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Transcript of an interview with Ivy Li (Co-founder and MD of iOmniscient) about her participation at the IMS Conference in Los Angeles

iOmniNews (iONews - 21st April 2011):

You have recently presented at the IMS Conference in Los Angeles. Why were you invited to present there?

Ivy: For several years we have been working closely with Intel. They have been developing their next generation technology which will allow video analysis to move to a new level in performance. Along with a company called AnalyticsReady, a Super Edge Camera is being built which will showcase our technology and Intel’s of course. Intel was the Platinum sponsor for IMS and they invited us to join them at this conference and talk about some of the things that are coming down the line.

iONews: Give us your view on some of the messages you heard there.

Ivy: One of the points that IMS themselves made was that the video analysis market seems to be splitting up into two extremes. On the one hand there are extremely sophisticated products from a couple of companies like ourselves. On the other there are a very large number of very low end products – low end in terms of both functionality and quality.

iONews: Why do you think this is happening?

Ivy: My view is that the poor quality is driven by the fact that most of these companies have significant VC investment. VCs expect to have an exit strategy within 2 or 3 years. Their focus is to have the minimum acceptable technology and then to focus on sales so that they can position themselves for an exit. Hence in virtually all these companies there is very little focus on improving their technology. A major reason that Vidient shut down according to a participant from NEC was that the VCs became impatient at their lack of progress in sales. Of course with poor technology generating lots of false alarms it is very difficult for such companies to grow sales. As iOmniscient is not VC funded we have the luxury of investing in technology for the long term. We have the goal of continuing to have the world’s best video analytics and since we do not have VCs pressuring us for an exit strategy we can afford to pursue this objective.

iONews: What was the IMS view on the viability of video analytics companies?

Ivy: I was surprised to find that we appeared to be the only video analysis company that was operating profitably. The main reason we run at a profit is that the founders still run the company. It’s our money and we work hard at spending it wisely. It was amazing to see how many of these small companies which were not yet making a profit, had executives who had flown over in business class and who were living in 5 star hotels. When it is someone else’s money the burn rate tends to be much higher.

iONews: I understand that there were questions raised about the robustness of video analysis technology.

Ivy: Yes. Many System Integrators complained that the technology they used had large numbers of false alarms. The question was asked whether these supplier companies could solve these problems within the next five years. The answer is that because of the lack of focus on technology most of these companies may never ever solve this problem. On the other hand all of iOmniscient’s systems are armed with our artificial intelligence based NAMS system to minimize false alarms. We have had this for over five years.

iONews: So your systems don’t suffer from false alarms?

Ivy: I would not say that. Video Analytics is an evolving technology and it will keep improving. To be effective it has to operate better than humans could on their own. Our system in most situations will beat a human. And it will certainly have far fewer false alarms compared to any other product on the market today. So we are not perfect but we are visibly better than anything else that is around.

iONews: Are there not companies now who give their analytics software away almost for free?

Ivy: Indeed there are. Many camera companies are giving away their software at low or even zero cost. However you get what you pay for – which is nothing. We talked before of Integrators complaining that the products they were using did not work. Well they should not be surprised if they are attempting to use such products. Interestingly we get at least a couple of Integrators every month asking us to come in and replace a system that they have previously put in which is not working.

iONews: If you are not focussed on an immediate Exit Strategy like everyone else why are you in this business?

Ivy: We have had a long standing passion to have the world’s best video analytics. You will know that my co-founder, Dr Rustom Kanga led the team that built the world’s first commercial Artificial Intelligence system. This was in the early eighties. We founded iOmniscient to make Video Analytics a reality, to create something that would work well and take the industry to a new level in terms of its technology. This is a dream we have had for a long time. For us it is a lifetime commitment – not something we are doing for 3 years to see if we can make a quick buck.

iONews: If your focus is on technology and not on sales how come you are doing better in Sales than just about any other company in this industry?

Ivy: Both Rustom and I worked for DEC which was then bought by Compaq and which was then absorbed by HP. We learnt an interesting lesson there. DEC’s founder believed that you had to build the world’s best technology and intelligent customers will want it. DEC went from zero to being the second largest computer company after IBM with this philosophy. It is one we share. We do not set ourselves Sales or growth targets. Our goals are in terms of what we can achieve with the technology. If you have good products that work well then the growth just happens. This does not mean that we do not focus on meeting our customer’s needs. But we don’t use high pressure sales people. All our field people are consultants whose role is to advise and help their clients rather than to pressure them into closing deals. This ensures that expectations are correctly set and customers understand exactly what they are getting.

iONews: Thank you Ivy

About iOmniscient
iOmniscient is one of the international leaders in Video Analytics and unlike other video analytics suppliers it has the internationally patented ability to perform complex detections in crowded scenes which makes it useful for public areas such as airports, railways, roads and public buildings. In addition to its comprehensive suite of Detection Systems it also has the most comprehension Identification systems for both vehicles (using license plate recognition) and people (using Facial Recognition). All iOmniscient systems have a unique in-built Nuisance Alarm Minimization System (NAMS) to help eliminate false alarms – a major differentiator against its competitors. Please visit www.iomniscient.com for further company and product information.