Longtime Business Fitness columnist and Matterhorn Consulting founder and principal Paul Boucherle wraps up our 2026 security industry predictions series with his thoughts on what could be coming to and changing about the sector in the next 12 months. Boucherle shared his 2025 reflections in a post last month.
Stephenie Haldane 2026 Security Industry Predictions
Read on to check out Stephenie Haldane’s 2026 security industry predictions and make sure you check out all of the 2025 reflections and 2026 predictions from our esteemed panel of security industry heavyweights.
Security Sales & Integration: What technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning.
Paul Boucherle: The greatest profitable growth opportunity is investing in organizational development. This includes developing a company’s soft skills, specifically communication skills; return on investment (ROI) internally with associates and with all customer facing interactions (sales, installation, service, account receivables, central station interactions).
Next, take a cold, hard look at your different workflow processes (Map Your Process Training) with your teams to build teamwork, communications and reduce costs.
SSI: Which emerging security technologies do you think are overplayed? Which ones do you think will truly transform the practice of security integration in the coming years?
Boucherle: Most technologies can play in the sandbox together if they don’t want to own the whole sandbox. Find the security technologies that play well together for the end user. The easier that technology is to integrate, the greater the expansion opportunity. Make doing business with you easy!
SSI: What’s getting better about the security industry these days? What seems to be getting worse?
Boucherle: Their vulnerability and recognition of resilience are getting better. Recruiting and onboarding new talent is still poorly executed. Talent expects great onboarding in the first 30 days or you are toast. Turnover is very costly.
Well, inclusion and inviting more women to take leadership positions is a good thing
SSI: What’s liable to catch some security industry dealers, installers and integrators off guard in the coming year?
Boucherle: The costs of recruiting and onboarding good talent. If your recruitment is full of hot air, you will pay the price!
SSI: What’s the single most pressing challenge that professionals in the security industry must tackle right now? And how would you suggest tackling it?
Boucherle: Take the time to allow your new talent and existing talent to train and grow. Many companies view training and certifications as a sunk cost that they will lose to higher salaries. Provide a planned career path to enable high potential individuals. Communicate early and often. Know their career and personal growth goals — or don’t at your own peril!
SSI: Finish this sentence: 2026 will be remembered as the year that the security industry…
Boucherle: … found new opportunities to grow and be successful or fell backward to low profitability!
Click here to check out all the entries in our 2026 security industry predictions series!
