In November, Bosch Security Systems and Sony signed a contract to establish a business partnership that will result in cooperation between the two company’s video surveillance units. What do the systems integrators think about it?
In November,
Bosch Security Systems and Sony signed a contract to establish a business partnership that will result in cooperation between the two company’s video surveillance units. Under the deal, Bosch will take over sales and marketing of Sony-branded products outside Japan.
To many analysts, this appeared to be an unprecedented move, despite the market sending clear signs towards increasing consolidation. But according to systems integrators, this deal is not going to have a significant effect on their businesses.
“Really don’t see this as a game changer as there have been few mergers over the years like Avigilon buying over VideoIQ, Samsung merger and so on,” said Verghese Thirumala, MD of Maxitulin. “I don’t see this affecting the business as currently we offer integrated system thus having the flexibility of use different brands on a single platform.”
“Really don’t see this as a game changer as there have been few mergers over the years like Avigilon buying over VideoIQ, Samsung merger and so on.”
-Verghese Thirumala, MD, Maxitulin
Patrick Lim, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Ademco Security, agreed, adding that if the two companies can leverage each other’s strengths, it would benefit the market as a whole.
“Our business is not affected by the Sony Bosch partnership and I think it is a good thing to happen,” Lim said. “If there are indeed synergies in the partnership, especially the exchange of technologies and consolidation of operations, perhaps it can be a significant force to further enhance the quality of the surveillance market.”
Thirumala too thinks the deal would give clients good options. “Sony’s expertise is high-quality imaging and Bosch’s video analytics and bandwidth management capabilities,” he said. “Sony’s strength is manufacturing which they plan to focus on in this partnership whereas Bosch’s strength is marketing and after sales. Price factor had pushed Sony to a disadvantageous position.”
The inevitability of such a move was further highlighted by William Goh, Executive Director of ADP. “In today’s market, the overall economic is slowing down, to gain better in operating cost and market share, partnership is the only way ahead for all businesses,” Goh said.
In fact, Lim goes to the extent to say that the partnership of such a kind was expected and that there might be more in coming days. “We have already seen several mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the security industries in the last 24months and I expect to see more partnership and M&A to come,” Lim said.
It would certainly be interesting to see how other large manufacturers respond to the deal. With the Western market increasingly coming under pressure from Chinese manufacturers, at least some would believe partnerships are the best way to take their business forward.