Special Interview with Benjamin Low, VP-APAC, Milestone Systems
& Ritesh Deokar, Country Manager-India, Milestone Systems
In 22 years of business, Milestone had a profitable every year with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) on net revenue of 14 percent over the last five years. A few years ago, Milestone challenged itself to achieve an annual net revenue of one billion Danish Kroner, and in 2019, finally achieved this number. Their positive revenue came from an increase in license and Care sales.
At Milestone, they have always been focusing on long-term sustainable growth, which has proven successful showing profitability. They have great people working and a strong Milestone community of business partners which are the pillars behind their business strategy. Right now, the company is working on gearing up internally so that they can better support partners and customers when business resumes.
Where do you position yourself today in the global VMS market and how do you take it ahead?
Benjamin: During the last 10 years, we have been a dominant player in the VMS market. In 2018, our global VMS market share was just below 10 percent in a market valued at USD 1.4 billion. Today, we are a global leader in open platform IP Video Management Software (VMS) and Network Video Recorders (NVRs). We deliver both a business and technology platform on which our community of hardware and software partners can grow their business and integrate their video solutions. We operate our business through a two-tier distribution and partner channel, and our solutions are available in most countries around the world.
What are the upcoming initiatives Milestone is taking for its integrators and channel partners?
Benjamin: Our focal point has been bringing in flexibility – to our community of partners and end-customers, enabling them to respond quickly to new disruptive technologies. We have the Milestone Market place to connect our buyers and sellers on an open business platform which allows for the co-creation of innovative solutions. Marketplace version 2.0 will be launched later this year bringing enhanced features and benefits to the Milestone community. We will be adding more functionality to our Milestone Integration Platform Software Developers’ Kit (MIP SDK) and our Application Programming Interface (API) such as Rule Engine Support and Metadata Search.
The uptake of Marketplace has been positive, with 200 product pages, 130 company pages and more than 400,000-page views in 2019.
We will also continue to release bi-monthly Device Packs, adding to our 8,500 supported devices and complemented by the Driver Framework. Hardware readiness will also be expanding through our System Builder program.
In addition, we will continue to work with the Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA), where we are a founding member. OSSA has plans in 2020 to launch its offerings designed to provide standards and specifications for common components including operating systems, IoT infrastructure, collective approach to data security and privacy.
What is Milestone’s India market share in VMS?
Ritesh: India’s market share comes under the APAC region growth which has been 16 percent with invoiced revenue amounted to DKK 156 million (23.6 million USD). India has delivered strong growth signing several key strategic projects within industries such as manufacturing, IT, ITES, government and transportation services, during the year. In the APAC region, Milestone has continued to increase sales and have signed several large projects in all regions during 2019.
How has been the recent growth curve for India?
Ritesh: In India, we have been able to garner a significant growth number of 30% YoY. The surveillance industry in India is on a fast-track, as more number of organisations are migrating towards modern IP-based video surveillance systems and also to integrated open platforms.Milestone India has successfully implemented various surveillance and security projects comprising smart city, public transportation, airport surveillance, police department, as well as retail.
What are the future plans for India, regarding investments and expansion?
Ritesh: Our roadmap for 2020 includes vertical focused approach, technology integrations and marketplace adoption. In order to accommodate these plans in the Indian market, we are expanding in terms of our workforce to support our partner communities and customers. Milestone India has also made significant investments in improving its workplace infrastructure in the country. We have further plans of expanding our Bangalore workspace to a larger area along with setting up a Customer Experience Centres and Custom-Development Operation which will support the entire APAC region. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic was not anticipated in this roadmap, hence, there might be certain changes in the pace of operations, which however will not be much significant is what we firmly believe.