Prism Skylabs launches partner program

SAN FRANCISCO—Prism Skylabs, a cloud-based service that enables business owners to use data from existing video surveillance cameras for business intelligence, marketing and other purposes, last week launched a partner program.

Prism, launched in August 2011 by 3VR founder Steve Russell, recently raised $7.5 million in funding. Prism's service has been in beta for a year, but its software is now available to integrators.

“Integrators can make $100-plus per site per month reselling Prism's recurring services,” Russell said.

Setup does not require extensive networking expertise. “We attempt to make this easier than it's ever been before. Anyone can download software and get started,” Russell said. “For the integrator, it's game-changing.”

As opposed to the “really long sales” that integrators are accustomed to, “Prism is an application [that can] begin to be used the same day the customer hears about it,” he said.

The partner program is two-tiered, with distribution and solutions partners. Distribution partners take the software and deploy it on behalf of customers, while solutions partners “bundle software and RMR … into solutions for their customers,” Russell explained.  

In addition to security integrators, Russell anticipates the product will be sold to “the IT integrator looking to add video capability and … retail-focused integrators.”

“Today, integrators resell expensive systems that break often and have no recurring revenue tied to them,” Russell said.

“Prism can be deployed on off-the-shelf hardware that costs $300 to $600 and has [a] zero upfront software cost to get started. Because it's cloud-based, it can be deployed on small, fabless, solid-state computers that rarely need maintenance,” he added.

The technology has been well received by retailers, Russell said. It enables retailers to share information, derived from their video surveillance feeds, with people in their own organization as well as channel partners.