Milestone Systems

Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), has received The Outstanding Vendor Award from PSA Security two years in a row. This award is given in recognition of the praise received from the cooperative’s constituents about vendor products, customer service and overall consistency.

For nearly four decades, PSA Security Network has been a growing organization providing systems integration companies with a national presence, exceptional equipment selection, competitive pricing, services, and industry-leading training. Every year they conduct a survey of the members (called ‘owners’) based on how each vendor partner ranked on price, shipping, support (customer, sales and technical), lead generation, returns and product performance.

“Milestone was very pleased to receive the PSA Security award for Outstanding Vendor last year. To receive it yet again this year is a double honor and testament to the strong partnership values of reliability, openness, flexibility and innovation that we strive to deliver,” says Tim Palmquist, VP Operations for Milestone Systems Inc.

Established in 1974, Professional Security Alliance, Inc. (dba PSA Security Network) is the world’s largest electronic security cooperative. This for-profit organization encompasses several hundred electronic security systems integrators, aligning them with over 200 vendor partners. Together, the PSA network is responsible for over $2 billion in annual security systems design, installation, integration and maintenance of access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, fire and life safety systems.

By combining purchasing power and resources of the largest vendors with the strengths and personal attention to detail of locally-owned companies, the security systems integrators within the PSA network have access to the latest security products, certifications and best practices necessary to develop cost-effective solutions.

“Milestone’s open platform video surveillance software is rapidly gaining traction within the PSA network of systems integrators. The Outstanding Vendor Award that Milestone received at the PSA-TEC event in May 2013 is a testament to our members growing acceptance of their ability to integrate with more IP cameras, encoders and DVRs than they can with other VMS providers,” states Craig Patterson, Director of Vendor Management, PSA Security Network.

The PSA Security Network conducts an annual Vendor Appreciation Award program to recognize excellence among the vendors who serve PSA members. The 2013 survey was unchanged from 2012 except for a revised vendor list. In 2012 the survey was streamlined to improve the survey experience, encourage more vendor ratings, and examine the ratings in a more actionable format. An outside research firm was contracted to collect and process the results.

The 2013 survey yielded usable responses representing 117 companies/organizations, and a total of 972 individual vendor ratings. This represents the largest response volume to date (in terms of vendor ratings) by a notable margin. The respondents were presented with the following six factors to consider when selecting a vendor, and asked to prioritize them as to importance: Price, Shipping, Support (customer, sales and technical), Lead generation, Returns and Product performance.

The results show that product performance is the main factor considered, followed by price and support. These three factors lead the remaining three by a wide margin. Product performance is an especially strong focal point, receiving an average importance score of 5.07 (on a 1-to-6 scale), and is selected by nearly 52% as their top factor. Price is the next chosen, with an average importance score of 4.69, followed by Support with an average score of 4.32. The remaining three factors all have average scores of 2.7. There have been some modest shifts of opinion since 2012, but the overarching pattern remains consistent, with product performance, price and support rising to the top of the importance scale. The most significant shift has been a decrease in the importance of price, with an equivalent increase in the importance of lead generation.