Verint's latest deal may impact security business, eventually

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Verint's Jan. 6 agreement to acquire KANA software for $514 million will not directly impact Verint's video surveillance and physical security business immediately, but there may be some integration of KANA capabilities into the Verint's video intelligence business at some point.

KANA is a provider of customer service solutions on premises and in the cloud.

“Kana does not have specific video technology, but they do have technology relevant to risk management and technology that can help with process orientation, especially at the desk top,” Ryan Hollenbeck, Verint's SVP, global marketing, told Security Systems News.

“Those capabilities are important to call takers at 911 centers, government agencies that interact with citizens and Fortune 100-type companies,” Hollenbeck explained.

Verint had 2013 revenues of $840 million. The company has two divisions, Verint Enterprise Intelligence Solutions, which offers workforce optimization solutions (which did about $490 million in 2013 revenues); and, Security Intelligence Solutions, which offers communications and cyber intelligence solutions (which did about $230 million in 2013) and its physical security component video and situation intelligence solutions (which did $120 million in 2013).

In October Verint announced it would acquire Vitrio, a provider of voice biometric technology. Hollenbeck said that Verint is taking a “fresh look at how the technologies across all of Verint can work together  [with an eye toward] … offering Verint technology more holistically.

KANA falls into that category of a technology that may be an add-on offering to physical security integrators in the future.

Several big cities in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K already use KANA and are also Verint customers,” he said. “What we have already seen is an example of customers working to integrate KANA and Verint [non-video surveillance related] technology,” Hollenbeck said. In the future, customers may want to integrate Verint video surveillance technology as well; and, that is something Verint would be able to do easily.