SMART CITIES

“Culture is the foundation for our company,” says Eric Yunag, Vice President of Technology for Convergint, a global systems integrator. “Our top priority is service in every way—service to our customers, our colleagues, and our community.”

Founded 20 years ago, the service provider goes beyond simply offering security, fire, and life safety solutions, to dedicating time and resources for actions that help secure a better future. For example, Convergint participates in local service projects that are meaningful for their frontline businesses. They provide safety and security resources for underfunded organizations. And they give financial help to employees who are experiencing hardships through a colleague emergency fund launched in honor of one of its founders.

When it comes to serving their customers, Convergint works to stay accountable for their number-one objective: “We want to be our customers’ best service provider in any category across the board,” says Yunag.

Global Systems Integrators: Partners in Innovation

They accomplish this mission by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, and other IoT technologies to create transformational opportunities, moving the role of security beyond surveillance and into data collection that provides insights.

“AI, IoT, and computer vision are fundamentally changing the way the world operates,” says Yunag. “Convergint helps its customers assess opportunities and create a new technology roadmap that serves overall organizational objectives. These technologies can re-architect security, fire, and life safety systems that can drive better customer and employee experiences.”

Connecting a variety of different cameras and sensors, Convergint pieces together situational intelligence models that connect the physical world to the digital. And Intel^® has been an important partner. “The vision that Intel^® is casting around IoT and the intelligent edge is an important catalyst for a lot of conversations,” says Yunag. “At a practical level, the Intel^® Solutions Marketplace is an important way for us to package and position solutions that solve customers’ problems.”

By leveraging #ConnectedIntelligence and reimagining how security #systems provide value, businesses can take advantage of opportunities that weren’t possible before. @Convergint via @insightdottech

IoT Security Solutions Transform Industries

Convergint’s customer list is a who’s who of Fortune 5000 companies in energy, transportation, retail, government, healthcare, and finance industries. For example, a manufacturing customer in the mining space operates expensive equipment that digs for a specific type of material in a water-based pit. Objects like tree stumps or rocks can damage the equipment. Convergint developed a model that identifies these objects and, when detected, shuts down the equipment before damage is done.

Convergint deployed cameras connected to business intelligence infrastructure at a food processing company that does high-volume production of packaged foods. A machine learning model was created based on the company’s specific requirements that looks for defects.

And brick-and-mortar retailers leverage computer vision to generate analytics, such as how many people come into the store, where they go, what they look at, and how long they dwell in certain areas. The technology can also determine if customers convert through a cash register or leave the store without purchasing.

“All of the metrics that can be collected for eCommerce can now be collected in the physical world,” says Yunag. “Bringing those types of metrics into the physical space gives brick-and-mortar retailers a competitive advantage, connecting the physical to the digital world.”

IoT Solutions Transform the Future of Security

Connecting the dots with edge intelligence can solve previously unsolved problems with new technologies. And as innovative technology continues to emerge, security systems of the future can be leveraged for revenue-generating activities and process automation.

Visual intelligence is a completely disruptive theme and powerful outcome driver for organizations. Anything a camera can capture can be turned into data that can drive those customer experiences and outcomes in very different ways.

The challenge for traditional security buyers is to break the mental paradigm, stop thinking of cameras as security devices, and start thinking about camera technology as a visual intelligence platform for their whole organization to leverage. The new approach opens the door to conversations with other areas within organizations, such as marketing or operations. By leveraging connected intelligence and reimagining how systems provide value, businesses can take advantage of opportunities that weren’t possible before.

“Security is going from being a profit-and-loss expense line item to being leveraged for revenue-generating or cost-reduction activities in other areas of the business,” says Yunag. “We think about the hundreds of billions of IoT devices that will be put into the world in the next 10 or 20 years and the impact that it’ll have on the world. It’s exciting to think about the opportunities ahead and the changes that bringing those things together start to unfold.”
 

This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Associate Content Director for insight.tech.