As the access control business continues to change, it is not just the demands of users that is striking to researchers — it is also the internal funding pressures that end users face. When J.P. Freeman Co. evaluates products, companies and issues, it uses a five-point rating scale. The scale — named for Rensis Linkert, who invented it in 1932 — provides five levels of evaluation, has a midpoint of 2.5, and is statistically regarded as the ideal evaluation instrument when other tests are not as accurate.

When hundreds of American end users were asked what they looked for when they get ready to buy a new access control system, it was learned just where their head was at. At the same time, it was hard not to notice the difficulty of the task facing these security executives.

End Users Want Quality, Usability
First of all, security users are uncompromising in their demand for quality and reliability. This proves that dealers and integrators better sell proven, well-tested access lines to generate lots of customers. The downside of this is that new and unproven, yet usable, systems can face some difficulty in user acceptance. As a result, innovators can benefit from independent verification of their quality to be convincing to users.

Secondly, users want their new access systems to be user-friendly. With more and more integrated functionality now being designed into new systems, users need more training to fully understand how to control this versatility. This is an ongoing challenge for end users that has spawned a wide range of new training programs.

Third, users agree in great numbers that integratability is a real need. There’s no surprise here since the security industry has been morphing steadily from a standalone to a network business model very much along the lines of the IT industry.

Demanding Support, Training
Continuing down the demand line, end users want factory support, technical features, previous experience, training and open architecture at levels still considerably higher than the average rating of 2.5.

In short, without these elements in a sales presentation, users may quickly decide to look at other suppliers. You might say it’s difficult for dealers and integrators to cope with these demanding access buyers, but consider the buyers’ problems.

The cost of the products, management’s constant pressure on cost-reduced security expenses, and the operating cost of a new system are all factors still well above the 2.5 demand rating.

While today’s access buyer is demanding lots of things at reasonable prices, it’s because he or she is faced with making a convincing argument to senior management that the new access system is worth every penny being requested for it. Without this persuasiveness — no sale.

That’s the squeeze the access buyer is in today. Management everywhere is looking for lower operating costs across the enterprise.

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