Axxon: interview with Carlos Angeles and Torsten Anstaedt about the plans for the future

Axxon: interview with Carlos Angeles and Torsten Anstaedt about the plans for the future. Market leaders in a field of technology are supposed to be known and enjoy high brand awareness for most people in the marketplace. For Axxon this is only the case in Russia and Eastern Europe, where the origin of the company lays. The major software developer started in 2003 in Moscow, when his founder Murat Altuev assembled the industry's most influential security software experts - leaders who had been around since the birth of the field - and formed Axxon. Since then Axxon has become No. 1 in Europe and No. 3 in the world in the Open Network Video Management Software category according to a report by IMS Research. Nevertheless there are great parts of the EMEA region where Axxon's reputation still has to grow and this is the target during 2009. In these times of crisis and recession, Axxon has just recruited a professional management team to proof that having the best products and people makes anytime a good moment to invest.

Complete Software Solutions for Security

In the security industry there are also leagues and categories as there are in the sports field. Just a few companies in the world can talk about handling tens of thousands of cameras using their management software. Axxon is one of them, being its flagship the Moscow SafeCity project: more than 80.000 cameras used to keep an eye over the 20 million population capital of Russian Federation. The Government relies on Axxon software to handle traffic monitoring, security surveillance, intelligent video analytics and other cutting edge features. We are talking here about premier league in video management software.

During their press event in Birmingham Murat Altuev, board member and president of Axxon made clear that the success of Axxon is not only based on high quality products but also on an enthusiastic team that stands behind the products and service the company offers. To expand their business in Europe, Middle East and Africa Axxon did hire two security professional that will lead the company in that territory. We had the opportunity to talk to Carlos Angeles, managing director at EMEA headquarters in Barcelona and Torsten Anstaedt, managing director for the German speaking countries based in Wiesbaden about Axxons plans for the future.

Axxon's solutions are very popular in Russia and Axxon has realised a safe city project in Moscow with over 80,000 integrated cameras. What are your plans to expand the company's presence in the EMEA region?

C. Angeles: Axxon managed to became market leader in Europe selling mostly in emerging countries. The plan consists in consolidating our position by reach the same market share, brand awareness and customer loyalty in western Europe, middle east and Africa. Axxon in Russia is the obvious choice for most of the installers. We have the same ambition in the territory under the new offices.

T. Anstaedt: In these regions we will offer various product trainings and webinars for different target groups. In Wiesbaden we have already installed demo rooms and a training center for product demonstrations. AxxonSoft will develop the market in the German speaking countries together with system integrators and installers. For us, system integrators and installers are a very important target group and we will offer not only a great product but also excellent conditions and a good service.

On the market there are already several software offerings that concentrate on video management and there are software tools that are specialised on security aspects like video analysis. What does the Axxon solution offer, that distinguishes it from the competition?

C. Angeles: Our competitive advantage are 250 engineers, the world's biggest CCTV system managed under single software, the financial stability to heavily invest on R&D and marketing activities, seven years enterprise level system experience, and the best price versus performance ratio in the market.

T. Anstaedt: Our solution offers an extraordinary high number of integrated cameras, ATM devices, access controll and POS systems. This allows the system to cover all vertical markets like security, traffic, finance and retail with a broad variety of tools. We do not see a system on the market that offers such a complete solution as we can offer. Software from other vendors may also offer various tools, but the crux of the matter is that unlike our competitors we develop 99% of our products inhouse and do not buy these products in addition. This give us an advantage in time during projects and a price advantage since we do not have to acquire third party knowledge and support.

Solutions that offer a broad variety of tools are expected to be expensive. Is that true for Axxon products?

T. Anstaedt: We already mentioned the attractive pricing we offer with our products. We will accelerate the technology transfer from analog to IP through our distribution and price structure. This will also make our products very attractive for installers and producers of IP components.

C.Angeles: Our solution is modular and can grow upon customer needs. Cost for the partners grows linear as system grows, and extra features are charged at a flat rate. This is something that allows all customers to start with a common core system and add features and new channels at will. This pricing schema is appreciated by our partners, and will be very hard for our competitors to match.

What will be in your focus in the near future?

C. Angeles: We will focus our efforts in growing fast in the whole space. I am sure you will hear from us everywhere in a short time from now.

T. Anstaedt: One development is also important for our customers: Within the next days Axxon will be ONVIF contributing partner and will co-develop the new ONVIF pattform. Our two products on the market, "Axxon Smart" for the professional and "Axxon Intellect" for the enterprise level are already cutting-edge products but we have already a brandnew product for the professional market in our pipeline that will be launched in October and it will be the first of a new generation of video management software products in terms of user-friendliness and designs. That is all we want to so say at the moment...

Contact:

Axxon Europe,
Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Barcelona, Spain
Carlos Angeles
Tel. +34 934 925 729 
Fax. +34 934 925 701 
carlos.angeles@axxonsoft.com

Axxon DACH, Wiesbaden, Germany
Torsten Anstaedt
Tel.: +49 611 1575140
Fax: + 49 611 1575141
torsten.anstaedt@axxonsoft.com
www.axxonsoft.com