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V-Count Builds Sensors. Vemco Builds Software, by Choice.
Vemco Group has counted people for more than 20 years, with 55,000+ installations in 98+ countries, 60+ million people counted every day, 800+ malls on the platform and software available in 24 languages.
No company can be the best at both hardware and software development. V-Count designs and manufactures its own Nano sensors and pairs them with its own BoostBI analytics. Vemco made the opposite choice: all of our development goes into the software, and the sensors come from manufacturers that do nothing else, including Xovis, where Vemco is a Gold Partner, Milesight, Axis and more than 40 hardware vendors in total. Sensor technology moves fast, and the best counter today is replaced by a better one tomorrow. A vendor that only sells its own sensors limits itself, and it limits its customers. With Vemcount the sensor above each door is chosen for that entrance, the counters you already own can stay, and new hardware joins the same platform with the same history. The sections below take the comparison point by point.
Vemcount vs V-Count: Seven Points of Comparison
Software First vs Own Hardware
Sensor Choice, Upgrades and Lock-In
Accuracy You Can Make Decisions On
Offline Data and Health Checking
Real Time and Alerts
From Footfall to a Platform
Reporting and AI
V-Count is a vertically integrated company: it designs its Nano AI, Nano Prime and Nano Outdoor sensors and its BoostBI platform. That gives one supplier for everything, and it also ties the customer to one sensor range and one roadmap. Vemco chose to be a software company. We put 100 percent of our development into the platform and listen to what customers need, while the sensors come from manufacturers whose whole business is hardware. That is why Vemcount can use a 3D stereo sensor in a high mall atrium, a different model on a narrow boutique door and an outdoor rated device at a car park entrance, all in one estate and one report. Hardware ages quickly. A platform that is not tied to one manufacturer lets you adopt the next generation of sensors when it arrives instead of waiting for one vendor to build it.
The sensor is the biggest part of the investment and the part that ages fastest. V-Count's sensors are designed for V-Count's platform; V-Count states that BoostBI can also read data from some third party counters, so ask in writing which ones and on what terms. Vemcount has integrated more than 40 hardware vendors over the years, today current 3D and AI sensors from Xovis, Milesight, Irisys, Brickstream, Hikvision, Avigilon Alta, Eco-Counter, Axis, Hella Aglaia, Intenta, TDI and VIVOTEK. You choose the sensor per entrance, mix brands across the estate, keep the sensors you already own and replace them with newer models later without changing software or losing history. Buy the sensors outright or rent them in a monthly fee per entrance, and license the software per location.
Every decision built on footfall, from the staff rota to a rent review, is only as good as the count behind it. Published accuracy figures are measured by the vendor under the vendor's conditions; a contractual minimum is a commitment measured at your entrance. Vemcount installations are contracted at a minimum of 96 percent counting accuracy, typically 98 to 99 percent, verified by a 24 hour validation test per measuring point, and for sensors supplied and installed by Vemco a missed target means recalibration, repositioning or replacement at no cost. In a side by side pilot, validate both platforms against a manual count on the same door and the same hours, and ask each vendor which figure they will sign.
Every sensor estate has blocked lenses, power cuts and network outages. What matters is whether you can see it. In Vemcount the sensor health checker reports when data is missing, so the right person knows the same day. Aggregated data is shown as aggregated until the sensor pushes its real counts, and then the estimate disappears automatically. Conversion rates, staffing decisions and tenant reports are never built on numbers nobody flagged. During a pilot, pull one counter offline for an afternoon on each platform and look at how that afternoon is presented a week later, and whether an estimated figure is visible as an estimate.
Vemcount shows a person on the dashboard about two seconds after they pass the sensor, which is what real time needs to mean for occupancy limits, queue triggers and staff calls. Alerts go by SMS, WhatsApp, webhook, on-screen or audio notification, and MQTT lets Vemcount trigger third party devices directly: a siren when a safety limit is reached, a sliding door that closes at capacity, a building management system that adjusts ventilation to the number of people inside. If your case includes occupancy control or any action that has to happen while the visitor is still in the doorway, test the latency of both platforms yourself with a stopwatch and ask whether the platform can trigger a device at all.
Most estates want more than footfall within two years, so ask every vendor what the platform covers today and get the answer in writing. With Vemcount you start with counting and grow on the same platform. The sales module connects any POS, with 19 native connectors, and calculates conversion, sales per visitor and average basket against traffic per store and per hour. Tracking and Re-ID show routes, dwell and returning visitors. VemTenant handles property management for shopping centres, with tenant turnover collection and footfall per tenant. VemSpace covers space and facility management, where people counters sit alongside a large portfolio of IoT devices on LoRaWAN, Sigfox and NB-IoT. 3D maps are live today, and new modules are added to the same platform as they are released.
Vemcount has a BI layer with two ways in. Snap Reports give you the data in one click, for the store manager who needs Saturday's numbers and nothing else. Advanced reports and dashboards are where you really work with the data: build your own views, combine footfall with sales and staffing, schedule delivery in 24 languages and export to your own BI through the open API included in the licence. AI is built in for companies that want an AI advisor on their data, one that answers questions about trends and anomalies in plain language instead of leaving you to find them in a table. Vemcount is enterprise software built to enterprise security requirements rather than a platform focused on people counting data only, so procurement, IT security and data protection reviews are a normal part of how we sell. When you compare, check whether you can build your own reports, schedule them in your languages and export through an API, and what each of those costs.
How to Run a Side by Side Pilot
Pick two stores with different character, for example a wide main entrance in a shopping centre and a narrow high street door, and run both platforms on them for 30 days. Have each vendor install on the same entrances, then validate against manual counts on at least three trading days including a Saturday peak. Ask for the accuracy clause in writing before the pilot starts. Vemcount's is a contractual minimum of 96 percent, typically 98 to 99 percent, and the manual counts are how you check it.
Then test the things that actually decide the comparison. Stand at the door with a stopwatch and time how long a visitor takes to appear on each dashboard; Vemcount shows them in about two seconds. Pull a counter offline for an afternoon and look at how each system marks the gap a week later, and whether an estimated figure is visible as an estimate. Check the uptime log of each counter at the end of the 30 days. Connect the POS and check that conversion is calculated the way your finance team expects. Export the data through the API into your own BI tool and time the setup. Finally hand the reporting to the two store managers for a fortnight and ask them one question at the end: which system changed a decision on staffing or opening hours.
Switching Without Disruption: How a Move to Vemcount Works
Sensors: Decide Door by Door
Ask V-Count in writing whether your existing Nano sensors can deliver data to another platform and on what terms. Where they cannot, we plan the replacement door by door, bought or rented, with current 3D and AI models from independent manufacturers chosen for the environment they will run in. It is the last time a software change forces a sensor change, because every sensor on the Vemcount platform works with open interfaces.
Parallel Running
Both platforms run side by side for an agreed period, typically one to three months. Store teams keep their familiar reports while head office validates the new numbers against the old, and the sensor health checker shows from day one which entrances deliver real data. The cutover date becomes a decision rather than a leap.
Historical Data
Where your current contract allows an export, historical counts are imported into Vemcount so year on year and like for like comparisons continue from day one. Check the data ownership and export terms in your existing agreement before you give notice, and ask how estimated periods are marked in the export so you know which history is real.
Training and Growth
Store, regional and head office users are trained in their own language on the reports they will actually use, with Snap Reports and scheduled reports set up so the right numbers arrive without anyone logging in. Once counting is stable, the sales module, tracking, VemTenant or VemSpace are switched on without a new project.
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