We continue our 2025 reflections series on the security industry with Christine Lanning, president of Integrated Security Technologies and 2025 SSI Industry Hall of Fame inductee. She looks back at some of the key developments in the security industry in the past 12 months.
We’ll share Lanning’s 2026 predictions for the industry in a future post.
Security Sales & Integration: What kind of year has 2025 been for the electronic security and physical security industries?
Christine Lanning: This year has been a mix of strong progress and meaningful challenges. On the positive side, we achieved a solid 15% growth, reflecting both increased demand and the hard work of our team. At the same time, we’ve continued to face difficulty finding the right talent, which has put pressure on our ability to scale as quickly as we’d like.
Additionally, the increasing complexity of integrating our systems has required significant time and resources, highlighting the need for more streamlined processes and better technical alignment moving forward. Overall, it’s been a productive year with important lessons learned.
SSI: What has been the most surprising development in the security industry this year?
Lanning: The most surprising development in the security industry this year has been that customers more often than not adopting and expanding the use of advanced technologies. We’re seeing broader deployment of tools like drones, gunshot detection systems and artificial intelligence-driven analytics as well as more sophisticated integration of multiple systems to create cohesive, intelligent security operations.
What’s striking is not just the adoption of individual technologies, but the way customers are leveraging them together to enhance situational awareness, improve response times and optimize overall security strategies. It highlights a shift toward more proactive, technology-driven security approaches across the industry.
SSI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in security?
Lanning: One of the most surprising changes in the security industry has been the degradation of manufacturer tech support, particularly as some manufacturers fail to invest adequately in maintaining or improving their support teams. This challenge is often compounded when companies are sold or acquired; ownership changes can disrupt support structures, shift priorities, and lead to the loss of institutional knowledge. As a result, even organizations using advanced security technology can face delays, reduced responsiveness or gaps in service.
This trend has made it increasingly important for us to build in-house expertise and strategic support plans to ensure system reliability and operational efficiency. In addition, we have been re-evaluating our product portfolio to make sure we are leading with those manufacturers who have excellent support.
