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Follow UsIt is common to walk into an office/bank or residential building and coming
across uniformed guards at every corner. To say that guards are not required is
going a little far. But to say that the building owners can save money by going
in for surveillance solution is hitting the nail on the head.
Today, there are a plethora of surveillance systems that can detect
unauthorized/unidentiÂfied objects, or better still, mark the attendance of
people as they walk by. Then there are those that can observe and note the
behavior of people on camera.
Yes, these and many more such surveillance solutions are a reality today and
as the need for security, awareness about these solutions and acceptance of new
technologies increases in India, the demand for these solutions is also going to
see a major boost.
Not only will surveillance solutions reduce the need for excess manpower, it
will also reduce the cost of securing one's premises, add to that the
convenience that surveillance solutions offer. Though there is no doubt that
this is a huge market with much potential, it is difficult to give figures due
to the lack of studies on this market, due to its nature.
One hurdle which is flourishing in this segment is the unorganized market.
Despite this factor, there are players who are tapping this potential in India
and leveraging on the growing demand from both Indian and global players.
According to a report 'Global Electronic Surveillance Market Outlook' by
RNCOS, the global electronic surveillance industry is largely driven by global
biometric, CCTV and RFID industry. The global CCTV/video surveillance market is
anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 12.4 percent for the period spanning from 2005
to 2008.
Who's in it?
Speak to vendors operating in this space and you'll know why it is often
said that surveillance is a mine waiting to be excavated in India. Each vendor
has a plethora of offerings, each unique and suitable for a different condition,
and each catering to a different aspect of surveillance solutions.
While a report on the market would have made it easier to point out who the
leading players in this field are, its absence makes it even more apparent that
it is a huge market with ample opportunities to be explored. There are players
like Zicom and D-Link who offer physical security, and on the other hand, there
are players like Seagate and Netgear, who offer the storage to go with
surveillance solutions.
Then again, those offering physical security cater to a varied segment. For
example, a vendor like Axis Communications would typically focus on the SMB and
enterprise segment, but Zicom a provider of security solutions for government
organizations and corporates, has launched a range of offerings for the home,
small enterprises/offices and retails segments.
“In this fast moving life, we have understood the need of individuals as per
their applicaÂtions, ie while driving, personal security and security of their
kids. Keeping these in mind, we have launched personal security products:
anti-sleep alert personal security alarm, personal anti-loss alarm for kids,
video door phones with memory function, biometric access control system, burglar
alarm system with infrared and microwave technology,” said Santonu Choudhury,
CEO, Zicom.
Axis is among the players who have recently trained their eyes on India. This
Swedish-based company began its operations in the country in May last year. It
is present in three cities-Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai through its
distributors-Anixter and Ingram Micro. According to Oh Tee Lee, Regional
Director-South APAC Region, Axis Communications, their hottest selling products
are the entry and mid-level products and surveillance cameras.
Not only are MNCs digging their fingers into the surveillance pie, local
players are also joining the gang. Two companies that come to mind here are
Delhi-based Aditya Infotech and Fortune Marketing. The latter has its own brand
of surveillance products known as Secureye, which is imported from China and
Taiwan and sold in India.
Vendors in this segment offer products such as video recording systems, video
surveillance and CCTV systems. Zicom also provides services such as Alert 24x7
service (central monitoring station for intrusion system) and video monitoring
station.
“Existing investments on | ||
| What is the current market scenario for surveillance solutions? Surveillance is not new to the market, the only difference is that, it was done using analog devices with very little flexibility and hence became a static set-up but now with IP-based surveillance, it offers anytime, anywhere access and a better mechanism to control policies, remote manageÂment, provisioning capabilities, recording and reporting. It also reduces a parallel infrastructure build-out. Video-surveillance is a huge opportunity in As customers/organizations do understand the Video surveillance is a key component of the What surveillance solutions does Cisco We recently announced key additions to our
Where is the most demand for surveillance What is your go-to-market strategy? With most of the customers having built IP What are the trends in this space? |
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Growth drivers
One of the major reasons why surveillance solutions are steadily gaining
acceptance in India is due to the awareness factor. As more and more businesses
shift their operations to India or outsource their work from this hub, there is
a need to provide world-class features and facilities.
Basic things like surveillance and security solutions are being looked at and
scrutinized by the market players. Recently, various BPOs in Pune got together
under the aegis of Nasscom to discuss and formuÂlate a common code of conduct
for security. The committee will work on strengthening workÂplace-related
policies and standards with the main thrust on physical security of employees,
following a spate of unfortunate incidents that some BPO staffers underwent
recently.
It is increasing awareness
and needs from big verticals that are driving the growth for surveillance
solutions. “People are underÂstanding the need for security which is in turn is
driving the growth for surveillance solutions. We see a 200 percent growth in
this market, and have kept a target of 300 to 400 percent growth for our company
in this segment,” said Akhilesh Gupta, Director, Fortune Marketing. The company
got into this field just six to seven months ago and claims that players like
them are helping to make the market organized.
Besides BPOs, the other growth verticals are infrastructure industry,
residential complexes and offices. “There is a requireÂment for surveillance
solutions at sensitive places like airports, malls, banks, retails and temples.
This huge requirement is powered by the need for hard disk,” shared Rajesh
Khurana, Country Manager-India & SAARC Countries, Seagate. The vendor offers
SV35 drives, which are specifically made for surveillance applications. These
drives are fine-tuned to work on heavy-duty (24x7) conditions.
Zicom is promoting its home segment offerings in a big way. According to
Choudhury, the company is completely focused on the retail segment. “AccepÂtance
towards the electronic security is increasing, which is a result of growing
awareness in the society and increase in crime rate. This has enabled us to
provide our service across 67 major cities and towns across India,” he shared.
The vendor predicts that by the end of this year, the sales in the home
segment would comfortably overtake the governÂment organizations/corporate
vertical that they currently cater to, which is projected to have sales of about
Rs 200 crore. Choudhury shared that the electronic security market in retail and
project segment is expected to be more than Rs 1,000 crore for the year 08-09.
Advantages
As per RNCOS research, the biggest advantage of using the electronic
surveillance technoÂlogy is that it uses software-enabled products at the
central front-end for the entire security systems, ensuring complete safety and
security. Moreover, IP-based CCTV is capable to utilize network infrastructure,
delivering sufficient bandwidth and giving scope for routing and switching,
instead of coaxial cabling. The report reflects the vast opportuÂnities for
dealers, who offer network and infrastructure services in computers, networks,
networking hardware, LAN, WAN, VPN etc.
The other advantage is that being a huge market, there is ample room for many
players to flourish. Speaking about the market and its opportunities, Khurana
stated, “The surveillance market is exploding in India. Solutions are emerging
based on the requirement.” Ask him about competition in storage for
surveillance, and he confidently states that Seagate drives are specialized. “No
other company offers these drives, so there is no competition for us,” he noted.
Seagate's other offering includes the Barracuda ES for high-capacity
enterprise storage applications such as the migration of mission-critical
transactional data, from tier-1 to 2 (nearline) storage.
Netgear is another player in this segment catering to the SMB segment. “We
offer data storage backup solutions for surveillance systems. Our ReadyNAS range
of products ensure stream data to the server,” shared Atul Jain, Country
Manager-India and SAARC, Netgear. The company offers cross-promotional
actiÂvities, where in they offer part solution in the form of 1,2 pr 4 to
providers.
Issues to address
One hurdle that many segments face is the gray, counterfeit or unorganized
players. Choudhury explained that currently, the unorganized segment provides
home security largely, and the market stands at about Rs 250 crore. He shared
that Zicom holds almost 25 percent marketshare in the project business. Retail
business compromises mainly of unorgaÂnized players. “Being the only organized
player, the marketÂshare of Zicom is estimated at 35 percent. The market is
growing at over 40 percent and we plan to capture 50 percent of the market in
the next two years,” shared Choudhury.
According to Gupta, 90 percent of the goods in this market are coming from
the gray market and this is a major challenge for them.
“People are bringing in goods from other countries, and then assembling and
selling them. Most customers don't know the difference between fake and real,
all they are concerned about is cost, so they go for gray market products,” he
shared.
On the other hand, Khurana opined that market dynamics differ from market to
market, so one cannot classify the market as 'organized' and 'unorganized'. In
fact, according to him, the biggest challenge is education, or the lack of it.
“It's important to convey to the customers about how one technology is
different from the other, and how it can benefit them as per their needs,” said
Khurana. To address this issue, Seagate is undertaking roadÂshows and various
other programs that educate partners about new technologies so that they can
pass on the information to end-users.
Axis Communication also plans to launch a national-level channel partner
program next month. Apart from this, the company regularly conducts roadshows,
interacts with its customers, system integrators and participates in major
events in the country. These activities give it the necessary exposure and
chance to educate people about its products and the need for surveillance.
“The challenge is to educate security officials who often don't have an
electrical background. This is one area of concern for us,” shared Lee. To
address this issue, Axis has introduced Axis Academy Training, which is a
two-day training course on the compleÂtion of which the individual gets a
certificate.
Lee pointed out that another challenge for operating in India was the
geographic nature of the country. While the company at present is targeting only
tier-1 cities, it is waiting for the launch of its partner program to expand its
presence further in the country.
Trends
The RNCOS report further shared that the CCTV industry will continue to
experience strong growth in near future, and the IP video surveillance systems
market will also post significant gains beyond expectations.
IP-based CCTV markets increased by 112.28 percent from 2005 to 2006 while the
global convenÂtional CCTV market grew by 10.66 percent as compared to 2005.
The primary reason behind this growth is the capability to monitor the video
surveillance systems or CCTVs through Internet or over IP. “The analog-based
technology has not changed in the past few years. But IP is offering many more
choices and enhanced producÂtivity,” stated Lee.
Technology will not only add new features to the products, but also will make
their usage simpler. IP-based electronic security system, which will be the
future, will help individuals to not only monitor distance sites but also
provide security at their fingertips. IP also gives one the benefit of remote
monitoÂring. A person can be sitting half way around the world and still monitor
his home or office.
Axis is banking on the latest video compression standard, H.264 (also known
as MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC for advanced video coding).
In the video surveillance industry, H.264 will most likely find the quickest
traction in applications, where there are demands for high-frame rates and high
resolution, such as in the surveillance of highways, airports and casinos, where
the use of 30/25 (NTSC/PAL) frames per second is the norm. This is where the
economies of reduced bandwidth and storage needs will deliver the biggest
savings. In short, for industries like BPOs, this technology would be ideal as
it would send details using less bandwidth.
Another trend is that of vendors taking the retails route for their products.
Though surveillance solutions are typically not sold through the conventional
retails outlets, this is one model many players are taking. Zicom plans to
embark upon a major retail venture and has planned to set-up 100 odd retail
stores by the end of the year, on a franchisee model. In the following year, it
will set-up another 250 stores. The company focuses on the un-tapped market,
which comprises homes, SMEs, jewelers, builders, small and medium size banks,
shops and restaurants among others.
“Consumers are opening up to their security needs. But they are still not
fully aware of the technology and availability of the products. Retail provides
the opportunity to be at arms reach, where buyer can select from the array of
products as per their requirement. Additionally, retail stores also provides
guidance and suggestion during the buying process,” shared Choudhury. He added
that through, retail an efficient service network could also be developed to
provide better customer support and service.
Seagate also announced earlier this year that it would collaborate with its
channel partners to support a series of retail access points across several of
India's fast-emerging cities, to address the country's expanding market and
custoÂmer needs. At these outlets, customers can browse and reference
inforÂmation on Seagate's comprehensive suite of products. The company plans to
expand the number of retail outlets in India from the current 40 to
approximately 100 by the end of 2008.
Channel responsibility
As in the case of most IT products available in the market, for surveillance
solutions too, the channel plays an important role in taking the offering to the
market. As more players get into the space, their channel requirement also
increases.
Most importantly, while the vendors talk about education and thereafter
adoption, but it is the channel's responsibility to act as the last mile
fulfiller. They need to take up the task of getting certified in this field and
ensuring that the people working for them have the requisite knowledge to pass
on to end-users/clients.
As Khurana had pointed out, the surveillance market is so huge that solutions
are emerging looking at this growing requirement. The channel need to be on
their toes about the latest solutions available in the market.
Sharing the benefits of selling surveillance solutions Gupta said, “There is
money in offering solutions. We work on volumes and after deploying the
solutions there is the annual monthly contract through which the channel can
make money.” Lee opined that with the IT revenue increasing, there is much more
margins in security market than in selling IT products.
Summing it up, Khurana shared that the surveillance market is set to grow.
“With people from different walks of like going for surveillance solutions, it
is upto us to meet their requirements and provide them what they want,” he
added.
The moment people are told about solutions and their benefits, they want to
go for it. Once education is in place, it is sure to set the adoption ball
rolling.
RUTH SAMSON
ruths@cybermedia.co.in