In good times or bad, money-making and cost-saving ideas are always in vogue. But for owners and operators of installing security systems businesses suffering the consequences of an ailing economy, they've never been a hotter commodity. To generate a wealth of golden ideas, SSI has facilitated an industry-wide brain trust via the establishment of the Operations & Opportunities Report (OOR).
Executives, managers and others from across the nation and representative of all sizes of companies were asked a host of questions targeting not only the best ways to boost profits and reduce expenses, but also the implications of implementation. Further, respondents were asked to identify the most promising new technologies and service offerings, as well as the most viable vertical markets. Several financial and operational questions were also included.
Among the key findings: increase profits by selling more to existing clients; save costs by reducing gas/vehicle usage; IP-based systems, mass notification and video surveillance are the hottest technologies; managed access control and video monitoring are the most promising service offerings; and government and health care are the top vertical markets. And while respondents say profit margins are off 10 percentage points, two-thirds say they're better off today than five years ago.
To ensure the highest level of creative thought - to inspire respondents to think outside the box, if you will — many of the questions were entirely open-ended. This also helped aggregate a much larger volume of total ideas (be sure to read the captions for bonus ideas) than would ordinarily be gleaned from the more common multiple-choice format. The data you are about to review addresses both recurring and nonrecurring revenue opportunities. In all, nearly 350 industry professionals participated in the 2009 OOR.
Click to view SSI’s 2009 Operations & Opportunities Report.