Milestone to purchase all outstanding shares of Connex International

Connex has added certification testing and documentation of Milestone Solution Partner integrations with the XProtect open platform

Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), is purchasing all outstanding shares of the surveillance training, certification and consulting company Connex International, based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Milestone was already a majority stakeholder in Connex from an initial investment in July 2010.

For years the Connex teams have set up, managed and performed Milestone channel partner training in many languages with proven success across all regions. In recent years, Connex has added rigorous certification testing and documentation of Milestone Solution Partner integrations with the XProtect open platform, such as access control, analytics, geo-spatial positioning, video synopsis, 360° camera view de-warping, network video storage and more.

Milestone is now fully investing in these dedicated resources, supporting the need for continued education in the physical security sector to further enable the trend from analogue to IP technology. Training the partner channel in open platform IP video skills creates value for everyone in the industry: increasing technical expertise differentiates system integrators in the market and most importantly, ensures that they deliver the best solutions to customers.

“Our international ecosystem of competent distributors and resellers is key to the Milestone strategy for continued growth. To further accelerate, globalise and align our efforts to strengthen the training of this ecosystem, Milestone has decided to fully acquire and include Connex in the core of our business operations,” says Lars Thinggaard, President and CEO, Milestone Systems. He continues:

“As a key component in our pursuit to serve the clients of the future, Milestone will continue to invest significant resources in the Milestone Knowledge Program and the teams driving our global training concepts to market. The full inclusion of Connex into Milestone is a testimony to this strategy. Their services support Milestone partners in delivering the most competitive, well-designed and high quality solutions in the industry.”

The aim for the initial transition in Q4 of 2013 will be to continue the existing training operations while building out the global capacity including plans for launching self-paced online certification courses for channel partners. In addition to the Milestone Knowledge Program, the professional consulting services provided by Connex to key Milestone partners will be incorporated into Milestone’s core business framework.