Hikvision: Embracing performance driven growth
Q. HIKVISION has been most recognized brand in CCTV surveillance industry; please share some of your milestones & achievements?
For the third consecutive year, Hikvision has been ranked as the world’s largest CCTV and Video Surveillance Equipment provider in 2013 with a dominant 10.9% market share. This is up by more than a third, from 8% in 2012, according to the latest report from IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).
In a year of significant achievements, Hikvision maintained or gained position in every market segment. Its most striking success was becoming the top Hardware NVR manufacturer from not being in the Top 10 in 2012. In addition, Hikvision maintained its position as global DVR leader for the fifth consecutive year, gained two places to become the world’s No. 1 supplier of Security Cameras with an 11.9% market share, and rose one place to be No. 2 in Network Security Cameras with a 13% share of the market. As for the VMS category, it achieved third having risen from 5th place in 2012. “This outstanding performance across the board serves, once again, to prove Hikvision’s continuing dedication to innovation and excellence in all aspects of video surveillance products. It’s also evidence of the success of Hikvision’s marketing strategy and in-depth local customer services,”
“As the global CCTV market continues to move towards HD as the de facto standard, Hikvision has brought forward a full range of HD IP products, including the family of easy-to-use IP solution and Smart IP solution, that has been highly acclaimed by our partners and customers since its introduction to the market. Hikvision is growing very quickly in all segments, continuing to outperform the market as a whole, and this is also testament to our expanding sales channels and loyalty of our customers,”
Q. Could you brief us about overall business activities of HIKVISION (tie-ups, associations, reach, network)?
Hikvision is a leading supplier of digital video surveillance products with three decades of experience in research and development of video technology, Embedded Net DVRs and multi-purpose Digital Video Servers, to networked front-end products such as IP cameras and IP Speed Domes. We have a very strong distribution network globally as well as in India. We have more than 18 branches across India to fulfill our customer needs. Our products are used in more than 100 countries and have been used to secure various security applications around the world.
Q. Can you elaborate more about the product portfolio & it’s applications?
We offer wide range of products including Surveillance cameras, Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s), Network Video Recorders (NVR’s), Hybrid Video Recorders (HVR’s), Digital Video Server (DVS), Mobile DVR’s, Video encoder and decoder. Depending upon the customer requirements our distributors, dealers, and system integrators can choose the price-quality combination that fits them best. Hikvision range of products have already been installed across various vertical establishments which include sectors like Banking & Finance, Defense, Healthcare, Real Estate, Retail, Railways, Airports, Power plants, Textile Industry, Stadium, Nuclear Plants, Hotels, Petrol pumps, Education and various other vertical establishments.
Q. Which are the some of your pioneering products you introduced in the market recently?
We have launched many products which has been well received among our customers, HDTVI Analog Solution, Smart IP Solution, Easy IP Solution, DS-2CD63 Series IR Fisheye Network Camera(6 MP), IVMS-5200, Mobile enforcement products, Portable DVR. Hikvision DS-2CD6412FWD is a versatile network cameras which is characterized by its miniature design & HD image quality, offering flexibility and ease of installation even in very limited spaces. It can be applied in any discreet and covert surveillance, such as ATM, access control, & luxurious store etc. Recently we launched mini fisheye network camera DS-2CD2942F to the SMB market. With its panoramic view, high cost-efficiency, ultra-compact design and comprehensive feature set, it brings a new level of security to convenience stores, hotels, restaurants, offices & other installations.
Q. How do you account R&D activity in HIKVISION?
Several major factors contributing to Hikvision’s success are its previous OEM experience with some well-known global companies, which pushed Hikvision to strengthen its product development capability, as well as strictly focus on its quality control and production process. The company’s high penetration in its domestic market provides Hikvision with a clear direction of product innovation. Over these years, Hikvision’s R&D, and quality and process control have achieved international standards.
CMMI Certified Management
In 2009, Hikvision started to work with some consulting firms to enhance its internal efficiency of R&D, quality control, and production. Since then, the company has introduced Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) to greatly improve its process management of product research & development. CMMI is a process improvement training and certification program and service administered and marketed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. With them, “we are able to have a set of unified protocols to well manage different departments and have the same language to conduct cross-department communication,”
R&D Matrix Project Management
To optimize new product development and maintain technological leadership, Hikvision employs a matrix management structure for its R&D department, which allows them to succeed in cross-department project cooperation between its resource teams and product teams. Hikvision’s product teams are categorized by its product lines, including DVR/NVR, network cameras, analog cameras, vertical-specific VMS and others while the resource team is divided by several key technologies – hardware, image processing, video/audio codec, compression, networking, streaming media, FPGA applications, video data storage, embedded applications, software structure and others. At Hikvision, a specialized project team, from groups of resource teams and the corresponding product teams, is usually formed to develop a new product. This means each group of resource teams has to be responsible for several product development projects and must be able to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
It is worth mentioning that software is the core value of Hikvision product development. “Although we sold mostly hardware, software is the key inside hardware. Hikvision has a powerful software capability. A large amount of work is on the software side, even in hardware manufacturing,”
Market-Oriented Product Development
What is worth mentioning is that Hikvision’s R&D team also has to meet the sales target, along with sales team. “The product should be market-oriented and clearly meet the needs for the customers. The KPI for each product line is to meet certain sales targets. R&D also takes the responsibility if their products don’t meet the real market demand,”
Product Usability
Product usability requirements are quite high in overseas markets. Many Chinese products are usually weak in this part. This year, Hikvision put a lot of R&D resources in product user interface, client software, and mobile APP to elevate the ease of use in its products. Hikvision also started to outsource the language-related design and the external design of its latest network cameras, including aesthetic outlook and internal software design, two or three years ago. The product usability of Hikvision’s products now is greatly improved.
Supply Chain Collaboration
Hikvision also follows the “integrated supply chain” concept, proposed by Huawei Technologies. The supply chain includes suppliers (manufacturing partners), Hikvision (the company), and Hikvision’s clients. “We invite all these parties together for joint product evaluation and collaboration, advised by our consulting company. We also ask our suppliers to join our product development. They provide suggestions on how to make those products meet international standards and how to optimize the structure/system.”
Quality Control
Hikvision has developed a comprehensive & strict management system in process. In Hikvision, the quality control department is independent from R&D and production department. These three departments are positioned equally to complement & evaluate each other. Quality control, a complete system from R&D design, manufacturing to service, is categorized into reliability verification, test, process control, productivities, and after-sales service. “Under each item, we have a specific objective and indicators to measure the outcome,” said Zhang. With this system, Hikvision is able to provide further assurance for customers — Design Quality Assurance (DQA) and Manufacturing Quality Assurance (MQA).
Design Quality Assurance
DQA is under the R&D product testing department mainly for product reliability verification. Hikvision has more than 2,000 people on their R&D team–the largest in the security sector. Around 350 engineers on the R&D team, which accounts for over 15 percent of the team, are responsible for product testing. The product testing group is in charge of software tests, hardware tests, and reliability tests, which all play an important role in product development and guaranteeing product quality. The tests include anti-interference, anti-radiation, extreme temperature, vibration, drop, water-proof, electrostatic surge and electrocution prevention, salt spray, and anti-wind/dust tests, etc.
The product testing group conducts tests in many different testing laboratories, such as a 960-square-meter (10,333 square feet) stability and pressure testing laboratory, two image quality testing rooms, and a large laboratory for integration, monitoring, & management systems testing. In total, all of the laboratories combined occupy 1,300 square meters (13,993 square feet). Manufacturing Quality Assurance MQA is divided into four categories: raw materials quality control, productive process, tests, and outgoing quality control.
Boasting over 100,000 square meters (1.1 million square feet) of manufacturing space, Hikvision’s production facilities are underpinned by state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and resources. As an example of this point, in 2011, Hikvision introduced Siemens’ fully-automatic SMT equipment for production lines, ensuring world-class technical capability.
Hikvision also has dual dustless workshops for precise component assembly of camera lenses. Occupying 800 square meters (8,611 square feet), the workshops measure up to the highest cleaning standard – a class of 100,000. In addition, to ensure high product quality, all the products need to pass the high-temperature aging test and the company also developed foolproof equipment, such as auto focus tester and auto testing software, to efficiently reduce human errors and poor visibility during production.
SAP System for High Production Efficiency
To meet its huge sales volume target, Hikvision purchased a SAP system from Germany to avoid any problems in materials preparation cycles which may lead to downtime of the production line. With the barcode, the whole production and quality control process can be traced: each machine can be analyzed for the specific time for production, and identification of every supplier and operator. “With the SAP system, we can efficiently optimize material management to achieve low inventory and turnover rate with guaranteed quality,”
Q. Brief us about the quality policy for your business & elaborate more about onsite training and after sales service?
We at Hikvision have executed 45 cities Hikvision Training program which has acclaimed huge response from our channel partners, Hikvision technical experts trained our participants on topic “Easy step to design an IP Surveillance solution”. We have offered Hikvision Training Participation certificate to our participants, Over All participants are happy and satisfied. We at Hikvision has Dedicated Technical support Team, steadfast customer service, which helps us to support after sales service efficiently and effectively.
Q. What is your vision for HIKVISION?
“Hikvision’s motto is to serve its customers 24×7. “With help of more than 18 branch offices in India wherein we have dedicated technical support and customer service team, will help our customers queries on regular intervals. Apart from this, recently we have initiated Authorized Hikvision Customer Care centers throughout India by authorizing our channel partners, which had received overwhelmed response in our Industry.”