Despite high growth in the Philippine security industry, there are still challenges facing channel players. One of them is competition as more and more companies enter the field. To win out, companies offer a full range of products and services to attract and retain customers. “We try to offer a full range of produ
Despite high growth in the Philippine security industry, there are still challenges facing channel players. One of them is competition as more and more companies enter the field. To win out, companies offer a full range of products and services to attract and retain customers.
“We try to offer a full range of products. We are dealing with Hikvision, and then for somebody who wants a little bit higher end, we have Bosch,” said James Savage, GM of HMR Solutions. “We do maintenance services. We have a hotel chain that is gradually replacing all their PA system. We've done six hotel branches so far and there is going to be 35 eventually.”
“It's all about system as well as support. After warranties, we offer them some preventive maintenance, so the system won't just run for one good year, but as we go along,” said Melody Mirasol, Marketing Manager at ELID.
“We have two services that we're offering right now. The first is preventive maintenance service to extend the lifespan of the product. Another service we're offering is the comprehensive training program aiming to empower our clients, so that they have more product knowledge,” said Elmer Palado, Assistant R&D Heat at eSecure, a systems integrator.
Against this backdrop, distributors often ask for help and support from their principals, who are more than happy to lend a helping hand. “What we do is enhancing the capability of distributors by enhancing their ability to sell to the market, and this includes two components. The first is how do you provide the right product at the right time. So what we did was we set up a distribution center in Malaysia from which products can be delivered to most parts of Asia the next day,” said Harish Vellat, VP/GM for Asia Pacific at Honeywell Security and Fire. “The second thing we are doing is provide technical training, enablement and support. Just from January to March we trained about 70 professionals on security and close to 100 professionals on fire to enhance their knowledge.”
“We have a value-added solution program. We call it VASP so its value-added solution partner. It's a partnership between Hikvision, distributors and the systems integrator. So If you cooperate with us through the VASP, we will have better pricing support, marketing support and technical support,” said Joseph Castillo, Sales Manager at Hikvision.
“Our innovation is taking place at a rapid pace, and our products are divided into different categories and models. Our distribution partners must have complete knowledge of the products to effectively market them,” said Eric Hu, APAC Sales Engineer at Dahua Technology. “From our end, we provide training and support. We have an office here, with staff available to train our distribution partners.”