A source for incredible deals, or too good to be true? In our Distributor Favorability Survey integrated shared their experiences and opinions on buying product direct from manufacturers in China through websites like Alibaba and AliExpress. Res...
By Brian Karas - 21 days ago
Manufacturers told IPVM what competitor they most respected. In terms of total revenue, Hikvision, Dahua and Axis are certainly tops but would they be the highest when it came to competitor respect? Inside this post, we share the results of th...
By John Honovich - 29 days ago
Buy from Amazon, get delivery from ADI. What? Recently, we bought a part from Amazon and the shipment came from ADI. We dug into the relationships involved and found 'elves' making this happen. In this note, we examine the details of the opera...
By IPVM Team - about 1 month ago
ScanSource lacks the name recognition and branch outlets of its biggest competitors in security, companies like ADI, Tri-Ed and Anixter but how do they fare with integrators? In this report we analyze feedback from 150 integrators on ScanSource, ...
By Brian Karas - about 2 months ago
Tri-Ed, owned by Anixter, far outranked Anixter, the lowest ranked company in our distributor favorability series. Still, Anixter's ownership did impact Tri-Ed's ranking and how integrator's perception of Tri-Ed has shifted since the acquisition o...
By Brian Karas - about 2 months ago
Axis posted strong numbers for Q1 2017, after having some challenges in 2016 (Q1 2016, Q3 2016). Inventory levels and overall spending show positive signs for Axis. In this report we analyze Axis' Q1 2017 results and look at how Axis is dealing w...
By Brian Karas - 2 months ago
These are the top selling video surveillance distributors in North America, as reported by 150 integrator survey respondents. In this report, we rank, compare and share feedback on (alphabetically): ADI Anixter CSC Direct Graybar Ingram M...
By Brian Karas - 2 months ago
2Gig is one of the most widely used intrusion systems, with two product lines that are the main offering of many alarm companies, huge national installers and small mom & pop shops alike. In this dual-test, IPVM bought both variants of this a...
By Brian Rhodes - 3 months ago
Anixter's direct sales and integrator anger about it has been in the news recently: Anixter / Bosch Sells Direct to Amazon Anixter Touts Selling to End Users Boycott Anixter, Says 82% Integrators In this report, as part of our distributo...
By Brian Karas - 3 months ago
A Dahua distributor in Europe claims that Dahua took over his top customers, revoked his distributorship status, and left him with a large amount of essentially unsellable inventory. The distributor provided IPVM with details and documents to bac...
By Brian Karas - 3 months ago
Amazon is not a security distributor, but they often have more stock, better prices, and faster shipping on certain components than many distributors, according to integrators. When do integrators turn to Amazon, and how do they rate Amazon aga...
By Brian Karas - 4 months ago
"We're #3," in China says Uniview (UNV). While the company significantly trails Hikvision and Dahua in total sales, one notable difference is that Uniview is owned by Bain Capital, the American investment firm. In the past few years, Uniview, has...
By Ethan Ace - 4 months ago
82% of 130 145 integrator respondents say integrators should boycott Anixter, in response to Anixter / Bosch Sells Direct to Amazon. This is the latest in a long line of events where Anixter sells direct to end users (e.g., 1, 2, 3). In partic...
By John Honovich - 5 months ago
Hikvision has become widely available in the US, including on popular retail outlets like Amazon, with over 2,600 results: 4MP Hikvision outdoor domes are $85, 4 channel PoE NVR's are $160, available direct to anyone with a credit card. Most p...
By Brian Karas - 5 months ago
ADI is battling their manufacturer partners, building up their own competitive house brand W-Box, while manufacturers still fund ADI's business through heavy marketing expenditures. In this note, we examine what ADI is doing, how manufacturers ar...
By John Honovich - 5 months ago
ADI has reached a new low - literally.
By John Honovich - 6 months ago
Manufacturers and integrators are not the only ones challenged in the security market, distributors are also impacted, fighting to maintain margins and profit. For this report we analyzed responses from dozens of distributors revealing their #1 c...
By Brian Karas - 6 months ago
40+ video surveillance distributors around the world told us what they see as the present and future of distribution. The key positive: solutions. Just like their manufacturer partners, distributors are looking at solutions. The key negatives: C...
By John Honovich - 6 months ago
A China State Owned Company, Hikvision products are listed as "Made In United States of America" and for sale to US government agencies, despite Hikvision products being made in China and not eligible for such listing. These listings are from t...
By Brian Karas - 6 months ago
Local distribution branches are a big differentiator for many integrators, as they facilitate quickly picking up supplies locally without having to wait for delivery from remote locations. One distributor has taken this a step further, buying th...
By Ari Erenthal - 7 months ago
Anixter's most frequently heard defense of selling to end users is that they used to do it, but not anymore. However, this was undermined by Anixter's own CEO proclamation recently. And, now, here are specific Anixter sales people that specialize...
By John Honovich - 8 months ago
Milestone built up their NA distribution sales team in the past year, following building up their manufacturer rep network and then terminating them. Now, Milestone has shaken up their NA distribution sales team. In this post, we look at what ha...
By Brian Karas - 8 months ago
The victim of the record-breaking botnet, Brian Krebs, is calling Dahua duplicitous in its statements about the Mirai botnet. He says Dahua should bear more responsibility for enabling this botnet and that they are more at fault, for making poorly...
By Brian Karas - 9 months ago
It is over. After at least 8 across the board price cuts in the past 10 months, including an unprecedented back to back 20% off, Hikvision has declared that this one will be the 'last chance'. But Hikvision has already significantly changed the ...
By Brian Karas - 9 months ago
Many manufacturers have increasingly large and hungry sales forces that call on more and more end users. One recent example is Axis ~$20 Billion Retailer End to End Solution Win. Does this help or hurt integrators? Are integrators ok with this or...
By Brian Karas - 10 months ago
