A different approach to PSIM

So, I was getting an update from Rob Hile, who is the new director of strategic accounts for SureView Systems, about his plans to drive business for the software provider. His plan is an interesting new take on the sometimes touchy topic of PSIM.

SureView, which has been around for 14 years, is fairly well known for its Immix software platform in the central station world, but Hile's goal is to expand Immix's horizons way beyond the central station world.

In the past two or three years the company "made a few tweaks" and the result is a "mid-market, situational awareness/PSIM solution ... that's cost effective, lighter, faster and cheaper [than other PSIM solutions]," he said. "It's cloud-based and it's dot.net, so it's super easy to install and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to operate it."

While high-end PSIM solutions allow an operator to "fly through buildings using a joy stick ... do you really want your guards in your SOC who are making $8 to $9 an hour flying through your building looking at graphics?" he asked. "No," he told me, answering his own question. What you want is a system that will allow the operator to handle an emergency quickly and efficiently and with the software, backed up by standard operating procedures, he said.

Well, in some applications, ports for example, you might want a joy stick-enabled PSIM and other bells and whistles, but Hile is betting that the majority of applications that could use this solution fall into the middle-market category.  Those include "cities and municipalities, higher education, Fortune 500 companies with multiple locations across the country that are doing acquisitions, pharmaceutical companies, retail, banking."

"The central station software has integrations built to 450 devices and about 65 manufacturers. We've got those done and the list is growing. ... and the licensing model is that you buy it and you can put in on as many servers and workstations as you want and we're not going to gouge you for that."

As he develops SureView's channel strategy, Hile will be working with large and mid-sized integrators--several of whom he's worked with or competed with previously. As an example, he'll be working with one large integrator's sales force (which numbers in the hundreds) educating them about SureView and helping them close deals when the time comes.

That sales force will be a "force multiplier" for SureView, Hile said. "If you're looking for a joy stick to fly through buildings, this is not the solution, but if you really want a user-friendly, cost effective solution to solve your challenge. I've got it. ... This is going to change the way PSIM makers go to market," he said.

Time will tell of course, but companies like SureView, that seek to change the PSIM model certainly bear watching.