Milestone Drops Hikvision as Elite Partner
Milestone has quietly dropped Hikvision from their 'Elite Partners', less than three years after adding the Chinese government-owned mega-manufacturer.
Milestone has quietly dropped Hikvision from their 'Elite Partners', less than three years after adding the Chinese government-owned mega-manufacturer. This comes amidst rising criticisms of Hikvision, from mainstream global media and U.S. and U.K. elected officials.
“We can confirm that as of December 13, 2018, HikVision is no longer a Milestone Elite Camera Partner,” said Bjørn Skou Eilertsen, Milestone’s CTO. “To be named a Milestone Elite partner, companies must demonstrate outstanding sales, implementation, consulting and support for Milestone Systems solutions and consistently show excellence in business initiatives and marketing. The engagement between the companies did not achieve this. Therefore, the ongoing relationship between HikVision and Milestone Systems will continue to operate at a non-elite level.”
Industry blogger and IPVM founder John Honovich asked what impact Hikvision’s cybersecurity issues and the Chinese government control had on removing them from the Elite Partner page.
“The business engagement is thoroughly evaluated annually, we don’t comment on specific criteria. We are of course aware of the criticism of HikVision and we are following the developments.”
Hikvision's devices are still supported by Milestone, with the same license and same pricing, however, without the advantages of being an Elite Partner. Companies enjoying Elite Partner status include Axis, Bosch, Hanwha, Panasonic and Sony.
Elite Partner Advantages
- Dedicated Partner Manager to coordinate integration activities.
- Prioritized driver development & test execution.
- Option to have dedicated drivers developed by Milestone using the partner camera API.
- Prioritized and first to be invited for various Milestone Marketing activities and events.
Contrast With Genetec Expelling
Milestone's move is not as extreme as Genetec. While both companies have deprioritized developing and supporting Hikvision's products, Genetec requires a special increased license fee and a special waiver that make Hikvision products effectively “devices non grata.” By contrast, Milestone is putting Hikvision on the same level as smaller camera manufacturers. This, of course, is atypical given the size of Hikvision as a camera manufacturer.