Interviews

Hikvision Will Continue To Lead

1. Please take us through your journey? 

Every brand has an interesting story coupled with enterprise, technology, innovation, success and glory. The leading global brand, Hikvision too has one that needs to be celebrated. The brand story of Hikvision has evolved with market growth and global success.  

Prama Hikvision India has established impeccable trust and reputation among security industry professionals in India since its formation. Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture with world’s No.1 security and surveillance product manufacturer Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Ltd. for India market. The collaborative success achieved by Prama Hikvision India in the Indian security market belongs to Hikvision Team and Hikvision partners. This year Hikvision had experienced exponential growth in the security and surveillance business in India. 

Over the years, Hikvision has grown to become a global enterprise. Advanced engineering and a passion for innovation has empowered Hikvision to lead the security industry market with state-of-the-art surveillance products and solutions. Over the last sixteen years, Hikvision has not only witnessed the development of the video surveillance industry, it has pushed the evolution of the industry in emerging areas such as digitization, networking, and intelligence.  

Today, Hikvision is a leading global brand in the video surveillance and security industry. Building on the company’s incredible year-on-year growth, and underlining the global level of support for its range of security surveillance products, Hikvision, the world’s leading supplier of video surveillance products and solutions, has again achieved No.1 position in the IHS Markit Report-2017 and  a&s Security 50 Ranking and Reports -2017. 

2. What is the idea behind Hikvision’s new slogan- See Far, Go Further?

As a leader in technological advancement, we are fully committed to “seeing“– empowering the ability to “see” in both broad terms and in 

highly-specified ways. Enabling the progression from “seeing” to “seeing clearly” and “understanding”, the value of video technology is growing rapidly. In addition to security, today’s video technology provides highly valuable business intelligence across an expanding range of industries and applications. With an extensive product line and highly effective solutions, Hikvision always adds great values to its partners, customers, and end-users. And Hikvision will continue to equip its customers various needs in security and business development through its accumulated expertise in AI and video technology.

In an ever-changing world, Hikvision’s original goals have not changed – namely, to provide value to all customers, to combat crime and terrorism, and to provide a safer society for communities, families and children. From our original slogan, “First Choice for Security Professionals”, to our newest one, “See Far, Go Further”, Hikvision maintains its path toward excellence. 

We believe that seeing better leads to better understanding, and better understanding leads to better decision-making, helping everyone achieve their goals and creating sustainable development far into the future. And we’ll keep working alongside our valued partners and customers to continually see far, and go further. 

3. Would you suggest some change in government policy to help Security and Surveillance business penetration in the country?  

In India government and policy makers are playing a proactive role in transforming the security and surveillance industry. The government has already taken some important steps to empower the security industry in the Education, Hospitality, and Transport verticals by issuing security guidelines and compliance framework.  

We appreciate the vision of Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” and “Smart City Mission” programmes. To enable ‘Make in India’ program, some basic structural shifts now need to be made as per industry specific requirements. The program should help an ecosystem built through attractive taxation, talent pool development and research collaboration. The Smart City Mission is an ambitious plan to prepare the Indian cities for a sustainable and secure future. 

4. What are the other trends that are gaining popularity in the Indian Security & Surveillance Market? 

The top trending technologies driving the security industry, are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning. The AI technology will continue to become more common and more powerful. This trend will strengthen critical security efforts in every sphere. Now, Hikvision’s DeepinView Cameras and DeepinMind NVRs and Servers are leading the way in this new world of video surveillance technology by making invisible intelligence visible for users, and then putting that intelligence to good use. 

Hikvision has recently released a cybersecurity white paper designed to be an educational resource for the security industry. Hikvision believes 

it is crucial for industry leaders to work together to understand cybersecurity risks and to take measures to meet those challenges for the IoT industry. The Hikvision cybersecurity white paper outlines current security threats for the Internet of Things, and for network and information security in the surveillance industry.  

5. What were the initial challenges faced by the company in the context of training and services? 

Despite fast growing market the Indian security and surveillance industry is facing the challenge of high import duties. As most of the key components are imported, it becomes a challenge for security manufacturer to sustain the product cost overruns. The shortage of skilled manpower and trained engineers continues to be the perennial problem. We at Hikvision have always given top priority to training programmes and customer service. We will continue to create awareness about our products, technologies and solutions through the training programmes. 

6.What is your take on GST? How are your services being affected with its enrolment? 

GST being a new indirect tax reform has brought a complete revolution in the Indian economy. Under GST, India has become a common marketplace and it also reduces operational cost. It will further lead to reduction in logistics & operational cost of many products and services. 

The government has set the ball rolling by implementing path breaking reforms like GST (Goods and Service Tax) and Demonetization. After initial teething troubles both of these reforms were accepted by the market. There are some course corrections (GST rate & Compliance adjustments), which are underway as per the market feedback.The best options for taxation and import duties are often discussed by industry bodies and associations. To be modest a 5% GST slab coupled with reasonable import duty can be expected from the government for the speedy growth of the Indian security industry. 

7. What has been your most challenging project? Please elaborate?

Our Hikvision Vertical Solutions team has made a significant benchmark in the industry specific solutions. Some of the key verticals that are creating a splash in the market by implementing Hikvision solutions are, Smart Cities, City Surveillance, Transport, Education, Pharma, Healthcare, Banking, Hospitality, etc. Recently, Hikvision had provided a comprehensive security solution for VIBGYOR Group to safeguard their students and schools in 25 locations spread in seven cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Vadodara, Surat, Bengaluru and Lucknow, which is by far one of the largest surveillance and security solution projects in the education sector in India. 

8. What has been your most promising project so far and what are the benchmarks your company has achieved?

In India Hikvision’s Intelligent Traffic Management Solution for transport sector are getting good response from the end-users.  Some of the key Transport and Railway projects were the most promising projects implemented by Hikvision’s Vertical Solutions Team.   

9. What are your future plans and which technology are you planning to adopt? 

Hikvision has big plans for the Indian market and we were working on it. Hikvision is constantly expanding its partner network across India. It has plans underway to expand it to Tier II and Tier III cities. The Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Big Data, AI Cloud and IoT trends will continue to drive the Hikvision products and solutions in the near future. 

10. What advice you would like to give to the youngsters in this industry?

This is the best time to be a part of the security industry. The security and surveillance industry is growing at high growth rate. These are exciting times to be in the fast growing business of security and surveillance systems. The industry needs young engineers and innovators to add value.

It is perfect time for youngsters to choose a career in the security industry as it is still growing at an exponential rate.