Sparsh : Eminent leadership in video surveillance arena

Q. What has been “Sparsh” major milestones & achievements till date?

Sparsh is pioneer and leader in manufacturing CCTV video surveillance products in India with product presence in more than 10 countries, presence in more than 150 cities in India, channel strength of more than 2000 and manufacturing over 100K security products per month. Sparsh has revolutionized the Indian security market by being India’s first company to manufacture CCTV cameras in India in 2007 and in just span of seven years, Sparsh, today is the pioneer and leader in the security industry having global footprints. Our focus on indigenous designing and manufacturing of technologically advanced electronic security devices has put India on the global map for designing and manufacturing high quality and technologically advanced video surveillance products. In short “Sparsh strives to have Global Footprint for ‘Made in India’ Products”.

Sparsh has won admiration and trust of its partners, customer and industry as large and has a proven track record of a lot of firsts, technical advancement, corporate maturity, and achievements and has won many awards, some which are as follows:

• Best Security Solution Provider (NCN 2012,2013)
• Technology Evangelist of the year (VAR India 2012, 2013 & 2014)
• “Top 100 Most Trusted Companies in India” (VAR India 2012, 2013 & 2014)
• “Leaders of Tomorrow” in Electrical and Electronics category. (ET Now-India MART 2010 & 2013)
• “Best Security System Company” by South Asia’s most popular electronics magazine (Electronics For You (EFY) 2009, 2010 & 2011)
• Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in Manufacturing (Elcina- Dun & Bradstreet 2009)
• “Entrepreneurial Company of the Year 2007- CCTV” Frost & Sullivan award.

Q. Could you brief us about overall business activities of your company (tie-ups, associations, reach, network)?

Sparsh has been at the forefront for introducing new CCTV technology in the Indian market. As a result of our focus on innovation, quality and customer service, many multinationals have chosen to work closely with us including but not limited to Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments and Aptina. Sparsh has a PAN India network with more than 2000 resellers with presence in more than 150 cities in India and we target to double our partner base and reach in Indian cities. We aspire to be a true Indian company with global outlook.

Q. Can you elaborate more about key product portfolio & its applications?

Our product portfolio includes:

• CCTV Camera
• Digital Video Recorder
• IP Camera
• Network Video Recorder
• Hybrid DVR
• Analog Speed Dome
• IP Speed Dome
• HD Speed Dome
• Video Management Software
• CCTV Accessories
• Solutions – Transport, IMAS, Parking, Bank ATM

CCTV today has application in all fields of life. Our products are used in all security applications including government and public buildings, Transportation – airports, railways and bus stations Education – schools and universities, Retail – shops and malls, Banks, Hotels, Residential buildings and we have products and solutions for each industry vertical.

Q. Which are the some of your pioneering products introduced in the market recently or new product in pipeline?

Sparsh is coming up with its new HDAVI Camera series that provides full 1080p resolution and a sharp, low noise image for industrial applications. The camera incorporates a newly designed Sony 2.24 Megapixel CMOS Sensor and High Resolution Prime Lenses. The new sensor enables the HDAVI Camera to operate at a minimum of only 0.5Lux (color) or 0.1Lux (B/W), making it ideal for low light environments. The 2 Megapixel delivers crisp 1080p video, all at an attractive price point. These high performance features make it well suited for applications in manufacturing, scientific research, medicine, aeronautics, construction. In the IP camera technology Sparsh is coming up with a new product series enabling smart features like smart encoding, Seamless network storage, Smart audio detection, Heartbeat Keep Alive Mechanism, Fail Safe. Smart codec, Smart encode profiling. Smart bit-rate control, Support 3G and Wi-Fi. Sparsh Smart IP Camera Series is designed to stream audio and video in a variety of applications such as in auditoriums, classrooms and sports venues, as well as for weather reports and traffic information. The cameras offer HDTV resolutions of up to 1080p at 30 fps, Triple streaming with H.264, MPEG4 & MJPEG compression techniques, high quality audio, powerful 30x zoom and an open interface for easy integration with other systems. We have also launched our SMART series of DVRs which is our next generation DVR series with features like NAS storage support, FTP storage, alarms for crucial events, complete health check up of the DVR, 3G & Wi-Fi enabled, etc. Moreover the next generation compression technology helps the customers save crucial storage requirements thus saving cost.

Q. how do you account R&D activity in your company?

We have a team of more than 40 R&D engineers who dedicatedly work to bring new products and technologies to make our customer secure. We spend more than 5% of our turnover in R&D every year on R&D. We have one of the best and leading companies as our technology providers. This in combination with our R&D team and software expertise, what India is known world over for, enables us to design and develop world class products in India.

Q. Brief us about the quality policy for your business?

The Company quality policy calls for continual improvement in its quality management activities and business to be conducted according to the following principles:

• Comply with all statutory laws and regulation
• Follow a concept of continuously improving the effectiveness of this quality management system and make best use of all management resources in all quality matters.
• Communicate our quality objectives and our performance against these objectives throughout the company and to interested parties.
• Take due care to ensure that activities are safe for employees, associates and sub-contractors and others who come into contact with our work.
• Work closely with customer and supplier to establish the highest quality standards.
• Adopt a forward looking view on future business decisions, which may have quality impacts.
• Train our staff in the need and responsibilities of quality management and provide the personnel and resources to ensure that the importance of meeting & exceeding customer requirements is communicated and understood throughout our organization.

Q. How do you foresee “India” as a potential market, what are the prospects?

We as an OEM brand foresee a lot of opportunities in the domestic market with lot of focus coming on “Make in India” and “Make for India” with schemes like Preferential Market Access (PMA) providing a leveling field for Indian manufacturers. Fast adoption of standardization in electronic products would also help the growth of the organized market. The need for security in almost every walk of life is driving the demand for CCTV cameras thus providing attractive business opportunity for multi-nationals, local companies and traders. Based on various estimates, global CCTV market is still growing at double digit rates and Indian market is growing more than double the global growth rate.

Q. What lies ahead for Sparsh after recent announcement on 100% PMA for CCTV camera Products and Sensor based alarm systems?

We see this announcement as a major milestone in continuation to the Honorable Prime Minister’s vision on “Make in India”. The government is taking positive steps to promote domestic manufacturer in security Industry, the recent announcement of 100% PMA for CCTV Camera in government purchase is a big step which would act as a catalyst towards domestic manufacturing.

Q. What are the distinguishing facts of global market as against the Indian market?

Indian video surveillance market in India is growing almost at double what the world market is growing at and we would continue to see this fast growth. CCTV globally is an organized and technologically advance industry, because of the past social and politically charged global atmosphere Video Surveillance has gain prominence much before India realized. Technologically India is now at par with their global counterparts and now we could witness lot of global launches and see Indian market being used as testing ground for new products by many global MNCs.

Q. What are your strategies to improve the your company‘s position in Indian & global market as well?

1. Innovation and technology advancement
2. Stringent Quality Control norms
3. Penetration in market
4. Building made in India brand
5. Customer service support

Q. According to you what are the factors affecting your business?

1. Lack of customer awareness
2. Misselling of products
3. Low market penetration
4. Unorganized players

Q. What is your vision for the company in coming years?

Our future expansion will be both in HD and IP video surveillance category as well as solutions. We have good range of products in the IP category including megapixel IP cameras up to 3MP and network video recorders supporting real-time recording up to 5MP and as adoption of IP is increasing we aim to a leader in this category. We have recently introduced Sparsh Smart IP Camera Series is designed to stream audio and video in a variety of applications such as in auditoriums, classrooms and sports venues, as well as for weather reports and traffic information

We are also very aggressive on the front of HD and MP era for video surveillance in India and have recently launched our new HDAVI Camera series that provides full 1080p resolution and a sharp, low noise image for industrial applications. The camera incorporates a newly designed Sony 2.24 Megapixel CMOS Sensor and High Resolution Prime Lenses. We are registered in DGS&D brand for supply of CCTV cameras and solution to all central and state government bodies.

With the aim to focus on Solutions we are expanding our portfolio currently we have bank ATM solutions for banking Industry, Mobile Solution for Transport / Mobile surveillance, DVAMBS which is broadcasting and Audio Video Monitoring for installation in Schools, Hospitals etc.Number Plate Reader solution for parking lots, entry/exit points and toll booths. We also aim to expand our global reach and target to achieve 10% of our sales revenue through exports in next two to three years. We have already started exports to more than ten countries including Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Vietnam, and few countries in Europe.

Q. According to you what are the challenges and issues that needs to addressed related to you Industry.

Despite such a growing market, Indian CCTV market is still majorly unorganized with many traders flooding the market with inferior imported products. Customers need to be educated so that they can buy the right product and technology for their security needs and get best return on their investment. In addition, government needs to set standards for security devices that can be sold and provide guidelines for import of electronic security products in India.