On the sidelines of the recent IFSEC India show, held in early December in Pragati Maidan in Delhi, a&s sat down with Ashish Dhakan, MD and CEO of Prama Hikvision India, to hear his thoughts on the future of India’s security industry.
On the sidelines of the recent IFSEC India show, held in early December in Pragati Maidan in Delhi,
a&s sat down with Ashish Dhakan, MD and CEO of Prama
Hikvision India, to hear his thoughts on the future of India’s security industry.
The story of Hikvision Digital Technology in India is one of tremendous growth, which runs in parallel with Hikvision’s ascent to the top of multiple global security company rankings. Both
a&s magazine’s Security 50 ranking and IHS Markit report (2017) have named Hikvision as the world’s leading supplier of video surveillance products and solutions. IHS reported that Hikvision had a 21.4 percent market share of the video surveillance equipment market worldwide, based on 2016 data.
“When I started in 2004-2005, selecting Hikvision was a turning point for me, and I chose it because of quality. I could see that this product is the best among all the other choices. I was proven right. By 2007, we were almost number 1 in India and then did a joint venture (JV) for horizontal expansion. We have been increasing our distribution in India ever since,” said Ashish Dhakan, who started his journey as an entrepreneur in Mumbai almost a decade ago. Today, Prama Hikvision is the largest supplier of surveillance equipment in the Indian market.
2017 has been a great year for Hikvision in terms of growth and expansion. “Now Prama Hikvision India’s consistent success is a part of Indian security market growth story. We had experienced consistent growth in the financial year, 2017-18,” he added.
Hikvision’s presence in the Indian market is remarkable, Dhakan relates Hikvision’s success to a customer-centric approach. “Hikvision’s approach to the Indian market is very much customer focused. Everything that we do is customer centric. We do everything around the customer and this strategy is helping us become successful.”
Ashish Dhakan,
MD and CEO,
Prama Hikvision India
Hikvision in India is leading from the front to deliver innovations and value-added service to its clients. “We are focusing on Hikvision’s latest innovative technologies like deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI), AI Cloud, big data and IoT to make a difference in the highly competitive Indian security market. Hikvision’s Deep Learning ‘DeepinView’ cameras and ‘DeepinMind’ NVRs are getting good responses. We are number 1 in product and technology, but our focus is on having a local touch for Hikvision in India. We have our local employees focused on this market and giving better support and SAP enabled RMA services. So our customers are locally served without any hassle,” he explained.
One recent example of Hikivision’s vertical-focused approach is its School Security Program that was initiated in October 2017 to promote security awareness in schools with a special focus on student safety.
“Our Hikvision School Security Program offers support to schools in creating a total security strategy for their premises, ensuring that there are no serious infrastructure problems, without any obligation to buy Hikvision products. In this initiative Hikvision has contacted a large number of schools across India. Now, there are more and more schools coming forward by expressing their desire to participate in the program,” said Dhakan.
Looking into the future, Dhakan sees continued growth in the Indian security market fueled by government demand. “I feel that most of the big ticket projects lies with the government in different forms: smart city, smart transportation, schools, colleges, ports, railways, etc. All these verticals belong to the government. The government’s Smart City Mission and Digital India initiative are creating new opportunities for the security Industry. India is one of the fastest growing markets for security products and solutions across the globe. In the next 10 years, India’s security market will experience a boom like never before,” he concluded.