Middle East expansion, talking to Soren Kannov from Teleste
Philip Ingram from Security News Desk and SecurityMiddle.East.com talked to Soren Kannov, the Director of Business Development for Middle East and India and Olivier Nitre, Vice president of Sales and Products, Video Networks with Teleste about the challenges of growing into the Middle East.
“Teleste has a fantastic product set ideally suited to many of the projects in the Middle East and our ability to deliver a complete service puts us at the leading edge of the market”, says Kannov. “However, many of the projects have a very long lead time and business here is dependent on making strong and lasting personal relationships. It is taking time to explain to the market who we are and what our capabilities are.”
Teleste is a manufacturer and complete solution provider, that many people have come into contact with in some way or another without even knowing it.
Solution providers for Virgin Media, BT Redcare, SNCF in France, The Chicago Transit Authority, Hong Kong Area Traffic Control, London Underground, Mexican Subway, St Petersberg Pulkovo Airport, the US Secret Service and Queensland Police are just a few names on their impressive project list.
Now in its 60th year, Teleste was established in 1954 in Finland and today has 30 offices worldwide and some 1,450 employees, helping make Teleste one of the top video surveillance solution providers in the world.
“We have been providing IP solutions since 1999/2000 when we delivered a digital IP-driven network solution to the Swedish road authorities – probably the world’s first IP network”, says Olivier Nitre, Vice president of Sales and Products, Video Networks with Teleste.”Once we show people our portfolio of global projects they are amazed that they have not been working with us and it is easy to prove our value.”
“We started increasing our profile in December 2014 with our exclusive Video Surveillance Summit at The Address Downtown, Dubai where we were supported by many partners including CNL Software, Ipsotek, IT-Serve, Arecont Vision, Arrow Labs and Wavesight. The one-day event featured a range of presentations and discussions, including a keynote address from Ben Selier, Sales and Technical Director at 4Trust. This is a format we are likely to repeat at the end of this year”, continues Kannov.
“Our next event is the Middle East Rail Summit which is an ideal platform to introduce to the Middle East Market our acquisition of the Mitron Group Oy Ltd. The combined Teleste-Mitron solution gives rail operators a true end-to-end solution that enables more efficient operations with enhanced passenger service and security throughout the rail ecosystem”
Mitron Group Oy Ltd is a Finnish provider of public transportation information systems and modern display solutions. The acquisition follows Teleste’s strategy to become one of the leading suppliers of end-to-end video and information management solutions for the rail market. Both Teleste and Mitron have been granted an IRIS certificate, and the acquisition further increases their compliances in providing high standard solutions that are specified for the needs of the rail industry.
“The rapidly expanding rail requirements in the Middle East will give us further opportunities” added Kannov. Finally we will cement our position in the Middle East by taking a presence at the regions largest Security, Fire and Safety Expo INTERSEC next January.”
“In all we have exciting times to generate business in the region. Our strengths are our holistic approach as a solution provider, our history of delivering large complex projects and our commitment to the region.”
(Teleste’s office is located in 17 The Iridium Building, Umm Suqeim Road, Al Barsha, P.O. Box 391186, Dubai.)
Contact
Sören Kannov, Business Development Director Middle East and India, 17 The Iridium Building, Umm Suqeim Road, Al Barsha, P.O. Box 391186, Dubai. EMail: soren.kannov@teleste.com
Olivier Nitre, Vice President Sales & Product Management. EMail: Olivier.nitre@teleste.com
