Local entrepreneur starts a new software venture
alerts.
Davis said more false alerts occur in active places, such as an airport gate where ticket counters, kiosks and people make for many moving parts. In controlled areas such as a traffic light, there would be few or none, he said. On average, he said, users can expect one false alarm per day per camera.
Another tool
The system has worked as well as expected for Ion24/7, which monitors dozens of cameras for Birmingham, Alabama’s police department, said Richard Cruit, president. He has not tracked false alerts, he said, adding that all software generates some. “We tend to look at analytics as not the end all but as another arrow in the quiver, another tool to help us do our job better,” he said. “We’re sitting watching 45 to 50 cameras at any given time in specific crime hot spots, so this engine allows us to do more with less.”
If the company really can decrease false alerts, it could solve many of the industry’s biggest problems, said John Honovich, an industry analyst. He is not sold yet, noting BRS has not provided any independent data verifying its claims. “In general, their marketing claims are just very extreme,” he said.
Davis said BRS lets potential distributors test the product. Patel writes that BRS touts five contracts so far: a hotel chain in Mumbai, the Dubai airport — where baggage belts are monitored — a Southern U.S. port, a nuclear power plant in Virginia, and Ion24/7.
The company has earned less than $500,000 in revenue but expects to close contracts worth $10 million through next September, Davis said. The company’s largest sale so far totaled $78,000.
In October, BRS laid off ten employees who worked on product development to cut costs and focus on growth before considering a sale, Davis said.
Raised millions
Patel writes that the company has raised $47 million in funding. Of that, $12 million came last year from high-net-worth individuals across the country. Scott Reed, vice president of Chicago-based investment firm David A. Noyes & Co., says he helped attract about 50 investors since meeting with BRS last year. Investors were told Davis expected a sale within two years, he said. “Ray did not ever want to run an ongoing company,” he said. “His modus operandi is to develop a great technology, put that technology up for sale and move on to the next project.”
Davis founded Cynet and SimDesk only to sell them, but both had their share of controversy. After Davis sold Cynet in 1998, the new owners had to conduct a stock buyback. Under Davis, the company had violated Securities and Exchange Commission procedures when it issued shares. Davis said the company made a technical error by not waiting long enough before raising a second round of investments. The company eventually succumbed to the dot.com bust and filed for bankruptcy in 2002, he said.
Patel writes that Davis next founded SimDesk, which hawked office software stored and used via the Internet. The firm won a $9.5 million contract with the city of Houston in 2002 but was accused of being unfairly favored for the contract by the city’s then technology director. An investigation found no wrongdoing. The city ended its contract in 2004 because it did not foresee ever getting the 3 million users the contract projected, said Richard Lewis, the city’s technology director. The company closed last year.
