Milestone Systems has invested in a partnership with Connex International to deliver training and certification services to the company's expanding global partner channel. The partnership is based on a global service agreement for Connex International to provide security and surveillance training for certification in Milestone IP video management solutions. This certification functions as a requirement that authorizes Milestone partners to sell and implement the company's leading XProtect software platforms. Milestone is represented by distributors, systems integrators, value-added resellers, and solution partners in 107 countries at present.

"This investment supports strategic business objectives. Milestone is planning further global development that includes aggressive expansion. Currently, the Milestone partner channel is increasing by more than 50% annually, and this kind of growth requires dedicated resources to support the need for continued education in our industry to enable the move from analog to IP technology," states Eric Fullerton. Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Milestone Systems, "Training the partner channel benefits everyone in the industry: it creates value for the partners by ramping up their technical knowledge, differentiating them in the market through higher expertise levels in the newest offerings, and most importantly, ensuring that they deliver the best solutions to customers."

With the physical security market reported presently to be 80% based on legacy analog technology, the Milestone vision is to drive the transition to IP networked solutions, which offer many benefits such as greater scalability, efficiency, and performance. Since Milestone Systems started its channel partner program in 2004, training has been a key component - more than 5,000 professionals have been certified on Milestone XProtect software platforms.

"The synergies between Milestone and Connex International, Inc. will enable an accelerated global expansion of innovative technical and sales training offerings. These services will support Milestone partners in delivering the most competitive, well-designed and high quality solutions in the industry. During periods of rapid change, specialized education services are critical to supporting long-term business partnerships between manufacturers and channel partners," explains Keven Marier, CEO of Connex International.

Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Connex International specializes in the development, management and delivery of comprehensive education and training workshops for security and IT industry professionals. Today, education and training workshops are performed in 14 international languages: Arabic, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Castilian and Latin American Spanish, and Swedish. Localized training for Milestone software in other native languages will continue to engage different outside resources.