2014 Security Forecast: Right Combination Figures to Unlock a Big Year
Believe the hype: It’s going to be a banner year for security. SSI‘s 2014 Industry Forecast projects nimble and well-managed companies should enjoy up to – in some cases well beyond – growth in the high single digits. Find out how those in the know see it playing out.
Tim Whall, President & CEO, Protection 1
Three markets that will see change presenting both challenges and opportunities are: home health care, residential and commercial.
With regard to home health care, an aging population, combined with new health-care laws, will put an emphasis on growth and opportunity that security companies, long in the “life-safety business,” will find interesting. A key challenge in running a call center-based operation is the rigor required to operate a business focused on life safety. Replicating what is done in the security industry’s monitoring centers will be a challenge for new entrants wanting to capitalize on the aging population. A challenge to everyone in the home health-care area wil
l be how to monetize the opportunity; is it through equipment, services, direct to consumer, through hospitals, insurance companies, etc.?
In the commercial area, video will continue to advance as a “game-changer” with more businesses getting comfortable with video usage and analytics. Video analytics will play a stronger role, helping reduce false alarms and the workload for operator/call center personnel. There will also be compression on equipment pricing that should, in turn, create opportunity for greater adoption as well as higher margin on services. Higher margin will, in turn, create investment into more reliable and useful cloud-based services.
Lastly, the residential market’s drive toward interactive services and new entrants could finally see a greater level of market penetration, and therefore growth, than it has in the past 10 years.
Scott Schafer, Executive V.P. of Sales, Marketing and Service, Arecont Vision
There are opportunities for new business in the retail and banking industries due to the low investment made in video surveillance and security technologies since the economy slowed in 2008. It’s time for the majority of these systems to be upgraded, which presents the ideal opportunity to move more customers to networked systems employing megapixel cameras, VMS/NVR and analytics. In addition, the SMB market will be a good market to pursue for growth. As more integrators and dealers gain confidence in their ability to deploy IP networked video surveillance and security systems, they can dramatically expand sales activities in the SMB market. Cost efficiencies have made many advanced technologies more affordable for SMB users who can greatly benefit from the added protection these systems deliver.
We are seeing an increased demand in cities looking to bolster their presence with video surveillance systems. This is not exclusive to large metro areas, as we see smaller cities and towns deploying video surveillance to assist law enforcement by deploying fixed and mobile video surveillance systems. Megapixel systems now make it possible to cover much larger areas with fewer cameras. That not only is economical from the camera and system perspective, but allows professionals in the operations center to do their jobs more efficiently.
Jay Hauhn, CTO & V.P. of Industry Relations, Tyco Integrated Security
Overall, we’re seeing an increasing number of companies leveraging their existing security systems to gain key insights for improving business and operational efficiencies. It wasn’t long ago when employees could only access facilities through key cards, or video surveillance and monitoring could only happen on site. Now business intelligence solutions such as mobile security management are being used to improve older tactics. The same technology already being used for physical security offers business owners powerful insights into their operations, performance and customer behavior. In 2014 and beyond, we can expect these innovations in security technologies to continue to evolve.
Education and health care are two specific areas I expect to see an increase in access control solutions. For health care, we’ve been seeing an uptick in demand for wireless lock technology. In addition to the facility doors, hospitals and medical buildings have requested innovative locking mechanisms that bring access control to nontraditional applications such as storage cabinets for clinical consumables. Many school administrators are reassessing security measures and emergency management plans. Most are specifically focused on school entrances and are looking to integrate solutions like video intercom and visitor management systems.
Finally, an area starting to grow is crowd control. TycoIS worked with Fenway Park to provide security solutions utilized during the World Series. Moving into 2014, we will continue to work with arenas, stadiums and cities to provide the solutions they need during large-scale events.
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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