Milestone embraces full capabilities of video software with the community

Video technology continues to transform in the Internet of Things (IoT). The rise of IoT has opened up additional revenue avenues for VMS providers from software and application development in today’s increasingly digital and network-based world. In Asia Pacific alone, IoT presents a US$583 billion market opportunity, with the number of connected devices expected to grow from 3.1 billion to 8.6 billion by 2020.

Milestone Systems was one of the first to realize this potential in the market and has since established itself as an industry giant, with IHS Markit naming the company as the number one global VMS provider for the ninth year running. An open platform plus the right ecosystem of partners provides the foundation for success with best-inclass solutions.

“From an overall market perspective, we are experiencing tremendous growth. Milestone is outperforming the market by more than three times the growth rate. We are also leading in the APAC region where we grew by 20 percent compared to an overall market growth of 1.1 percent,” said Kenneth Hune Petersen, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Milestone Systems.

This success can be attributed to Milestone’s open platform software and ecosystem of partners, which has become a continuous source of co-creation and innovation. It has not only opened up new markets for the company, but expanded a base of solutions built on the open source platform that can be tailored by partners for application in multiple industries.

“The world is changing quickly — and with change comes opportunity. The power of multiple partnerships offers customers a fully integrated solution. With close co-development and teamwork, we provide countless solutions for integrated video management,” said Benjamin Low, VP of Sales for Asia Pacific at Milestone Systems.

This can clearly be seen in Milestone’s comprehensive solution portfolio in Asia, which ranges from commercial spaces and educational institutions in Australia, to airports and government installations in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries. With this powerful partnership comprising a community of providers, integrators are able to truly customize solutions in a way that allows end users to achieve additional functionality while leveraging their existing investments.

"With close co-development and teamwork, we provide countless solutions for integrated video management,”
- Benjamin Low, VP, Sales, Asia Pacific, Milestone Systems.

Growing In and Beyond Security

Although the potential for growth in security is still strong, Low sees great opportunity across APAC outside the industry. With a growing number of businesses recognizing the possibilities, Milestone is helping companies integrate advanced applications, such as facial recognition, with existing surveillance systems and transforming the return on investment.

Petersen added, “Around 90 percent of our revenue currently comes from security and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of market potential for services beyond. Milestone can help change investments in video surveillance from a sunk cost to a business enabler. We see this as our obligation — to inspire and enable our community partners to try something new and expand their services.”

Petersen cited smart cities as a prime example of this trend, as these projects touch upon two of the biggest buzzwords in the industry — IoT, because of all the sensors and cameras that are generating a tremendous load of data, and artificial intelligence (AI), which is needed to process it.

“Governments are calling out for solutions that can better protect cities, interoperate existing sensors and manage all this from one centralized command center. By correlating the data gathered, they can make sense of everything as well as predict patterns and trends,” added Low.

Low explained Milestone’s role in these advanced security applications and beyond, saying, “At the end of the day, VMS tends to be the centerpiece of everything. With Milestone’s open application programming interface (API), we allow different devices and solution partners to develop an interface with us.”

Milestone is also doing what it can to remove bottlenecks in its certification process to ensure all the devices and software run smoothly and are interoperable. “We are looking into outsourcing our certification; setting up rules and criteria so that third party companies can do this for us and our community partners,” said Petersen. “We tried to apply the same logic that we used when the company was founded — we can’t do all of this by ourselves so why not make it open platform?” He added that this is something Milestone aims to accomplish in two years’ time.

Continued Focus on Asia With MIPS Hanoi

Moving forward, Milestone aims to further strengthen its commitment in Asia as it remains an important growth region for the company, amidst market consolidation and price pressures. “Other than investing internally in our sales and support team to service our customers better, we are investing in our community as well,” said Low.

Milestone held its first ever Asia Pacific Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) earlier this year in Macau, where nearly 300 community partners engaged in dialogue sessions and workshops. “I think the MIPS events are Milestone’s unique way of giving back to its community, channels and solution partners,” said Low. “With more than 100,000 video management installations and thousands of partners, we help companies all over the world empower their business with lasting technology and reliable systems. We appreciate what they give and they gain valuable connections. But it isn’t a one-way street, we all grow and become successful together.”

Milestone hopes to build on this next year in January with its 2018 MIPS APAC event in Hanoi, Vietnam. “The launch of our vision ‘make the world see’ was successful. We signed up a tremendous number of new partners to our community this past year and saw a growth of more than 150 percent in our free software downloads,” said Petersen. “We continue to work hard on creating a platform that the community can leverage. The Milestone store was launched this year and more new things will be launched on our platform at MIPS Hanoi. There is definitely a lot to look forward to.”

Co-Creation of Opportunities

Milestone continues to show its dedication to its open platform, ecosystem approach, not only by continually advancing the platform, but also by fostering engagement and collaboration within the community. These long-term partnerships will continue to create more opportunities for Milestone to grow alongside its partners and further cement its status as a leader in the industry. By building a community, everyone within the ecosystem benefits from the innovation and value creation. The ecosystem provides Milestone with a unique opportunity to make the world see the additional value that expands beyond security.