Gordon Hope, G.M., Honeywell AlarmNet
Cell network migration will by far be the single largest impactful change over the next 12-24 months. There are still a very large number of 2G devices that have not been removed or upgraded to 3G. The change-out costs dealers a lot of money and opportunity costs from normal business growth in installations. LTE will gain traction in the next 12-14 months.

2015: SECURITY MARKETS

Ron Davis, President, Davis Mergers and Acquisitions Group
Homeland security will continue to grow, over-shadowing traditional growth channels within the security industry. Terrorism will go high-tech, potential fatalities will reach unimaginable levels, and both federal and local law enforcement agencies will be taxed to the max, and will need to rely more and more on the electronic services industries to provide real-time information. Video surveillance will become more integrated, and camera systems will have an override that will allow law enforcement to provide real-time response to emergencies.

More and more entrepreneurial efforts will be focused in the homeland defense arena, and the rapid growth we’ve seen among integrators and alarm companies may not continue at the same pace. Heretofore investments in traditional security will now go into the homeland defense sector. Drones will continue to grow in both usage and annoyance, and will likely be regulated sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Peter Giacalone, Principal, Giacalone Associates
Although PERS and other remote emergency markets continue to soar, the race to the top for manufacturers and providers seems to vacillate. Taking a hold of new and expanded markets will be a challenge for some and an opportunity for others. This includes B2C markets as well as B2B markets as assisted living, independent living, etc. With new players every day in the home control and business control market it will create challenges for some and great windows of opportunities for others. Home control will continue on its path of growth as similar platforms are applied in the commercial and industrial spaces.

Duane Paulson, Sr. V.P. of Product and Market Development, Nortek Security & Control
Despite seeming contradictory, I see DIY security and smart-home technology as a significant opportunity. When dealers think about the cost of account creation, including equipment purchase, sales, marketing and installati
on; there’s quite a burden to get customers on line. DIY systems can cut the cost of adding new customers by eliminating installation fees. And contrary to what many people think, DIY doesn’t mean free. One of the things we’ll see over the next few years is DIY systems that have a monitored service on the backend. There will still be the RMR opportunities, but customers will handle their own installations.

2015: BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

>Bill Bozeman, President & CEO, PSA Security Network
The integrator with greater IT expertise will be better positioned to leverage cloud-optimized services and scalable solutions offerings. Remote access technology must become more secure for consumer confidence to take root. Monitored video and access management services can then become more mainstream as a result.

From the supplier side, manufacturers that continue to focus on box sales will either learn to live on lower margins or perish. The competition for commodity-based security products is brutal and will continue to get even tougher. Manufacturers that specialize on niche offerings will either have to integrate to various open platform enterprise solutions or be relegated to slowing opportunities.

>Joe Nuccio, President & CEO, ASG Security
Golden opportunities exist for 2G conversions and this alone will propel many manufacturers for the next 24 months. The challenge will be keeping pace with technology advancements as Google, Apple and the other tech giants introduce new and exciting products and services. Dealers and integrators, meanwhile, need to continue to make sure we are relevant. We must make sure we are state-of-the-art, transitioning to IP and the Internet of Things.

Monitoring providers will need to think outside of the box. I think we will see cost reductions in monitoring and middleware services due to increased demand and an influx of new competitors. This will put pressure on traditional monitoring companies as well as some of the early pioneers of interactive service platforms.

Sandy Jones, Principal, Sandra Jones & Co.
Dealers will put greater emphasis and value on existing customers versus managing the churn and higher cost of acquiring new ones. National dealers and integrators will redirect some of their resources to growing the underserved but attractive middle market.

Increased competition and the commoditization of traditional RMR will drive down the cost of monitoring to the end user, convincing nimble dealers to offer new pay-for-care and subscription RMR models that will attract and grow a new class of customer and profits, typically the younger buyer. The best integrators will move to “program managers” and become integral to an end user’s organization, which will allow the end user to focus on risk, customer experience and adding value to their own organization.

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