Examining VMS / NVR Market Segmentation

Published Sep 26, 2009 00:00 AM
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Press releases from VMS/NVR manufacturers on their claimed market shares and ranking can be confusing, especially since there are a number of different categories used. For instance, see Aimetis' August 2009 announcement of ranking 7th and Milestone's September 2009 announcement of ranking 1st [link no longer available]. They cite 3 different segments from IMS Research.

  • Aimetis cites for the Americas only and for software only open platform VMS
  • Milestone cites for the entire world for both open platform VMS and software only VMS (citing 25.8% share in open platform and 10% in software only)
IMS confirmed that they have multiple segments for video management.
 
The most basic segmentation is software vs hardware. All hardware systems (DVR, NVR appliance, storage, servers, etc.) are ranked separately from software only systems. That means, neither Milestone nor Aimetis ranking compares them to large DVR vendors (e.g., Dedicated Micros, Everfocus, American Dynamics, Verint NetBoxes, etc.).

Within software VMS systems, IMS has multiple categorizations. For instance, the software only VMS category is a subset of the open platform VMS category. Specifically, the software only VMS category does not include vendors who sell their own cameras (e.g., Verint, DvTel) while the broader category of open platform does (because Verint and DvTel support 3rd party devices in addition to their own).

Here is the official description from IMS:

"Open Platform Network Video Management Software

Products that support a variety of hardware (cameras and encoders/decoders) from multiple vendors and offer the ability for customised integration with other systems or devices using an open platform software development kit (SDK).

Software Only Vendors of Open Platform Network Video Management Software This category includes all products that support third-party software but that come from vendors who only sell software. For example,Milestone or Genetec."

While many people were surprised about Aimetis ranking 7th (myself included), these categorizations help clarify what this means. Aimetis is ranked 7th only in 1 region and only against other vendors who sell VMS software but not their own cameras (which means DvTel, Verint, March, AD, DM, etc. are all excluded from this ranking).

Furthermore, while Milestone is 'big' compared to other software-only platform systems (25.8% share), they are far smaller against all open systems (only 10%), implying that non open platform systems are about 150% larger than open platform systems. Of course, neither of these rankings compares Milestone to the far larger group of companies providing DVR/NVR appliances.

Many business people find these rankings to be extremely important so appreciating the segmentation is important to making the most sense out of them. Since all of these companies compete directly against each other, in our analysis, we would be more inclined to use a grouping of all companies.