Sparsh : A made in India brand revolution

Mr. Sanjeev Sehgal, Managing Director Sparsh

Q Sparsh has gained remarkable positioning in the security industry; please share some of its milestones & achievements?

Established in 2002, 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 100 cities in India, channel strength of more than 1500 and manufacturing more than a million security equipments every quarter. 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 six 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 & manufacturing high quality and technologically advanced CCTV 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)
• Technology Evangelist of the year (VAR India 2012)
• “Top 100 Most Trusted Companies in India” (VAR India 2012 & 2013)
• “Leaders of Tomorrow” in Electrical and Electronics category. (ET Now-IndiaMART 2010)
• “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 Sparsh (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 & 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 1500 resellers compromising of C&F, franchisees, distributors, dealers, channel partners, system integrators and enterprise SI’s. We have presence in more than 100 cities in India and we target to increase our partners to 3000 having presence in more than 150 cities in next fiscal.

We aspire to be a true Indian company with global outlook having worldwide presence, and therefore we have increased focus on global partners. We have our participation in major international security trade shows like Security China in Beijing, INTERSEC in Dubai & SECUTECH in Taiwan wherein we want to spot the potential distributors, dealers or an OEM for our range of CCTV Surveillance products. We already have separated our international sales department and have special focus on emerging markets including South Asia, Middle East & Africa.

Sparsh Core Team Members

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

Our product portfolio includes:

• CCTV Camera
• Digital Video Recorder
• IP Camera
• Analog Speed Dom
• IP Speed Dome
• Video Management Software
• CCTV Accessories

CCTV today has application in all fields of life. Our products are used in all security applications including

• Government and public buildings
• Transportation – airport, railways and bus stations
• Education-schools & universities
• Retail – shops and malls
• Banks
• Hotels
• Residential buildings

Q Which are the some of your pioneering products and services you introduced in the market recently or is there any plan to launch the new products?

We pioneered the analogue video surveillance category in 2011 and now we are pioneering the category of IP video surveillance which would be our new growth driver. We have engineered and added lot of products in the IP range. Last year we launched our ZSecure IP camera series and have already received overwhelming response for it. We have already bagged good projects and both our analogue and IP products have passed stringent performance and quality tests from NABL approved government lab in India, once again re-sounding our focus of quality and technology at par international standards.

Our new ZSecure Video Management Software comes in three different versions Lite, Professional and Enterprise with features and scalability suiting every requirement. It supports features like virtually unlimited camera integration, video analytics, distributed client server architecture, open platform supporting multi brands, multi server support, server failover mechanism, etc.

We are launching Mega Pixel IP cameras and would soon be launching Standalone NVR series which would be very helpful in addressing the installation complexity for IP camera, still retaining all benefits of IP but installation friendly like analogue cameras. This would be more like plug and play for IP camera quite similar to how plug and play happens for analogue camera along with DVR. We are also aiming for newer heights in the analogue product domain as well. Our new WD1 DVR series based on Texas Instruments’ new DaVinci™ DM8107 platform has received overwhelming response from partners & customers.

This is the 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. We are already working on supporting all our future product lines with next generation H.265 compression technology, which would further help customers to get an increased ROI on their investments. We have also upgraded our HQIS series from 600 TVL to 700 TVL and would be showcasing 800 TVL and 1000 TVL analogue camera series in IISE, New Delhi. With several traditional free and unreliable DDNS services and reliable one’s converting to fee based services, Sparsh has bridged this gap by launching reliable and secure Sparsh Express DDNS services – Free DDNS services for all Sparsh partners and customers. This service would not only help bridge the gap of a free DDNS service but also provide a platform for customers and partners to manage their Sparsh devices on a single window and at click of a mouse button.

We have also integrated our customer care centre with Integrated Voice and Recording System (IVRS) for hassle free support to all our partners and bring customer service to a completely new level. Our dedicated professional team of customer care executives now provides support for all Sparsh products at a single central number. We do not follow the herd mentality of easy low cost imports from China but do them better with our inherent strength in product design, software development and manufacturing. We want to make our customers “Feel Secure” when they buy Sparsh products rather than being unsure about Chinese quality.

Sparsh Corporate Office in Noida

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

Getting the expertise from world’s top companies; Sony Electronics and Aptina in the analogue domain, we are today manufacturing world class products in the analogue range. In IP range, getting expertise from the leading company; Texas Instruments, Sparsh has developed and launched the next generation IP cameras and also became the first India-based company to launch 4, 8 and 16 channels designed and developed DVR series based on TI’s DaVinci™ DM8107. We would be launching our Mega Pixel IP cameras in IISE, New Delhi from 26th to 29th Septmeber,2013 which are developed with technical expertise from Aptina, one of the leading and popular company in the Mega Pixel space. We have associated with the best and leading companies in each space to support us with the latest and best in class technologies. This in combination with our R&D team and software expertise, what India is known world over for, enables us to design and develop work class products.

Q What has been the growth story of Sparsh?

Sparsh has grown at more than 50% CAGR from last five years and would continue to grow by expanding its product portfolio and global footprint. This year we focus at growing more than 50% and consolidate our brand position in different regions in India. We also focus to streamline our channel and expand our reach to more than 150 cities with more than 3000 channel partners. We by our studies hold approximately 8% of the CCTV market share by volume and want to increase our market to more than 10% this year. This year our DVR market share grew by 75% and we aim to have more than 15% of market share in DVRs and 5% in IP cameras by this year end.

Q Brief us about future plans of Sparsh?

Our future expansion will be both in Analogue and IP video surveillance category, with IP category getting more focus. We have already launched products in this category and aim to complete the IP portfolio by end of this fiscal including megapixel IP cameras and network video recorders. We would also be adding 800TVL and 1000 TVL of analogue products to address the increasing demand for high resolution cameras. We are already a leader in the analogue category and our target is to be the leading brand in the IP category as well in next two years.
This year we are also focussing on government vertical with Sparsh already registered as an approved DGS&D brand for supply of CCTV cameras and solution to all central and state government bodies. 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 You being the Founding Chairman of SPGI, what are your plans to promote this association?

SPGI is a group of Key Security Professionals who have come together for the sole and selfless purpose of betterment of the Indian Security Industry. We believe that we need not need to promote the group as we believe that like-minded people will keep on joining without any promotion. In a short span of time, SPGI has become an invincible force and is successfully working in multiple fields which will prove beneficial to the Indian Security Industry. SPGI has been appointed as a Co-organizer of IISE 2013, associate for Intersec Dubai 2014 and is also an Event Associate for IBEX 2014.

Q How do SPGI will facilitate the industry to promote standards & right products to end users?

The main objective of SPGI is driven by the sole motive of structuring the industry and unitedly making a representation in various segments for the growth and benefit of Indian Security professionals and organizations and in turn making the end customer benefit from an organized and structured industry. SPGI has initiated the matter of Standardization of Security Products with BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), who have already initiated the process of formulating Indian Standards for all Electronic Products. BIS has made these standards mandatory for 15 Electronics/IT Products from July’2013.

SPGI is in talks with various State Governments so that the taxes are reduced on Security Products and Services. This will not only reduce the burden on Customer’s pocket but shall also ensure healthier competition between good security system providers. Our vision includes India to be put on the world map as a competition to other security equipment manufacturing countries specially China. We are talking to various associates and government bodies to get a preferred status to the Security Industry so that it can grow faster and catch up with the other manufacturing countries.

Sparsh Team at Corporate Office

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

The growing incidences of terrorist attacks (26/11 attack) and other criminal activities have significantly changed the security perception of the Indian customers and various government agencies, which are now looking for better and advanced security products & solutions. The changing socio-economic conditions have made video surveillance a must have for both government and private organizations. 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 firms and traders. Based on various estimates, global CCTV market is still growing at double digit rates and Indian market is growing at few times that rate. Asia accounts for over 1/3rd of the global market with India and China driving bulk of the growth. Indian CCTV market has grown at 25-35% CAGR in last few years and we expect growth rates to continue for next 3-5 years.

Q What are the issues you need to address that are related to your industry?

Despite such a growing market, Indian CCTV market is still much unorganized with many traders flooding the market with inferior imported products. Customers need to be educated so that they can buy the right product 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 and export of electronic security products. In addition, government needs to create policies to promote local manufacturing of security products.