Commercial End Users Communicate Electronic Security Concerns

Seven in 10 security directors/managers are looking to spend more money on security, with 72% of that group considering new or upgraded systems. However, SSI‘s eighth Commercial End-User Study also shows increased sensitivity to equipment and integrator costs, and the belief that safety within organizations has slipped.

Today’s security directors and managers have got 99 problems and as an installing security systems integrator the last thing you want is to be one. On the contrary, it is your job to be one of the first places they turn for solace, ideas, solutions and partnerships. That’s accomplished via a thorough understanding of their specific environment, needs, challenges and opportunities for improvement in efficiencies and effectiveness. In support of that mission, SSI’s 2012 Commercial End-User Study provides a launching point into these clients’ psyches, and exposure to their perspectives and realities. 

This year’s results indicate 70% of those end users intend to boost security spending — 58% looking at new security/fire-life safety systems, and 14% evaluating upgrades and risk assessments. More than four in five plan to either maintain their security budget or increase it, with the average allocated funding at $2.199 million or plus $13,000 compared to 2011. At the same time, security directors/managers are extending their expertise and reasserting their authority, with gains reported in both IT collaboration and decision making. They are also more enamored with integrators’ technical aptitude and systems’ reliability.

Less upbeat is reduced confidence in the level of safety within respondents’ organizations as well as their confidence in the ability for security systems to lessen manpower needs. Moreover, complaints concerning the cost of both security/fire-life safety systems and the integration companies that design and install them racked up higher returns. End users’ overall satisfaction with their integrators also took a hit. Finally, interest levels in most product offerings waned, with notable exceptions including fire/life safety and particularly mass notification. Video technologies appearing for the first time included cloud, VMS and PSIM.

Conducted in cooperation with ASIS Int’l, ISC/Reed Exhibitions, the Security Executive Council and Campus Safety magazine (for more, see Methodology box), SSI’s eighth annual Commercial End-User Study offers industry-exclusive data that can be viewed and evaluated in myriad ways. At the end of the day, it’s up to you to convert the power of this knowledge into your competitive advantage.

View the 2012 Commercial End-User Study Results.

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About the Author

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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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