Milestone Systems - Milestone Technologies

Milestone Systems A/S is a Danish provider of IP-based video management software (VMS) and network video recorders (NVRs) for surveillance installations. It was founded in 1998.

Milestone Systems operates as a stand-alone company in Canon Inc. and is sold through a network of authorized and certified partners in more than 130 countries. The company has the corporate headquarter in Copenhagen and regional headquarters in Portland, Sofia and Singapore. Milestone's country offices in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Africa, UAE and UK further support the local sales.

As of 2016 Milestone has more than 150,000 customer installations in city surveillance, education, finance, government, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and transportation industries. Some of the successful Milestone installations include Åhléns Department Stores, AIDA Cruises, Copenhagen Zoo, Dunkin Donuts, Ekokem, G4S, Hyatt Hotels, Orlando Eye, Port Fourchon, San Diego Unified School District and South East Water.

History

Milestone Systems was founded in 1998 to build a software development company that could improve business through managing and distributing digital video data regardless of time or location. Co-founders Henrik Friborg and John Blem saw that their experience in developing IP technology for real-time data systems in the European financial sector could also be applied to the handling of video images. With that mindset the first Milestone VMS is launched in 1999. At that time, digital video technology was not in use in the security surveillance industry. The security market back then was mainly operating with proprietary analogue equipment, and the digital share of sales grew slowly at first. This gradual pace allowed Milestone to grow organically, without the need for external funding. From the beginning and throughout its maturing phases, the company has stayed independent and entirely self-funded with very healthy growth rates. To fuel the commercial development of the organization , more like-minded professionals were hired. CEO Lars Thinggaard and a sales team of account managers, top software system architects, expert support staff, marketing and technical documentation talent were included in Milestone team.

Subsequently Milestone opened the first regional headquarters in USA in 2004 and another one in APAC region in 2006. In August 2008 the company received external funding through a growth fund of Index Ventures to establish additional financial strength to utilize more opportunities of the fast-growing IP video surveillance market. By the time it was 2011, Milestone had already provided 100,000 solutions worldwide and was improving its service offerings by introducing Milestone Mobile, a free mobile app compatible with all Milestone products. In 2012, Milestone Arcusâ„¢, a video surveillance platform ready to be embedded in hardware devices, is released and allowed Milestone hardware technology partners to deliver customized, market-ready solutions. All these similar technological advancements in Milestone technology made partner collaboration and interaction vital to the company's core business model. To further serve this model, Milestone acquired Connex Internati onal Inc. in 2013, which had worked as a surveillance training, certification and consulting company. With this acquisition Milestone gained an asset to train the partner channel in open platform IP video skills creates value for everyone in the industry.

In 2013, Milestone also released a new series of products called Husky Network Video Recorders, robust and ready-to-use surveillance solutions that provide Milestone’s advanced VMS pre-installed on high-performance hardware. With these NVR series, the company listened to the customers' request and created a pre-configured and integrated solution with reliable Milestone quality, making a serious transition from VMS industry to appliance business.

Canon Acquisition

In June 2014, Canon Inc acquired Milestone Systems. Canon had a clear ambition to drive future growth through diversification and had identified network video surveillance as a strategic new business area. Bringing Milestone into the Canon Group has significantly enhanced Canon’s software capabilities in this sector. Milestone decided to remain a stand-alone company and its’ open platform has remained unchanged after the acquisition.

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