VSaaS: Drivkrafter för betalningsvilja

Abstract

Cloud based services known as ”Software as a Service” has in the past few
years become very popular in the IT industry. Hence it is not surprising that
the concept also has reached the security industry and the market for camera
surveillance, where the concept ”Video Surveillance as a Service” (VSaaS) has
become a buzzword. This is much because of new business opportunities for
the vendors and easier camera management for the customer. Axis
Communications AB is the world-leading provider of network based camera
surveillance has entered this market with their service Axis Video Hosting
System (AVHS).
Problem definition:
There are good reasons to believe that VSaaS has the potential of being a
successful commercial service. But yet the growth of this market has not
reached the hopes of the industry.
This means that there is a resistance among the end customers to embrace and
pay for the concept of video surveillance as a service. Another key factor for
VSaaS to be successful is for all the participants in the value system that
together creates the VSaaS service to overcome any barriers.
Is it simply the price that the end customer sees as an issue or can it be that the
service lacks any functionality, or that the existing functionality does not match
the needs of the end customer? And which barriers in the value chain are there
to be overcome, and what possibilities are there to solve these barriers?
Delimitations:
To create the VSaaS service physical hardware needs to be connected to
software, and then packaged to a final service that can be delivered and
installed to the end customer. The decision of what which each part of the
value chain will contribute with will follow Axis’ current business model. This
master thesis does not aim to quantify how much the end customers are willing
to pay or to look at the profitability. End customers are restricted to retail.
V
Purpose:
The purpose with this master thesis is to examine the driving forces behind the
incentives to pay for this service among all the parties in the value chain as well
as the end customer.
Method:
This master thesis is conducted as a case study at Axis Communications AB.
The study is based on internal documentation and qualitative internal and
external interviews with different stakeholders involved in delivering VSaaS to
an end-user.
Thesis conclusions:
According to the theory the incentives to pay could be described as the
perceived value of a good or service. Since VSaaS is combined effort by several
parties in ecosystem every member of that system must also see their benefit to
embrace the service.
Response from the interviewees revealed that there exist several barriers both
for end customers to buy VSaaS and VSP’s willingness to sell it, and for them
to accept the idea of selling surveillance as a service. The main barriers are for
end customers to accept to pay for video surveillance as a service,
infrastructure, lack the need of advanced functionality, and that some VSP’s
prefer to sell other products with better margins.
Further a price analysis revealed that the price is a problem in the low-end
segment of the market, but is in line with or below similar solutions sold by
system integrators. The conclusion of this is that the price alone is not an issue.
The conclusion is thus that the price or a specific feature alone is not what will
determine the end customer’s incentive to pay for this service. Instead there
are several factors that affects each other, and across the whole ecosystem.

• author: Paulin, Stefan and Ytterfors, Jonas
• supervisor: Carl-Johan Asplund
• organization: Production Management
• course: MIO920
• year: 2013
• type: M1 - University Diploma
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: VSaaS, cloud based services, incentives to pay VSaaS, molnbaserade tjänster, betalningsvilja
• other publication id: 13/5447
• language: Swedish
• id: 4025479
• date added to LUP: 2013-09-17 13:20:53
• date last changed: 2013-09-17 13:20:53