CCTV Camera Milestone, The Magnetic Center

This expert refers to how each strategy executed by the company has allowed it to position itself where it is today, becoming an example to be followed by companies in different sectors.

Milestone Systems was very successful in taking ideas that seemed like well-founded concepts and putting them into practice. The key was to do it in a way that was scalable, with no detrimental short-term effects.

Take, for example, the evolution of our software towards a truly open platform product. This advance had as its axis the development of an API, (Application Programming Interface) and an official software development kit, or SDK.

In fact, in the United States we began to sell the concept of our software as an integration platform, before there was even an API or an SDK. It was a bold move, but we knew our software engineers were up to the task. As we expanded, I continued the strategy started by our founders of employing smart and creative people to strengthen the business.

One of the first partnerships we developed was with a junkyard that was a frequent victim of fraud. The solution we developed integrated their ATM system with Milestone’s video surveillance software, called XProtect®, to link customers’ video files with their transaction records, so any irregularities could be detected. This was not the conventional use of surveillance CCTV cameras – typically used in physical security to monitor potential intruders – but a fully integrated part of a commercial system.

This strategy was later expanded to include perimeter surveillance of junkyard facilities, in order to detect people attempting to steal merchandise for resale.

Transact, the allied firm, then developed a product called Scrap Dragon, based on the Milestone Integration Platform ™ tool. Every scrap yard in the country acquired Scrap Dragon. It was a great success and became clear evidence of the benefits that would come from continuing to work to develop ways to integrate our software with others.

Dynamic synergies

At the time, at Milestone’s global headquarters in Copenhagen, we were working with end users, including internationally renowned retailers. By ensuring that your trading systems would benefit from seamless integration with our software, we were able to demonstrate a significant and rapid Return on Investment. The initial outlay that was made to acquire the integrated system was quickly recovered through the savings that were achieved and, incidentally, theft or mistakes were also avoided.

Demonstrating return on investment with a purely physical security system has been a headache for the security industry. Convincing those who control company finances to spend part of their budget on a protection investment – which shows no obvious contribution to the company’s profitability or growth – can be difficult. Because of this, physical security can be treated as a reluctant purchase, and those who do not have a real understanding of the benefits of having a sophisticated system generally prefer to go for the most economical option possible, while continuing to comply with the obligations acquired with their insurers.

However, in this and other similar integration cases a clear financial benefit was found for the user of the system. The benefit was a direct result of the way our company managed to integrate its software with that of others. This aspect was tied to our philosophy of implementing practical integration measures and we wanted to explore it further.

Convert private to public

Milestone attracted significant coverage in the industry media with the projects that our clients allowed us to publicize. We could sense that momentum in the industry was building.

Until then, we had done the integration work ourselves. The most important difference we made to the integration made for the Transact junkyard was that we allowed them to do the integration to the API themselves. In this way, we had indirectly enabled our first (third) provider.

Soon after, we realized that if we really wanted the API we were developing to be widely distributed, we had to deliver it for free. Users could sign a confidentiality agreement and begin to build the necessary business infrastructure around the interface.

We decided that the future lay in making the integration with our software as accessible as possible. That meant that companies that were specialists in their fields could focus on their strengths and use our software’s centralized system position to expand their customer base. We would train – firstly – people in the integration of their products with our software and – on the other hand – users and installers in our software. In fact, we would make such training (certification) a requirement within our business model.

Milestone would become a facilitator. An educator. An innovator. A bridge.

The power of partnership

Quickly, this idea began to gain traction. We may not have been the first to come up with it, but in the world of physical security we were the first to put it into practice and make it work. There is no use in having a wonderful concept if it does not have a commercial impact in the real world. We strongly believed that allowing people to work with our API would not only lead to more new applications, but would also allow our engineers to further develop our core products and provide expert support to our partners.

We decided that the following year we would organize a Milestone Developers Forum in the United States. What we now know as MIPS (Milestone Integration Platform Symposium) began as the Milestone Developer Forum. At the first event we held, Transact Payment Systems presented its integration strategy. It was essential that in this context and in front of a wide range of developers, the Milestone software was presented as a viable and powerful integration platform.

We began to rally the industry around our platform through the power of partnerships. This was a business concept that was valued by a large number of clients and that we could scale to a broader market through our partner events. Milestone began to emerge as an industry leader. As the ecosystem expanded, our challenge was to make sure we could meet the market demand that we were fostering.

Really open platform

At the time we saw third parties making a profit by integrating their solutions to our platform, it was tempting to think that we should do it ourselves and bring it to market. But positioning Milestone as an open platform that performs video recording allowed all other participants to specialize in their own areas of expertise and the overall solution becomes even more robust. The more we encourage the development of our partners, the more profitable they will become and consequently the more profitable we will become.

Many other companies in the physical security industry had realized the success we were achieving and began to proclaim themselves as ” open platform ” or ” open integration ” companies. Some of our partners began to think that maybe we should look for other ways to differentiate ourselves from the industry.

But we stood our ground, as the founders of the company and I shared a vision of what Milestone should be. We are a truly open platform. So much so that we decided to define the essentials of what it means to be an open platform and added a motto to our logo: Milestone Systems, the open platform company.

We believe that the five most important characteristics of a truly open platform company are:

• Use and accessibility of common external programming interfaces, such as APIs.
• Published documentation, such as the Software Development Kit, SDK.
• Training offer for programmers in the use of APIs.
• Project consulting offer.
• Practice what is preached (do what one says, live according to the words spoken).

The magnetic center

In addition to our unique approach to training and certification, Milestone began to function as what I would call the ” magnetic center ” or core of a universe inhabited by all of our partners. An inclusive ecosystem that flourishes around Milestone.

The real value of what we contribute, in purely monetary terms, lies in the fact of being facilitators, multipliers. When we consider a video management system as part of a larger physical security installation, Milestone’s software – including camera licenses – represents a lower percentage of the total cost, but the impact and value we provide is at a premium. a much larger scale.

In terms of the combined value of all the other parts of a security system – cameras, servers, and video analytics software – we are making much more possible than our revenue, as much of the system is hardware with a higher fixed price. We do not go directly to the market, our software – as well as the other elements of the physical security system – is sold through distributors to integrators and installers, who then sell the solutions to end customers.

Our continued success is a scenario where everyone who participates wins: the distributors of our software, who sell more products and participate in more projects; manufacturing partners, who can integrate their products with ours and access a greater number of projects and work in an integrated way with the products of other specialized manufacturers; integrators and installers of physical security systems, who trust in the performance of our software, its integration capabilities and the ease of installation and users of physical security systems, who benefit from the increased functionality they offer our partners, the power and ease of use of our video management interface, and our specialized levels of customer service.

When I look at the Milestone universe and all the people who benefit from our success, I no longer see ourselves as a company that employs 450 people. I see ourselves as an organization made up of 10,000 people, including all those who work with us and are affected by the decisions we make. It is what I call our “virtual organization.” Since we are the magnetic center of this universe, our decisions can have a real impact on other companies and individuals. We need to ensure that our performance continues to benefit everyone who works with us. .

This way of understanding business is key to understanding the importance of leadership. It is all very well to proclaim that you are looking out for the interests of your company and its shareholders or interest groups, but to ensure that success lasts it is necessary to take a step back, observe all the partners that you can affect with your actions and take steps to ensure that the decisions you make are focused on the sustainability of that success. It is necessary to build for the future and for this, you have to have a strategic vision of the market you are in.