Security Sales and Integration Magazine

Business Management

Service & Maintenance Contracts to Become Big Piece of Integration Market

December 01, 2010 | Comments (1) | Post a comment
Photo via Flickr (noah wesley)Photo via Flickr (noah wesley)

AUSTIN, Texas. — Recurring revenue from service and maintenance contracts will account for 33.4 percent of the total security systems integration market in the Americas by 2014, according to a new report by IMS Research.

Titled "The Americas Market for Security Systems Integration — 2010 Edition," the report notes that service and maintenance contracts are the most profitable portion of most installation projects. Margins for service and maintenance can be more than 30 percent while margins for equipment are often lower than 20 percent, according to the study.

"The importance of a recurring revenue stream for systems integrators cannot be overlooked," says Ewan Lamont, a market analyst who authored the report. "Companies that are offering a value-added service contract, such as Kastle Systems and Convergint Technologies, are seeing strong growth and greater resistance to the economic downturn than those integrators that do not. Companies with high levels of RMR are also more attractive to investors and acquirers."

Additionally, end users looking to extend the lifecycle of a security system or save money by outsourcing services for maintaining a system instead of employing onsite technicians will provide new opportunities for integrators, Lamont says.

For more details about service and maintenance contracts, check out "Why Selling Service Pacts Makes Sense" in SSI's October issue.


Review / Comment


This article brings to light one of the single largest reasons that the ESA National Training School developed their Troubleshooting, Service and Maintenance Course. With dramatically shifting profit centers in most conventional alarm / security integration companies - refocusing on providing "profitible" Service and Maintenance provides companies with profit opportunities previously unrealized in the past. If you have not taken the ESA NTS Troubleshooting, Service and Maintenance Course you should add it to your 2011 to-do list. Classes are available in both classroom and online formats.
Dale Eller
December 3, 2010
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