing homes they allseem to be parts of groups of,
pE money or whatever the caseis, where they have multiple
locations, they have the moneyto be able to spend, but they
also wanna make sure everythingis secure to protect their
property and their people.
I mentioned HOAs healthcareclinics.
(10:05):
Right now we're installing a 30site healthcare clinic in Texas.
So really it's thatmulti-location.
That suite supply's probably twoto 30, 40 locations
realistically.
But we could definitely handlemore than 40 sites depending on
what the customer has.
Chris (10:20):
You, another buzzword that's hot right now is ai.
How does AI play in thissolution is there any components
of ai?
josh (10:28):
Oh, then it is, it's completely full of ai.
So the guy that created Merakiback in the day, the old COO,
when they sold off to Cisco, heactually is the founder of ada.
So the SaaS model, thetechnology, the ai, it's very
prevalent.
Whenever you're looking at thecommand portal or the back
office is ability to dosearches, right?
You can do a search for each.
All white vehicles, whiteelectric vehicles that are non
(10:51):
Prius.
Show me everybody that's wearinga red shirt and a backpack.
One of the new features thatjust came out is safety goggles.
Like you can actually do checksfor or show me all the people
that are not wearing safetygoggles or are wearing safety
goggles or safety vests or hardhats.
So it gets into thatconstruction and that kind of
safety manufacturing area atthat point.
(11:13):
So it's all built intointegrated.
One of the coolest things aboutVerkada's product, if you tie it
together a door and a camera, isyou can actually get tailgating
alerts, which, no, no one elseout there offers this.
So if one person swipes theirbadge and three people enter,
you get a text on the spot.
So proactively, you have peoplein your building versus kind of
the traditional model of youdon't know until you do.
(11:34):
So it's that kind of stuff thatmakes super proactive in the
experience as far as, thesecurity itself.
You can also upload facesproactively.
So if you have a person thatcomes on site constantly causing
damage or harm you can actuallyupload their face up
proactively.
That person comes on any of yourlocations, you get a text on the
spot.
(11:54):
So think disgruntled employeesor disgruntled comp customers
that may just go site to sitevandalizing, you can know ahead
of time when, as soon as they'reon site.
Chris (12:03):
Mean, so it's definitely a proactive approach.
For years, security cameras werethere as a deterrent.
I think a lot of'em, I forgotthe stat, a lot of'em sometimes
don't even work.
Of course, no one sitsphysically watching in most
cases.
Yeah.
And when an event does happen,it may take hours and hours, if
not days, to go find the eventdepending on how far back it
was.
So I.
josh (12:23):
Oh, absolutely.
Chris (12:24):
I love that you guys had a a fantastic event a month or
so ago at the Isabella StewartGardner Museum and yeah, if
you're listening, you haven'tseen the Netflix show.
This is a robbery.
It, talks about the 1990 theftwhere some bad guys broke in.
Basically, I stole some, highdollar paintings and it was such
(12:44):
a neat venue.
One, it was a beautifulbuilding.
It's the history of the buildingand Isabella Stewart Gardner
herself.
It's just amazing.
But the story's amazing.
And of course, the whole idea ofthe event was around ADA and via
SA and security and had a greatpanel.
What, how did, yeah, anyfeedback from that?
How did that go for you guys?
Did you feel like that was timewell spent?
josh (13:04):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
We, if you, the story itself,like you said, 35 years ago, a
bunch of Rembrandts were stolenand they were never solved for,
so they're still out there tothis day and they know who stole
'em, but they don't know wherethe paintings are.
So it's an incredible story whenyou actually dig in and figure
out where, who stole'em, howthey actually did it.
There's a lot of differentmysteries still behind it, how
they even got the paintings out.
(13:25):
So yeah, it's a really coolstory.
If you've never seen that
Chris (13:28):
Yep.
josh (13:29):
But to answer your question, yeah.
The panel itself was veryinformative.
We had the, I think the Bostonchief of the fire department
there talking about it.
The state of Massachusettspublic ser safety commissioner
was there on the panel as well.
So they were, gave a lot of goodinformation about kind of the
state of the business and howthey use Veta to keep their
(13:50):
sites and the convention centersproactively taken care
Chris (13:53):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That, yeah.
The convention center use casewas pretty amazing.
And you, and the one that kindof, I think could easily sneak
by you, even for the audience.
I wonder how many people caughtit, but the, there was I dunno
if he was a CIO or the IT leaderfor a major law firm was talking
about even employee identity andprotecting,'cause and law.
There's a lot of physicalevidence in terms of, papers and
(14:14):
files and he was just talkingabout how they, they have an
obligation to their clients tomake sure all this, this actual
evidence, whatever issafeguarded.
And it's always interesting too,and, cybersecurity is such a big
buzz word, but if you don't, a,an element of cybersecurity risk
could be the physical securityof the facility.
Someone can, in the spot moviesall the time, right?
Someone sneaks in and puts a USBdrive and the server and now
(14:37):
they have access to everything.
It's neat how you see this themerging of it.
So I would think it seems like ano-brainer if you're a partner
and you're selling cybersecurityor you're having cybersecurity
conversations.
It's just one more question.
Hey, let's talk about physicalsecurity.
How what's your plan there?
Is that, is, do you see thatcorrelation?
josh (14:53):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Cybersecurity versus physicalsecurity you're protecting
something.
Whether you're.
I your data or you're protectingyour people or your property,
your assets, that's the point ofsecurity is to protect it.
And going what you mentioned aswell, to get your cybersecurity
insurance, you have to be soughtto compliant.
In order to be sought tocompliant, you have to have
access control.
So it all ties together as awhole, one way or another in
(15:15):
order to get insurance, in orderto keep your people property
safe and protected.
So it all comes back fullcircle.
Chris (15:22):
Yeah let's dig in on that a little bit.
You mentioned it gets, to bestock two compliant, you have to
have access controls.
Give us some examples of whatyou can do there.
josh (15:31):
Access control is just your door readers, right?
You walk up to any building oryou're at a hotel and you use
your card in your door, or youuse a card on a card reader
that's access control.
So it's basically controllingwho has.
Access to that environment?
What time of day, what meanswhat doors?
So you're basically protectingall your information, your
(15:52):
property, specific times of dayset by specific people.
With access control with us, youcan use Bluetooth.
So you don't necessarily have tohave a key fob.
With a key fob, I can hand itoff to my buddy Chris, and Chris
could then drop it and somebodynamed Bob could pick it up and
then.
Now you have full access to thebuilding, whereas my with
Bluetooth on your phone I don'tlet my phone out of my site.
(16:13):
I don't give it off to anybody.
It's it's my information.
So it's a lot more secure thanhaving that key fob that could
be dropped or stolen or handedoff.
I.
Chris (16:21):
You even seen in, a lot of the hotels in a big Marriott
guy.
That digital key, on the phoneis, I'd rather have that.
Yeah, you're not gonna losethat.
I lose the keys all the time.
I felt have you seen, I've heardsome use cases too around, going
back to AI and facialrecognition.
Could the of service, tap into,the HR database, API and have
the employee headshots there andrecognize someone and unlock the
(16:44):
door from that perspective, isthat an option?
josh (16:47):
That's not an option yet.
That's it's, I believe that'sreally close.
I know that's been requestedover and over again and every.
Two to three months Verkadareleases new products and new
firmware updates that have justthat cooler and newer stuff
involved.
The last firmware update was theability for the safety goggles
and the vest and all that stuff.
The release prior to thatallowed face blurring for HIPAA
(17:10):
environments or in schoolenvironments for minors.
One of the other releases wasthe.
LPR cameras, the license platereading cameras can actually
open and close security gatesoutside your property now as
well.
So lots of different things asfar, and that goes back to
access control as well.
But lots of different ways.
It intertwines.
Chris (17:29):
No, that makes a lot of sense.
No, I figure that's a part ofthat emerging technology.
Because essentially.
And almost every case, right?
Those are two different systems.
The access control system was avendor by a certain brand,
right?
And then your cameras are a, aDT or somebody else if they're
not Rico at yet.
So yeah, those sy it's notuncommon that they're not
talking even today.
So the fact that's on theroadmap, I think that's a huge,
(17:50):
that's a huge thing.
And I was talking to one othersecurity expert.
He goes yeah, but what ifsomeone.
It prints off a picture of yourface and holds that up to the
camera.
And I thought that's, yeah, Iguess that's, I guess that could
happen, so maybe that's not evenfoolproof.
Although, if the camera's smartenough to tell 1D versus three
3D mean, I'm sure that's maybethe component.
(18:10):
They're working on.
Excellent.
So let's pivot a little again,as we talked about the
technology, the offering, thestate of the industry.
Let's talk about partnerprofiles, and of course we hit
on customer profiles already,but, what advice do you have for
partners not selling this today?
They're looking to increasetheir revenue.
Is this a heavy lift?
How do they get into the motionof proposing this and getting
(18:34):
discovery calls going andclosing deals?
josh (18:37):
Yeah, so really good question.
Security's new to the channelworld.
I understand that people, it'snew.
They don't want to feel likethey're not the expert in it,
and that's really why we createda six step process.
We try to make it extremelysimple for partners to offer it.
Really all we want is an introcall to that customer.
So step one is an intro call,right?
We just make sure that they'rein the market.
What are they trying to solvefor?
(18:58):
What are their pain points?
Next step would be a demo withour engineering team.
We.
Show them all the cool features,all the technology, the ai, how
everything comes together.
We also send them budgetarypricing as well.
If they like the pricing andthey like the demo, we actually
pay for a site survey.
So we roll a truck out to theirfacility.
Understand.
Can we reuse the existing wiringand hardware that's already on
(19:19):
site or is it going to be abrand new refresh of cabling?
We get the full bomb.
That technician will suggestblind spots, suggest different
things.
When we get the full bomb andinstallation cost, we put it all
together as a full proposal.
We present it to the customer.
The only thing that's upfront isthe installation, so we make it
extremely easy for that customerto buy as far as they're not
(19:40):
putting$80,000 up front for thehardware, another$80,000 for the
installation.
They're paying a monthly fee forall the support management
hardware, and then they.
Only pay the installation upfront.
We project manage theinstallation, so that's off
their plate as well.
We set up the entire securityposture as the customer's
requesting, so all the differentalerts for facial recognition,
(20:00):
for tailgating, loitering motiondetection, and.
Timing and all that stuff.
We even load up all their accessdirectory and there's stuff for
the people who, what, where, andhow much for access control.
So who goes through what doors,at what time and what means, and
me measures.
So we do all that for'em.
We basically set them out.
We do all the training, support,maintenance behind the scenes
(20:22):
ongoing.
So anything the customer needs,they just send us an email and
then we continue on with it.
Camera monitoring and the freetruck rolls as needed per the
customer.
So we take everything off oftheir plate.
We, they don't have to do asingle thing except send us
emails for the entire process.
And then it, as far as just whatthey're leaving on the table,
we're doing a, that 30 site, ahealthcare clinic right now, all
(20:46):
30 sites are about$3,000 a montheach as far as the monthly.
So that customer's paying in$90,000 a month, that equates to
pre almost$20,000 a month forcommissions to that partner.
Money's definitely in it.
Chris (21:01):
How do you help the end user understand the ROI on that
90,000?
Is there, this obvious, thiswould help, I think partners
recognize, identifyopportunities.
If they could say, yeah, 90grand sounds like a lot, but to
have 30 locations and to havethree, or, at least two or three
shifts of security guards oreven the risk or god, what's the
word I'm looking for?
(21:21):
Eliminating the risk by havingthis service in place.
Is that how you come up withROI?
Any other thoughts on that?
josh (21:27):
Yeah, no.
Lots of thoughts.
One is just the cost of thedollar, right?
Take it.
Do they, as of right now,government tariffs, all that
stuff's kind of all over theplace.
This lets'em save their capitalupfront.
So instead of that customer, anaverage camera price let, saves
about a thousand dollars.
So instead of that customerbasically paying$30,000 per
location for the.
For the hardware upfront, plusthe extra money on top of that
(21:51):
for licensing, they're able tospread that money out.
Furthermore, on top of that,the, if you think about an
average camera, cameras willdie, especially an exterior
camera due to the elements ofthe weather and rain and
everything else.
They die every three, four yearson average.
ADA provides a 10 year hardwarewarranty included.
Guaranteed.
So if that camera dies threetimes over the course of 10
(22:12):
years, they're don't get thatnewest and greatest camera every
time it comes, every time itbreaks.
So even the cam, and what's niceabout it is that with a firmware
update, skiing pushed out, theydon't have the same quality, the
same features as that camerathey bought nine years ago
because they don't have all thatupdated.
They may have a 16 K or a 80 Kcamera at that point, depending
(22:32):
on the technology of theresolution.
But the features, thetechnology, the cool stuff will
all be identical.
Chris (22:40):
Wow.
No.
So where do you see the dealscoming from?
Are.
I imagine there's probably somepartners, because I've talked to
them.
They used to be a DT resellers.
There's a very small percentage,less than of 1% maybe that kind
of come from this space.
They understand security camerasor alarm systems.
Again, that's a very smallpercentage, so we, that ain't
gonna work more than that.
(23:00):
And then there, imagine there'spartners that, that see your
presentation, they hear yourstory, and then they look at
their existing customers.
Do you have a sense of, are alot of the deals coming from
existing customers, or are a lotof these net new logos for you
and the client and the partner?
josh (23:15):
It's a combination of both.
It's really just that partnerasking the question, just what
are they trying to solve for.
I think I told you before, I, myguess just based off of
conversations I have daily, Iwould guess that 40% of all the
cameras that are outstandingright now don't work.
I.
In all facilities.
We did a rip and replace here inAustin at a school, a private
school.
They had Honeywell cameras.
They had 40 of'em and 15 of'emdidn't work.
(23:38):
They called Honeywell.
They, Honeywell took three weeksto come on site.
They charged'em$1,500.
They looked around for fiveminutes and said, go buy new
cameras.
That's the process that
Chris (23:47):
great that's the fear of uncertainty, doubt story.
You want to learn and tell.
josh (23:51):
Yeah, no.
So that's really where we comein.
Like we, we, as of camera one,we would've automatically
notified them.
We would've already had a truckroll out there within a couple
days.
We would've had it replacedimmediately, and it just
shortens that liability,especially for a school.
You have young kids runningaround, you have, lots of
different op, lots of differenthazards and stuff at a school
obviously.
So yeah that's really where itcomes into play as far as we're
(24:13):
asking the questions.
It's the same decision makeranymore that make, that makes
the telecom decision becausethis is all cloud-based.
I was actually speaking to awoman a couple days ago who said
that I don't deal with, I onlydeal with, I deal with this.
She only deals with the networkand all that, not the actual.
Access control cameras.
When I explained to her,everything fell into the cloud.
(24:34):
That changed the entireconversation.
Completely reached turned 180.
We had full on demo and kept theconversation going.
So it was just a differentperspective.
Whenever the partner and thatcustomer realized it's not just
putting a device on the wall andit's it's not a device we're
selling, it's not a widget, it'sactually a solution.
Chris (24:53):
A smart solution at that, are another question from
trends.
It seems like a new buildsituation, a new building going
up.
Is ideal other than, it mighttake, six months or a year for
it to be completed.
But if you come in at the righttime and it's already dried in,
the walls are up, the ceiling'son and they're just starting to
run the wiring or whatever,that, that's a great solution.
(25:14):
So I got a handful of partners.
I know.
I'm thinking of that.
The focus on commercial realestate, focus on commercial new
build, construction companies,versus, as you mentioned, the
rip and replace.
It's already been there a while.
I was thinking about the, eventhat museum the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, I mean it'shistorical building and they're
like, yeah, we can't just runwires through the wall'cause we
(25:35):
can't even drill in it.
We can't even put holes in thewall.
Is there any trends there?
Is it all over the map in termsof new build versus existing
structures and do you favor oneover the other?
I.
josh (25:47):
It's a little bit of both, honestly.
New construction or customermoving makes it extremely
simple.
Our engineering team willactually work with their GC or
the general contractor tounderstand.
Where they're thinking aboutputting the wiring, what they're
doing for the doors and the doorhardware.
We can actually we've actuallysaved a problem in the past
where the customer was on, putglass walls next to the glass
(26:08):
door.
Two, two glass double doors andanother glass wall on the side
of it, which at that point,where do you put access control
as far as the card reader goes,you don't wanna put it 30 feet
down the hallway.
So we were able to talk to theGC ahead of time and kind of
make recommendations on changingthe door change or at least that
wall, so that way they didn'thave to redo that later on
(26:29):
whenever they did want theaccess control.
So getting in as early aspossible definitely is
beneficial.
If the customer already hascameras like I said, most of'em
don't work anyways, so it.
Just asking that question as faras what are you trying to solve?
Are your cameras working?
And then we can traditionallyuse the existing wiring that's
in place, assuming it's cat fiveor cat six, so there's not a lot
(26:50):
of cost involved as far as theinstallation.
It's just plugging in a newcamera.
Chris (26:55):
And I imagine this next question may be, it depends
which is so often the answer intechnology.
It depends.
But from the time, the firstdiscovery call.
Mean that the partner and theclient are, cooperating with
meetings and whatnot.
What's the average timeframefrom discovery call to install
complete?
josh (27:14):
Traditionally it's gonna be probably about four to six
weeks.
And again, it goes based on whatyou mentioned as well as far as
how fast does a customer want tomove.
But we can knock out an intro,call, a demo, budgetary pricing,
all within a week.
We can probably get the sitesurvey done week two.
And at that point, just waitingfor the numbers back.
That'd be week three and then.
Placing the order andcoordinating the installation
(27:36):
with that end user and thetechnician.
That's week four or five.
So we could get that out thedoor pretty quickly as far as
that goes, but it is a solution.
Obviously, if you think aboutlike a fiber, like if you think,
or if you relate it to fiber orlike your telecom, if you sell
Comcast fiber, it's going totake that same three month
install period as well.
So it's that same kind ofmentality of just get ahead of
the game.
Chris (27:57):
That's right.
Anything worth having is worthwaiting for.
That, yeah.
Anything that's too instant yougotta be a little suspicious if
it's oh, we'll be theretomorrow.
Mean you can go to Amazon andorder, you know your ring
doorbells and all, but thosearen't commercial grade.
There's no support.
There's a lot of reasons whythat's a bad idea.
It's quick and it's what's thesame reliable, fast, and cheap.
You can have two, but you can'thave all three.
(28:18):
I think that applies here too.
Man, Josh, this has been a greatconversation.
Very enlightening because like Isaid, you said earlier it is not
a traditional telecom channelsolution, but I think it is
becoming one because of thecybersecurity, because of the
networking, because of thecloud.
It's got all the ingredients of.
Telecom and technology and it'sjust solving a different
(28:39):
problem.
And I think that's what is greatabout what you're doing and
what, so many suppliers aredoing and trusted advisors.
We're solving everyday businessproblems with technology and
it's getting better and better.
And yes, I know it comes withhis frustrations and limitations
at times, but.
I don't know.
From my perspective, there's alot more upside than downside.
(29:00):
I'll all day long, we'll leaninto this.
Man, I landed the plane a littlebit, man.
Any last words, anything thatyou want cover we haven't talked
about yet?
I.
josh (29:09):
No, really, like I said, I two things.
One, this is a managed solution,right?
So this takes the entirecustomer experience and does
gives them a turnkey offeringversus a traditional model of
them having to go find thehardware, finding the
technician, getting itinstalled, managing it
themselves.
Setting it up, all that goodstuff.
So this takes all that off theirhands and makes it extremely
(29:30):
simple for that customer.
And then I'd say just my kind ofa quote that I live by is, why
put off until tomorrow what youcan do today?
Benjamin Franklin said thatprocrastination always seems to
shoot myself in the foot, so youmight as well start today,
somewhat else will sell it.
Otherwise, if you're not sellingit, so you may as well.
Chris (29:48):
I love that quote.
That is a great one.
Yeah, you told me you had one.
You told me what it was, butthat, there's a lot, there's a
lot in that procrastinationreally burns.
I mean that in my older age I'mfinding myself, I'm walking
through the house, I seesomething like, loose doorknob
or something that, you know,first tying into that same
quote, another one, it's notreally a quote, I guess it's
more of a thought, if somethingbothers you.
(30:10):
Address it, take care of it.
Don't walk by the same loosedoorknob for a month going, oh
my God, that door knobs killed.
Just, I literally stop what I'mdoing, Lord will, and I have the
time.
Go out to the garage, get thescrewdriver, and just fix it.
And now the next time I go byit, I feel satisfied.
I've accomplished something.
But yeah, procrastination, Ijust don't think there's, I
can't think of a situation wherethat's, that pays off nicely.
(30:31):
But I do have one more questionjust popped in.
Anyone that knows you well willbe.
Mad at me for not asking thisquestion, and I almost wish we
were on video.
What kind of pants are youwearing today?
I'm sure I'm not, I'm sure Areyou wearing shorts?
But if you wear, any cool pantstoday.
josh (30:46):
Not today.
I'm actually moving as we speak,so moving houses.
So I have actually shorts on, Ihave shorts on.
Have crawfish on'em to tell youthe
Chris (30:54):
Okay.
So you got some cool shorts on?
There we go.
josh (30:56):
I got cool with crawfish.
Chris (30:58):
That makes sense.
I see.
That's what I expected.
I'm just glad you did come backgoing.
What makes you think I'm wearingpants?
But I'm glad you're Yeah, I knewyou would be.
Yeah.
This is this is not a familyshow, but yeah, we do try to
keep it above board andprofessional, but yeah I tell
everybody, man you're the bestdressed in the oddest way at
every channel event, right?
So that, that's your shtick.
josh (31:17):
I.
Chris (31:18):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's, it is a compliment.
You're not trying to, youdefinitely, you have your own
music you dance to and you do itwell.
And I've always enjoyed yourfriendship.
You've always got a smile and ahandshake.
Thank you for that.
And yeah, thanks for making timetoday.
josh (31:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I appreciate it as well, andlook forward to seeing you next
time.
Chris (31:35):
You bet.
There you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
And as always, if you heardanything, you hit home, you
thought about a client, youthought about a business partner
or colleague, share this episodewith'em.
Check the show notes.
I'll have some links to.
His website and more informationabout how you can do business
with Josh and his team.
Thank you very much.
And also don't forget to checkout the wireless way.net
(31:57):
website.
There's a connect contact usbutton if you have any
suggestions, recommendationsfeedback.
Love to hear fromyou@thewirelessway.net.
And until then, have a fantasticremainder of your day.
Be the moment and don'tprocrastinate.
That's our message today.
See you next time on theWireless Way.
Welcome to another episode of The Wireless Way.
I'm grateful that you're here.
I'm grateful for my guest, JoshDickinson.
He's the leader, at PhySaaSPhysical Security as a service.
A little bit about him before webring him on.
He's an entrepreneur at heart.
Let's get that outta the way.
This guy is a businessman andloves and as a heart for the
(00:21):
channel.
Successfully helped start twoseparate companies and taking
them all the way to market.
If you've ever done that, andmost of you that are trusted
advisors, you know what that'slike.
You started your company, someof you have been doing it for a
long time.
Some of you're just starting, soI think you're gonna really
enjoy this conversation.
The throw behind starting acompany, building it, shaping
it, evolving it to fit the needsof partners and agents, and then
(00:44):
continue grinding until there'sa real company with efficient
processes.
Important word processes andjust as important products that
make impacts and a value that'sproven.
That is what drives him.
And if anyone that knows JoshDickenson will be nodding their
head right now going, yep,that's the Josh I know.
After being in the channel for,or for 20 years the channel is
(01:06):
his passion.
I think you can see that.
If you don't know Josh you'llpick up on that today in this
conversation.
Josh, welcome to the show.
I'm glad we were able to getthis lined up and meet today.
josh (01:18):
I really appreciate you having me.
I can't wait to share kind ofthe story behind Fi.
And the security of as a wholein general?
Chris (01:24):
No, that's it's, I feel like it's such an overlooked
area, but yet such a criticalarea and has been for a long
time.
Before we get to that though,tell us a little bit more about
you, man.
What's not the bio and how didyou get here?
josh (01:37):
Yeah.
I started my telecom, my, my it,whatever you wanna call it,
career.
When I was 16 years old, the dayI turned 16, I walked into
M-C-I-M-C-I world com.
I was, by the time I was still16 or before I was ever 17, I
was promoted to a supervisorrunning a top five team in the
country for the next four years.
Slinging long distance.
So you have at and t paying at15 cents a minute, 5 95 monthly
(02:00):
fee.
I have 2 95, 5 cents a minute.
Four free blockbusters.
Stay on a line.
So doing all the long distancestuff back in the day.
Went from there to a softwarecompany, built that up.
Took off to Real Links, whichwas a small MSP aggregator.
Was there for about 12 years.
I was still channel focused.
And then from there they soldoff to GTT and my partners and I
(02:21):
started Hyper Core networks,which was another MSP
aggregator, which turned into aworldwide, aggregation company
that got sold to Nitel.
And even at Hyper Core the lastsix months, we were working on a
security, me a security product.
Because there's a hole in thechannel.
It's a huge miss as far asopportunity there.
Just because it's the samedecision makers anymore, the
(02:42):
same people that make thedecision on a telecom side or
the same people that make thatdecision on the security side.
'cause it's all cloud-basedanymore.
So started PhySaaS with JohnReed and John Page.
He's our part, my partners inthis.
And so it is been a fun ride.
It's completely different fromthe hyper core.
Hyper core is verytransactional, very easy as far
as just the process goes.
(03:04):
This is still the same.
It's just a little bit morecumbersome.
It's a real solution sale versusjust a transactional.
Here's your price.
Which one do you want?
Chris (03:12):
Nah.
That makes a lot of sense.
Going back to when you were 16,e even before that, did you ever
consider yourself a techie?
josh (03:19):
Oh no.
So I'm not the gadget techiedetail person.
I'm a big picture.
I don't own tools.
I don't own hammers orscrewdriver in my house.
Like I don't like.
Details I details are for, to,for someone else to figure out.
I like big picture.
I like the process.
I like the figuring out how,what's missing, how do we bring
it together type of environment.
(03:40):
So no, I don't own tools.
I'm not techie.
I'm more of the sales talk topeople, relationship person.
Chris (03:46):
There's a lot to be said about that, and that makes a lot
of sense that you're thisentrepreneur guy.
'cause big picture, it is hardto be a big picture guy if
you're stuck down in the depthsof the details.
And you need both.
That's why I think your partnerwith some really sharp, smart
guys that, have that skill settoo.
But yeah, that everywhere yougo.
There's, yeah, gosh, I might getjumped on by the Apple people.
I thought, Steve Jobs he hadWozniak or whatever his name
(04:08):
was, Steve Wozniak or, he wasmore the engineer.
Steve Jobs couldn't build aniPhone, if you put a gun to his
head, but he knew what he wantedit to do, he knew what the
outcome was supposed to be like.
And that, that's really cool,man.
So let's jump to the topic athand.
PhySaaS, there's a lot of as ofservice acronyms out there, and
it's really unique that youguys, incorporated into the
company name.
(04:29):
So tell me more about FI SaaSand then, when you're done with
that, I'd like to learn a littlebit more about state of the
security industry.
josh (04:36):
So PhySaaS itself, physical security as a service,
as you stated?
Basically what we've done iswe've taken all of the Verkada
products.
We are the only Verkada MSP outthere, so all the Verkada
hardware, the licensing.
We basically take all of thatand we turn it into an opex
model.
We amortize it across the courseof a term of traditionally three
or five years.
(04:57):
We add some management piecesinto it basically making it a
turnkey solution for thecustomer.
We have six easy steps to take'em from start to finish.
We project manage and we doeverything along the way for'em.
We've revised our process andrevised our process over and
over again to make it extremelysimple on partners.
Taking that customer and justmaking'em feel secure,
understanding what theirproblems are, what they're
(05:19):
trying to solve for, and then wealways have a solution.
So if you're not familiar withRicotta itself, ricotta's the
only platform out there thatbrings your cameras, your doors,
your alarm monitoring.
Your panic buttons, your airquality sensors, your guest
management and brings it under asingle paned glass.
So if you think about yourtraditional, if your home
environment, you have a app foryour ring doorbell, an app for
(05:41):
your garage door opener, an appfor your a DT, you have a dog or
a tiger somewhere in your house,you have a safe, none of that
stuff.
Talks, communicates, integratesthe Frita system, it all pulls
everything together so you canhave visibility and.
Day, all your locations, all thedifferent solutions right
through at your fingertips.
And then going into the state ofthe industry as far as security.
(06:05):
75% of companies right now placephysical security as one of
their foremost priorities.
Over the last five years, 60% ofcompanies having counter
breaches of some kind of sort inthat physical security world.
So whether it's somebody being,something being stolen, whether
it.
An employee being harassed,something along those lines.
And the average cost of securityis about a hundred thousand
(06:25):
dollars every single time.
That's just the average cost.
So you have costs that are waymore expensive, you have costs
less, obviously, but for ahundred thousand dollars every
as the average, that gets prettyexpensive, especially if you're
in a, an area that's gonnacontinue to get vandalized or
continue to get broken into.
So that's really where PhySaaScomes into play is we're making
(06:45):
it easier for that customer tobuy easier for that partner to
be able to sell into and expandtheir portfolio with that, make
it more sticky.
And the product itself is secondto none.
Just the technology itself.
Chris (06:57):
And five.
SAS has been around for a coupleyears now.
Right?
josh (07:01):
Yeah, actually two weeks from now will be two year
anniversary June 1st.
So yeah, so we're off to theraces.
65% of our customers aremulti-location.
I think it's going back to theexact same reason I just said is
that it's bringing everythingtogether from all aspects, but
at the same time, the managementover the top customers don't
have that.
That management group anymore,that security team to be able to
(07:23):
manage everything.
So we do everything start tofinish.
We do free truck rolls even,right?
So we're monitoring the camerasfor up, down, the camera's down
for 15 minutes.
We automatically open a troubleticket, communicate with that
customer, and then start thattruck roll process so that way
they have that shortenedliability.
And it's a 10 year hardwarewarranty with ricotta also, so
there's no over the top costs.
(07:44):
Later on.
There's no gotchas.
They only pay what they paymonthly and everything else is
included.
Chris (07:49):
Wow, that's fantastic.
And that's where it's all going,man.
It's everything as a service.
It's a subscription model, it'smanaged services, so that's
right in line with where a lotof the rest of the channel is
going.
And these nearly two years, I'msure you've been on numerous
discovery calls, as youmentioned, multiple deals closed
with large multi-sites.
(08:09):
Is there a common thread thatyou just, you hear on every call
or, in terms of a trend maybewith the end user?
Is the commons, are the problemscommon or do you feel like it's
all over the map on why peopleneed your service?
I.
josh (08:24):
There's probably three or four main areas that people are
trying to secure, or there'sthree or four different things
people are trying to solve forwhether it's protecting their
people.
I.
Protecting their assets,protecting their property.
It's normally one of those threethings.
When you protect your people,they feel more secure, they have
better productivity, they wantto be at work.
Obviously protecting your assetsin your property, that's money
(08:47):
out the door one way or theother.
Otherwise.
So that normally falls into oneof those three buckets.
Chris (08:53):
Goodness.
And that makes a lot of sensetoo.
And I'm, I'm thinking if I'm apartner listening right now
that, that makes sense.
But is there, it almost seemslike it's not really, I.
Necessarily industry or verticalspecific all those things exist
all throughout business, but areyou seeing is there any sweet
spots that you feel like if fora partner, if they have this
(09:13):
vertical in their portfolio,they should just go after it?
Are you seeing any trends therein terms of the profile or the
type of customer.
josh (09:21):
Yeah, some, it seems to fall in that mid-level to
enterprise level customermulti-location, as I mentioned,
is a huge aspect of it.
'cause instead of them having.
Four different apps perbuilding.
It brings everything under thesingle pane of glass.
So that seems to be a big trend.
But we'll do, a two, two camerasfor a gas station, or we'll do
160 cameras for a manufacturingwarehouse.
(09:44):
As far as niches, cardealerships seem to be a big
thing right now.
HOAs, nursing homes they allseem to be parts of groups of,
pE money or whatever the caseis, where they have multiple
locations, they have the moneyto be able to spend, but they
also wanna make sure everythingis secure to protect their
property and their people.
I mentioned HOAs healthcareclinics.
(10:05):
Right now we're installing a 30site healthcare clinic in Texas.
So really it's thatmulti-location.
That suite supply's probably twoto 30, 40 locations
realistically.
But we could definitely handlemore than 40 sites depending on
what the customer has.
Chris (10:20):
You, another buzzword that's hot right now is ai.
How does AI play in thissolution is there any components
of ai?
josh (10:28):
Oh, then it is, it's completely full of ai.
So the guy that created Merakiback in the day, the old COO,
when they sold off to Cisco, heactually is the founder of ada.
So the SaaS model, thetechnology, the ai, it's very
prevalent.
Whenever you're looking at thecommand portal or the back
office is ability to dosearches, right?
You can do a search for each.
All white vehicles, whiteelectric vehicles that are non
(10:51):
Prius.
Show me everybody that's wearinga red shirt and a backpack.
One of the new features thatjust came out is safety goggles.
Like you can actually do checksfor or show me all the people
that are not wearing safetygoggles or are wearing safety
goggles or safety vests or hardhats.
So it gets into thatconstruction and that kind of
safety manufacturing area atthat point.
(11:13):
So it's all built intointegrated.
One of the coolest things aboutVerkada's product, if you tie it
together a door and a camera, isyou can actually get tailgating
alerts, which, no, no one elseout there offers this.
So if one person swipes theirbadge and three people enter,
you get a text on the spot.
So proactively, you have peoplein your building versus kind of
the traditional model of youdon't know until you do.
(11:34):
So it's that kind of stuff thatmakes super proactive in the
experience as far as, thesecurity itself.
You can also upload facesproactively.
So if you have a person thatcomes on site constantly causing
damage or harm you can actuallyupload their face up
proactively.
That person comes on any of yourlocations, you get a text on the
spot.
(11:54):
So think disgruntled employeesor disgruntled comp customers
that may just go site to sitevandalizing, you can know ahead
of time when, as soon as they'reon site.
Chris (12:03):
Mean, so it's definitely a proactive approach.
For years, security cameras werethere as a deterrent.
I think a lot of'em, I forgotthe stat, a lot of'em sometimes
don't even work.
Of course, no one sitsphysically watching in most
cases.
Yeah.
And when an event does happen,it may take hours and hours, if
not days, to go find the eventdepending on how far back it
was.
So I.
josh (12:23):
Oh, absolutely.
Chris (12:24):
I love that you guys had a a fantastic event a month or
so ago at the Isabella StewartGardner Museum and yeah, if
you're listening, you haven'tseen the Netflix show.
This is a robbery.
It, talks about the 1990 theftwhere some bad guys broke in.
Basically, I stole some, highdollar paintings and it was such
(12:44):
a neat venue.
One, it was a beautifulbuilding.
It's the history of the buildingand Isabella Stewart Gardner
herself.
It's just amazing.
But the story's amazing.
And of course, the whole idea ofthe event was around ADA and via
SA and security and had a greatpanel.
What, how did, yeah, anyfeedback from that?
How did that go for you guys?
Did you feel like that was timewell spent?
josh (13:04):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
We, if you, the story itself,like you said, 35 years ago, a
bunch of Rembrandts were stolenand they were never solved for,
so they're still out there tothis day and they know who stole
'em, but they don't know wherethe paintings are.
So it's an incredible story whenyou actually dig in and figure
out where, who stole'em, howthey actually did it.
There's a lot of differentmysteries still behind it, how
they even got the paintings out.
(13:25):
So yeah, it's a really coolstory.
If you've never seen that
Chris (13:28):
Yep.
josh (13:29):
But to answer your question, yeah.
The panel itself was veryinformative.
We had the, I think the Bostonchief of the fire department
there talking about it.
The state of Massachusettspublic ser safety commissioner
was there on the panel as well.
So they were, gave a lot of goodinformation about kind of the
state of the business and howthey use Veta to keep their
(13:50):
sites and the convention centersproactively taken care
Chris (13:53):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That, yeah.
The convention center use casewas pretty amazing.
And you, and the one that kindof, I think could easily sneak
by you, even for the audience.
I wonder how many people caughtit, but the, there was I dunno
if he was a CIO or the IT leaderfor a major law firm was talking
about even employee identity andprotecting,'cause and law.
There's a lot of physicalevidence in terms of, papers and
(14:14):
files and he was just talkingabout how they, they have an
obligation to their clients tomake sure all this, this actual
evidence, whatever issafeguarded.
And it's always interesting too,and, cybersecurity is such a big
buzz word, but if you don't, a,an element of cybersecurity risk
could be the physical securityof the facility.
Someone can, in the spot moviesall the time, right?
Someone sneaks in and puts a USBdrive and the server and now
(14:37):
they have access to everything.
It's neat how you see this themerging of it.
So I would think it seems like ano-brainer if you're a partner
and you're selling cybersecurityor you're having cybersecurity
conversations.
It's just one more question.
Hey, let's talk about physicalsecurity.
How what's your plan there?
Is that, is, do you see thatcorrelation?
josh (14:53):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Cybersecurity versus physicalsecurity you're protecting
something.
Whether you're.
I your data or you're protectingyour people or your property,
your assets, that's the point ofsecurity is to protect it.
And going what you mentioned aswell, to get your cybersecurity
insurance, you have to be soughtto compliant.
In order to be sought tocompliant, you have to have
access control.
So it all ties together as awhole, one way or another in
(15:15):
order to get insurance, in orderto keep your people property
safe and protected.
So it all comes back fullcircle.
Chris (15:22):
Yeah let's dig in on that a little bit.
You mentioned it gets, to bestock two compliant, you have to
have access controls.
Give us some examples of whatyou can do there.
josh (15:31):
Access control is just your door readers, right?
You walk up to any building oryou're at a hotel and you use
your card in your door, or youuse a card on a card reader
that's access control.
So it's basically controllingwho has.
Access to that environment?
What time of day, what meanswhat doors?
So you're basically protectingall your information, your
(15:52):
property, specific times of dayset by specific people.
With access control with us, youcan use Bluetooth.
So you don't necessarily have tohave a key fob.
With a key fob, I can hand itoff to my buddy Chris, and Chris
could then drop it and somebodynamed Bob could pick it up and
then.
Now you have full access to thebuilding, whereas my with
Bluetooth on your phone I don'tlet my phone out of my site.
(16:13):
I don't give it off to anybody.
It's it's my information.
So it's a lot more secure thanhaving that key fob that could
be dropped or stolen or handedoff.
I.
Chris (16:21):
You even seen in, a lot of the hotels in a big Marriott
guy.
That digital key, on the phoneis, I'd rather have that.
Yeah, you're not gonna losethat.
I lose the keys all the time.
I felt have you seen, I've heardsome use cases too around, going
back to AI and facialrecognition.
Could the of service, tap into,the HR database, API and have
the employee headshots there andrecognize someone and unlock the
(16:44):
door from that perspective, isthat an option?
josh (16:47):
That's not an option yet.
That's it's, I believe that'sreally close.
I know that's been requestedover and over again and every.
Two to three months Verkadareleases new products and new
firmware updates that have justthat cooler and newer stuff
involved.
The last firmware update was theability for the safety goggles
and the vest and all that stuff.
The release prior to thatallowed face blurring for HIPAA
(17:10):
environments or in schoolenvironments for minors.
One of the other releases wasthe.
LPR cameras, the license platereading cameras can actually
open and close security gatesoutside your property now as
well.
So lots of different things asfar, and that goes back to
access control as well.
But lots of different ways.
It intertwines.
Chris (17:29):
No, that makes a lot of sense.
No, I figure that's a part ofthat emerging technology.
Because essentially.
And almost every case, right?
Those are two different systems.
The access control system was avendor by a certain brand,
right?
And then your cameras are a, aDT or somebody else if they're
not Rico at yet.
So yeah, those sy it's notuncommon that they're not
talking even today.
So the fact that's on theroadmap, I think that's a huge,
(17:50):
that's a huge thing.
And I was talking to one othersecurity expert.
He goes yeah, but what ifsomeone.
It prints off a picture of yourface and holds that up to the
camera.
And I thought that's, yeah, Iguess that's, I guess that could
happen, so maybe that's not evenfoolproof.
Although, if the camera's smartenough to tell 1D versus three
3D mean, I'm sure that's maybethe component.
(18:10):
They're working on.
Excellent.
So let's pivot a little again,as we talked about the
technology, the offering, thestate of the industry.
Let's talk about partnerprofiles, and of course we hit
on customer profiles already,but, what advice do you have for
partners not selling this today?
They're looking to increasetheir revenue.
Is this a heavy lift?
How do they get into the motionof proposing this and getting
(18:34):
discovery calls going andclosing deals?
josh (18:37):
Yeah, so really good question.
Security's new to the channelworld.
I understand that people, it'snew.
They don't want to feel likethey're not the expert in it,
and that's really why we createda six step process.
We try to make it extremelysimple for partners to offer it.
Really all we want is an introcall to that customer.
So step one is an intro call,right?
We just make sure that they'rein the market.
What are they trying to solvefor?
(18:58):
What are their pain points?
Next step would be a demo withour engineering team.
We.
Show them all the cool features,all the technology, the ai, how
everything comes together.
We also send them budgetarypricing as well.
If they like the pricing andthey like the demo, we actually
pay for a site survey.
So we roll a truck out to theirfacility.
Understand.
Can we reuse the existing wiringand hardware that's already on
(19:19):
site or is it going to be abrand new refresh of cabling?
We get the full bomb.
That technician will suggestblind spots, suggest different
things.
When we get the full bomb andinstallation cost, we put it all
together as a full proposal.
We present it to the customer.
The only thing that's upfront isthe installation, so we make it
extremely easy for that customerto buy as far as they're not
(19:40):
putting$80,000 up front for thehardware, another$80,000 for the
installation.
They're paying a monthly fee forall the support management
hardware, and then they.
Only pay the installation upfront.
We project manage theinstallation, so that's off
their plate as well.
We set up the entire securityposture as the customer's
requesting, so all the differentalerts for facial recognition,
(20:00):
for tailgating, loitering motiondetection, and.
Timing and all that stuff.
We even load up all their accessdirectory and there's stuff for
the people who, what, where, andhow much for access control.
So who goes through what doors,at what time and what means, and
me measures.
So we do all that for'em.
We basically set them out.
We do all the training, support,maintenance behind the scenes
(20:22):
ongoing.
So anything the customer needs,they just send us an email and
then we continue on with it.
Camera monitoring and the freetruck rolls as needed per the
customer.
So we take everything off oftheir plate.
We, they don't have to do asingle thing except send us
emails for the entire process.
And then it, as far as just whatthey're leaving on the table,
we're doing a, that 30 site, ahealthcare clinic right now, all
(20:46):
30 sites are about$3,000 a montheach as far as the monthly.
So that customer's paying in$90,000 a month, that equates to
pre almost$20,000 a month forcommissions to that partner.
Money's definitely in it.
Chris (21:01):
How do you help the end user understand the ROI on that
90,000?
Is there, this obvious, thiswould help, I think partners
recognize, identifyopportunities.
If they could say, yeah, 90grand sounds like a lot, but to
have 30 locations and to havethree, or, at least two or three
shifts of security guards oreven the risk or god, what's the
word I'm looking for?
(21:21):
Eliminating the risk by havingthis service in place.
Is that how you come up withROI?
Any other thoughts on that?
josh (21:27):
Yeah, no.
Lots of thoughts.
One is just the cost of thedollar, right?
Take it.
Do they, as of right now,government tariffs, all that
stuff's kind of all over theplace.
This lets'em save their capitalupfront.
So instead of that customer, anaverage camera price let, saves
about a thousand dollars.
So instead of that customerbasically paying$30,000 per
location for the.
For the hardware upfront, plusthe extra money on top of that
(21:51):
for licensing, they're able tospread that money out.
Furthermore, on top of that,the, if you think about an
average camera, cameras willdie, especially an exterior
camera due to the elements ofthe weather and rain and
everything else.
They die every three, four yearson average.
ADA provides a 10 year hardwarewarranty included.
Guaranteed.
So if that camera dies threetimes over the course of 10
(22:12):
years, they're don't get thatnewest and greatest camera every
time it comes, every time itbreaks.
So even the cam, and what's niceabout it is that with a firmware
update, skiing pushed out, theydon't have the same quality, the
same features as that camerathey bought nine years ago
because they don't have all thatupdated.
They may have a 16 K or a 80 Kcamera at that point, depending
(22:32):
on the technology of theresolution.
But the features, thetechnology, the cool stuff will
all be identical.
Chris (22:40):
Wow.
No.
So where do you see the dealscoming from?
Are.
I imagine there's probably somepartners, because I've talked to
them.
They used to be a DT resellers.
There's a very small percentage,less than of 1% maybe that kind
of come from this space.
They understand security camerasor alarm systems.
Again, that's a very smallpercentage, so we, that ain't
gonna work more than that.
(23:00):
And then there, imagine there'spartners that, that see your
presentation, they hear yourstory, and then they look at
their existing customers.
Do you have a sense of, are alot of the deals coming from
existing customers, or are a lotof these net new logos for you
and the client and the partner?
josh (23:15):
It's a combination of both.
It's really just that partnerasking the question, just what
are they trying to solve for.
I think I told you before, I, myguess just based off of
conversations I have daily, Iwould guess that 40% of all the
cameras that are outstandingright now don't work.
I.
In all facilities.
We did a rip and replace here inAustin at a school, a private
school.
They had Honeywell cameras.
They had 40 of'em and 15 of'emdidn't work.
(23:38):
They called Honeywell.
They, Honeywell took three weeksto come on site.
They charged'em$1,500.
They looked around for fiveminutes and said, go buy new
cameras.
That's the process that
Chris (23:47):
great that's the fear of uncertainty, doubt story.
You want to learn and tell.
josh (23:51):
Yeah, no.
So that's really where we comein.
Like we, we, as of camera one,we would've automatically
notified them.
We would've already had a truckroll out there within a couple
days.
We would've had it replacedimmediately, and it just
shortens that liability,especially for a school.
You have young kids runningaround, you have, lots of
different op, lots of differenthazards and stuff at a school
obviously.
So yeah that's really where itcomes into play as far as we're
(24:13):
asking the questions.
It's the same decision makeranymore that make, that makes
the telecom decision becausethis is all cloud-based.
I was actually speaking to awoman a couple days ago who said
that I don't deal with, I onlydeal with, I deal with this.
She only deals with the networkand all that, not the actual.
Access control cameras.
When I explained to her,everything fell into the cloud.
(24:34):
That changed the entireconversation.
Completely reached turned 180.
We had full on demo and kept theconversation going.
So it was just a differentperspective.
Whenever the partner and thatcustomer realized it's not just
putting a device on the wall andit's it's not a device we're
selling, it's not a widget, it'sactually a solution.
Chris (24:53):
A smart solution at that, are another question from
trends.
It seems like a new buildsituation, a new building going
up.
Is ideal other than, it mighttake, six months or a year for
it to be completed.
But if you come in at the righttime and it's already dried in,
the walls are up, the ceiling'son and they're just starting to
run the wiring or whatever,that, that's a great solution.
(25:14):
So I got a handful of partners.
I know.
I'm thinking of that.
The focus on commercial realestate, focus on commercial new
build, construction companies,versus, as you mentioned, the
rip and replace.
It's already been there a while.
I was thinking about the, eventhat museum the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, I mean it'shistorical building and they're
like, yeah, we can't just runwires through the wall'cause we
(25:35):
can't even drill in it.
We can't even put holes in thewall.
Is there any trends there?
Is it all over the map in termsof new build versus existing
structures and do you favor oneover the other?
I.
josh (25:47):
It's a little bit of both, honestly.
New construction or customermoving makes it extremely
simple.
Our engineering team willactually work with their GC or
the general contractor tounderstand.
Where they're thinking aboutputting the wiring, what they're
doing for the doors and the doorhardware.
We can actually we've actuallysaved a problem in the past
where the customer was on, putglass walls next to the glass
(26:08):
door.
Two, two glass double doors andanother glass wall on the side
of it, which at that point,where do you put access control
as far as the card reader goes,you don't wanna put it 30 feet
down the hallway.
So we were able to talk to theGC ahead of time and kind of
make recommendations on changingthe door change or at least that
wall, so that way they didn'thave to redo that later on
(26:29):
whenever they did want theaccess control.
So getting in as early aspossible definitely is
beneficial.
If the customer already hascameras like I said, most of'em
don't work anyways, so it.
Just asking that question as faras what are you trying to solve?
Are your cameras working?
And then we can traditionallyuse the existing wiring that's
in place, assuming it's cat fiveor cat six, so there's not a lot
(26:50):
of cost involved as far as theinstallation.
It's just plugging in a newcamera.
Chris (26:55):
And I imagine this next question may be, it depends
which is so often the answer intechnology.
It depends.
But from the time, the firstdiscovery call.
Mean that the partner and theclient are, cooperating with
meetings and whatnot.
What's the average timeframefrom discovery call to install
complete?
josh (27:14):
Traditionally it's gonna be probably about four to six
weeks.
And again, it goes based on whatyou mentioned as well as far as
how fast does a customer want tomove.
But we can knock out an intro,call, a demo, budgetary pricing,
all within a week.
We can probably get the sitesurvey done week two.
And at that point, just waitingfor the numbers back.
That'd be week three and then.
Placing the order andcoordinating the installation
(27:36):
with that end user and thetechnician.
That's week four or five.
So we could get that out thedoor pretty quickly as far as
that goes, but it is a solution.
Obviously, if you think aboutlike a fiber, like if you think,
or if you relate it to fiber orlike your telecom, if you sell
Comcast fiber, it's going totake that same three month
install period as well.
So it's that same kind ofmentality of just get ahead of
the game.
Chris (27:57):
That's right.
Anything worth having is worthwaiting for.
That, yeah.
Anything that's too instant yougotta be a little suspicious if
it's oh, we'll be theretomorrow.
Mean you can go to Amazon andorder, you know your ring
doorbells and all, but thosearen't commercial grade.
There's no support.
There's a lot of reasons whythat's a bad idea.
It's quick and it's what's thesame reliable, fast, and cheap.
You can have two, but you can'thave all three.
(28:18):
I think that applies here too.
Man, Josh, this has been a greatconversation.
Very enlightening because like Isaid, you said earlier it is not
a traditional telecom channelsolution, but I think it is
becoming one because of thecybersecurity, because of the
networking, because of thecloud.
It's got all the ingredients of.
Telecom and technology and it'sjust solving a different
(28:39):
problem.
And I think that's what is greatabout what you're doing and
what, so many suppliers aredoing and trusted advisors.
We're solving everyday businessproblems with technology and
it's getting better and better.
And yes, I know it comes withhis frustrations and limitations
at times, but.
I don't know.
From my perspective, there's alot more upside than downside.
(29:00):
I'll all day long, we'll leaninto this.
Man, I landed the plane a littlebit, man.
Any last words, anything thatyou want cover we haven't talked
about yet?
I.
josh (29:09):
No, really, like I said, I two things.
One, this is a managed solution,right?
So this takes the entirecustomer experience and does
gives them a turnkey offeringversus a traditional model of
them having to go find thehardware, finding the
technician, getting itinstalled, managing it
themselves.
Setting it up, all that goodstuff.
So this takes all that off theirhands and makes it extremely
(29:30):
simple for that customer.
And then I'd say just my kind ofa quote that I live by is, why
put off until tomorrow what youcan do today?
Benjamin Franklin said thatprocrastination always seems to
shoot myself in the foot, so youmight as well start today,
somewhat else will sell it.
Otherwise, if you're not sellingit, so you may as well.
Chris (29:48):
I love that quote.
That is a great one.
Yeah, you told me you had one.
You told me what it was, butthat, there's a lot, there's a
lot in that procrastinationreally burns.
I mean that in my older age I'mfinding myself, I'm walking
through the house, I seesomething like, loose doorknob
or something that, you know,first tying into that same
quote, another one, it's notreally a quote, I guess it's
more of a thought, if somethingbothers you.
(30:10):
Address it, take care of it.
Don't walk by the same loosedoorknob for a month going, oh
my God, that door knobs killed.
Just, I literally stop what I'mdoing, Lord will, and I have the
time.
Go out to the garage, get thescrewdriver, and just fix it.
And now the next time I go byit, I feel satisfied.
I've accomplished something.
But yeah, procrastination, Ijust don't think there's, I
can't think of a situation wherethat's, that pays off nicely.
(30:31):
But I do have one more questionjust popped in.
Anyone that knows you well willbe.
Mad at me for not asking thisquestion, and I almost wish we
were on video.
What kind of pants are youwearing today?
I'm sure I'm not, I'm sure Areyou wearing shorts?
But if you wear, any cool pantstoday.
josh (30:46):
Not today.
I'm actually moving as we speak,so moving houses.
So I have actually shorts on, Ihave shorts on.
Have crawfish on'em to tell youthe
Chris (30:54):
Okay.
So you got some cool shorts on?
There we go.
josh (30:56):
I got cool with crawfish.
Chris (30:58):
That makes sense.
I see.
That's what I expected.
I'm just glad you did come backgoing.
What makes you think I'm wearingpants?
But I'm glad you're Yeah, I knewyou would be.
Yeah.
This is this is not a familyshow, but yeah, we do try to
keep it above board andprofessional, but yeah I tell
everybody, man you're the bestdressed in the oddest way at
every channel event, right?
So that, that's your shtick.
josh (31:17):
I.
Chris (31:18):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's, it is a compliment.
You're not trying to, youdefinitely, you have your own
music you dance to and you do itwell.
And I've always enjoyed yourfriendship.
You've always got a smile and ahandshake.
Thank you for that.
And yeah, thanks for making timetoday.
josh (31:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I appreciate it as well, andlook forward to seeing you next
time.
Chris (31:35):
You bet.
There you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
And as always, if you heardanything, you hit home, you
thought about a client, youthought about a business partner
or colleague, share this episodewith'em.
Check the show notes.
I'll have some links to.
His website and more informationabout how you can do business
with Josh and his team.
Thank you very much.
And also don't forget to checkout the wireless way.net
(31:57):
website.
There's a connect contact usbutton if you have any
suggestions, recommendationsfeedback.
Love to hear fromyou@thewirelessway.net.
And until then, have a fantasticremainder of your day.
Be the moment and don'tprocrastinate.
That's our message today.
See you next time on theWireless Way.
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