Interview With Eric Fullerton, CEO and President at Vicon Industries

In September 2014 the planned merger of Vicon Industries and IQinVision was approved and Vicon's board of directors had appointed Eric Fullerton, as CEO and president. Fullerton joined Vicon from Milestone System where he served as chief sales and marketing officer. At ASIS in the US and Security Essen in Germany last year Vicon started to present their combined portfolio to partners and customers. GIT SECURITY had the opportunity to talk to Eric Fullerton about the ­future of the company and the challenge to bring the two businesses together.

GIT SECURITY: Eric, having worked for Milestone with their open culture should help you with the task of connecting the two businesses?

Eric Fullerton: Yes absolutely. As we move forward with the integration of IQinVision and Vicon it is paramount that the combined solutions be brought to market with a willingness to partner with other companies. In today's security market no one company can do it all alone, and end users simply expect that any solution they buy today will be able to interoperate with other companies solutions now and in the future. In driving the integrated organization we are focusing on the key values of Customer experience, Integrity, Passion, Innovation and Team orientation both within our own organization and in relation to our partners.

What are the strengths of Vicon and IQin­Vision and where do you see the challenges?

Eric Fullerton: Both IQinVision and Vicon are experienced and innovative companies. IQ was one of the first true megapixel camera suppliers and in the early days of the CCTV world, Vicon offered the first PTZ enclosure and a lot more. However both companies lost their way in identifying changes in the security market that began to be driven by technology cycles and business structure. We have great employees from both companies who want to make changes and have the passion to focus on our customers' needs to bring new and innovative products to the market in the near future. The best thing is that we already have some very good and reliable product from both sides of the new company to offer today.

Will IQinVision stay as a division of Vicon and what brand names will you use in the future?

Eric Fullerton: I believe the actual structure of Vicon will be changing over time. The value of IQinVision is mainly in the camera technology and capabilities; and we will definitely be conserving this value at our California engineering site where IQinVision has been since its inception. We will be transferring all camera development previously done in Israel and NY to California. Therefore the original IQ activities are getting strengthened with all the camera knowledge and technology from Vicon before the merger.

Have you already decided about the distribution model for the combined company?

Eric Fullerton: Yes, we will be implementing a two tier distribution model across all markets.

What segments of the market are you ­targeting?

Eric Fullerton: We will start in our areas of strength which are: Corrections, Law enforcement, Transportation, Education, Banking, Industrial, Retail and Hospitality. As we start delivering integrated solutions for the targeted features in these vertical markets, our position will further strengthen. As time goes by, we expect to enhance the applications of our products to appeal to additional market segments.

How important is the EMEA market and how do you see your position in the market there?

Eric Fullerton: The EMEA market is very important to Vicon going forward. "Position" is a broad word to use, as the EMEA market is vast and diverse, so I will mention the areas where we have people on the ground instead. These are: UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and the Middle East. Not only do we have fairly good coverage of offices in EMEA, we also have distributors in markets where we do not have Vicon staff on the ground. We expect to expand our business in EMEA and are investing for the future.

What will we see on the product side from Vicon and IQinVision in the next months?

Eric Fullerton: On the camera side we are launching the Sentinel 12MP Camera that also supports the 4K (16:9) format. This is a cutting edge camera that enables a myriad of applications with situational awareness and also brings a very good total cost of ownership to a solution. Simply, it is the next generation of high performance and reliable products from the old IQinVision team that really hits home on end user needs.

On the systems side, we have several exciting things in the pipeline: First there is ViconNet 7.1 that will hit the street in December with a lot of improvements for MP cameras and ease of use for our customers. We have really been listening to their needs for this release. Then we have our HDExpress that is an entry level NVR with 4, 8 and 16 port versions that are truly self-inflating when installed. You simply fire the box up, plug the cameras into the integrated PoE switch and have video surveillance within a minute. This is another good example of where we are putting true end user needs in focus. And we have many more concepts on both the camera and system side that we are currently working on, so stay tuned for more announcements in the beginning of next year. This is truly an exciting time for Vicon, and I know that we are on the right track to becoming the most valuable security solutions provider.