Importer -
"someone whose business involves importing goods from outside (especially
from a foreign country)" (Thesaurus dictionary) and "a person,
country or company that buys products from another country in order to sell
them" (Cambridge
dictionary).
Whether it is
clothes, food or cctv cameras, our business is not as simple and
straightforward as its definition may make it to be...and when cctv products
are concerned - far from it! The video surveillance market is wide and consists
of various articles that range from small, simple and unchanged for decades
(power supplies, accessories....) to complex and dynamic products (cctv
cameras, IP cameras, dvr boards, standalone dvrs) to latest developed
technologies (IP megapixel cameras, over 600tvl cameras, HD standalone dvr...).
Yes, it is a
technology driven market and latest technologies make the rules! Who remembers
VCRs, multiplexers and cctv monitors? They have all been replaced in the past
decades by dvr boards, DVR standalone and PC monitors. How about cctv cameras?
They were big, they had CMOS video boards and they were black/white because the
color video boards were too expensive. Now can be fitted with color CCD which
can go up to 1020x596 pixels (Effio dsp of Sony), zoom lens and can connect to internet (IP
cameras).
We consider
ourselves importers of technology and we feel responsible for the quality of
products we bring to our country. Therefore we have set up our own set of rules
regarding the products we import and offer to clients: all cameras must have
color CCDs, 420tvl is the lowest video resolution accepted, the CCDs must be of
latest generation, we only purchase from manufacturers which can provide CE,
ROHS certification for their products and have R&D team. We check the
products and observe how they function in order to anticipate any problems our
clients could have and have the answer at hand - from client's point of view it
is very important to have your problems solved quickly and correctly and we
feel this is the professional thing to do.
Every quality
focused importer should first purchase sample products: we conduct quality and
functionality check on the sample products to make sure they deliver according
to specifications sheet. We feedback our observations to the manufacturer and
very often they improve their products as a result. It is of paramount
importance to us to standby the products we sell and simply like them - their
features as well as their appearance, in order to continue our business
relationship with the respective supplier. As a consequence to this principle,
we stopped our relationship with two suppliers because the quality of their
products has decreased or we felt we couldn't rely on the supplier's support.
The other
important relationship is with our clients - may they be professional
installing companies or end-users. We provide technical consultancy free of
charge to both type of clients in accordance with their needs, trying to
achieve a balance between what they need, what they expect, what the current
technology can offer them and what they can afford to pay. We feel that the
responsibility of professional installing companies is to inform the end-users
in respect of what the cctv products can or cannot do, but we are happy to do
it ourselves when asked!
At the end of the
day, the ultimate satisfaction is to get the call back - the client says he
likes the product and wants to keep supplying from our company.
