Bosch Merges Video, Intrusion and Access Businesses

By John Honovich, Published Feb 19, 2018, 10:28am EST (Info+)

Bosch is merging their "video systems, intrusion detection, as well as its access control and management software business units to form a single business unit, known as Security". This was announced as a detail of a recent renaming of "Bosch Security Systems" to "Bosch Building Technologies."

The merger is likely to have a bigger impact than the renaming. We spoke with Bosch Security's management about what they expect from the merger, what they are prioritizing in video surveillance and how this compares to their system integration business.

Background / ******** ************ ** *****

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Integration ***** ********

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Comments (7)

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Marco Sanchez

02/19/18 03:43pm

Were there any discussions on how they planned to organize their sales teams in North America? Do they still have manufacturers representative firms? Will they merge Sony reps?

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

02/19/18 05:04pm

Will they merge Climatec into this?  Of course, they are just like Siemens.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 02/19/18 05:40pm

I disagree about them merging Climatec into this. Let's leave aside that they said they are not, it just does not make much sense. 

Climatec is not a big company overall (~$200 million), regionally limited, and mostly outside of security. It's simply not big enough of a company to be worth merging with the products business.

On the other hand, if Bosch starts pulling a Convergint and buying up integrators, then that would be a sign to me of fundamental changes.

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Undisclosed Integrator #2

02/19/18 05:07pm

This actually makes a lot of sense and is a good move for Bosch and integrators in general.  We do not currently represent Bosch and are unlikely to do so in any serious fashion but I see this as a postive move.  When we had the Bosch rep out last month his knowledge level of the surveillance product seemed limited and was even more limited in regard to the greater Bosch portfolio.  There are definite synergies in this move.

I'm a bit more concerned when I see limited synergy such as the Panasonic consolidation and push to sell Toughbooks, monitors, and such under the security line.

I'm most interested to see what happens with Sony and Bosch.  Their position is not clearly communicated by the representatives.

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Ed Pedersen

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 02/26/18 03:16pm

I am sorry to hear that you did not have a good experience when meeting with a Bosch representative.  We are growing our sales team quickly and as you would imagine, it takes time to get new folks up to speed on all of are products.  I would be happy to have one of our Sales Engineers reach out to set up an in-depth review of all our solutions.  Please reach out to me at ed.pedersen@us.bosch.com and I will make sure you are taken care of. 

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Mark Jones

02/26/18 02:28pm

From a technology perspective, this is not news.  They have had this capability for years. They have not done a good job of marketing.  I think this announcement is more of a relaunch than anything else.  I will have to say though when I saw it years ago, I did like the merger of technologies.  The issue was it was expensive.  They charged a premium for the integration.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Mark Jones | 02/26/18 02:34pm

From a technology perspective, this is not news. They have had this capability for years

From a business perspective, the divisions were run separately. Now, they will be run as one.

Certainly, Bosch has offered (at least some) integration of their security products for years. Bosch's contention is that merging the divisions will increase that.

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