Milestone Systems has hired a Director of Global Support. Michael Flanagan will scale out the company's support capability for its worldwide channel to provide more self-sufficiency, flexibility, and predictability - with the ultimate goal of optimal partner and customer satisfaction.

Milestone Systems continues to achieve strong growth in the fast-growing sector of IP video surveillance, and this includes increasing numbers of installing partners along with ongoing development of Milestone XProtect VMS. This naturally creates demands for flexible support options that are better tailored to each partner's various needs. To manage this, Milestone Systems has hired a competent and experienced director who brings more than 20 years of international skills from the engineering and IT industries. Michael A. Flanagan is now Director of Global Support at Milestone Systems, ready to deliver technical assistance to Milestone's authorized and certified partners in more than 115 countries.

"One size does not fit all. So the key is to deliver tiered levels of support that match the needs of each partner. 2012 promises to be an exciting year with Milestone already investing in a bunch of support initiatives that will focus on self-sufficiency, flexibility and predictability. More self-service resources will empower our partners to better help themselves and our customers. Cost-effective technical support offerings will also include priority queuing, committed response times, and 24x7 capability. And finally: clear, consistent and visible guidelines for global support availability will allow partners to optimally manage requirements and expectations," explains Flanagan, and continues: "Milestone has big ambitions. I'm excited to be part of it and to develop a world-class professional support framework for our channel partners. Open platform IP video surveillance software is the best solution for both today and tomorrow, yet it is still a young market with enormous potential in the future so the needs for technical support will constantly evolve. Milestone will grow and adapt to these changing demands and that's a job I look forward to fulfilling."

Flanagan has experience in engineering and IT spanned management, development and support of large projects with multi-disciplinary functions and international sites. This included leading-edge insurance and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions, high-tech hardware products for advanced defense applications, and monitoring systems for machinery within the oil and power generation industries. He demonstrated a results-oriented attitude as a strong team leader and passionate customer advocate.

"We are delighted to get Michael on board to lead the technical support teams. He comes with deep expertise from Microsoft and Navision, among others, and will sharpen efficiency and quality, including response times," states CTO and co-founder of Milestone Systems, John Blem. "As Milestone continues to scale out our business - both geographically and with new software offerings - we plan to always improve partner and customer satisfaction. By investing in new resources and initiatives, we aim to fulfill the constantly varied demands for expert technical support of our growing product portfolio."