Axis' regional expansion is right on track

Established in the UAE in 2006 and now operating regionally, Axis Communications has witnessed a tremendous growth in sales of network video solutions especially in the Transportation, Banking, Education and Retail sectors in the Middle East.

The growth in infrastructure and continuous focus on the emerging tourism sector has significantly contributed to the increasing demand for new technologies that provide advanced security solutions. With the escalating shift from analogue to IP based solutions, the network video market is expected to continue growing at a high rate in excess of 40% per year.

Gilles Ortega, Regional Manager, Axis Communications MENA, commented,

"With the aid of key market intelligence and working closely with our partners on the ground, we have refined our business strategy for the region to ensure that Axis Communications is strongly positioned to meet & exceed the security needs of users in the Middle East & North African market."

In tandem, Axis Communications is working closely with its distributors and channel partners to design & execute marketing activities which are customized for the region. As part of its customer education and training effort, Axis are in the process of conducting a number of product seminars and workshops in association with its channel partners to address the needs of sales personnel, technical support staff and end users.
Axis Communications' recently published financial results for the first six months of 2008, confirmed the company's leadership position globally, with a strong sales growth of 37 percent up to SEK882m ($147m) in its core network video market and in the EMEA region, where net sales amounted to SEK469.5m ($78.3m).

"At Axis, the focus is very much about innovation, whereby we typically invest between 16 to 18 percent of our annual revenue in Research & Development year on year. Since the opening of our Middle East offices in 2006, our regional figures have substantially increased and are contributing to a growing portion of EMEA's financial results which we are extremely proud of," added Ortega.

Building on its heritage of having introduced the world's first network camera in 1996, today Axis has the broadest network video portfolio on the market. In April 2008, Axis announced a new generation of network video products built upon the in-house developed ARTPEC-3 chip. ARTPEC-3 incorporates the compression standard H.264 that reduces the storage and bandwidth needs of network video surveillance dramatically and unburdens the increasing network overload.

Axis continues to grow from strength to strength building on its leadership position not only in sales but also in terms of employees. With the recruitment of 80 people that joined Axis globally during the first half of the year, the number of employee's now totals 644.