A Fairfax company is hoping to help businesses cut down on the manpower they need to monitor security cameras — and turn the images captured on those cameras into valuable marketing information.
Avocado Security, which will introduce its first product in April, has been quietly developing the technology over the past two years, said Chief Executive Kevin Shahbazi.
The Web-based product derives information collected by all of a company’s security cameras and transmits it into tangible reports that contain charts, graphs and other easily digestible data, Shahbazi explained. The system can determine security problems such as when a camera isn’t working properly, or obtain more sophisticated business data such as which aisles of a grocery store are most frequently traveled or which areas of a hotel get the most traffic at certain times.
“Both of these areas are important, but they’re really getting far more of a benefit on the marketing side,” Shahbazi said.
Avocado customers can also get automatic e-mail alerts any time an anomaly occurs, Shahbazi said.
Avocado, which got its name because Shahbazi wanted something easily recognizable such as a food, and with positive, healthy connotations, plans to target the retail, hospitality and bankingindustries.
The first incarnation of the service will retail at $99 per month, Shahbazi said, though the company plans to run a $49 per month promotion when it launches. Companies starting to tap into their video data for marketing information have provided recent opportunities for entrepreneurs, said Matt Steinfort, CEO of Envysion. His Boulder, Colo., company began offering a system last year that allows all of a company’s surveillance cameras to be accessed simultaneously online; customers include the restaurant chains Chipotle and International House of Pancakes.
“You can obtain the information you need without ever leaving the building; you don’t have to send people out to watch customers and write things down, or rely on managers,” he said.
