Much like an assortment of inventors, engineers and programmers that create them, electronic security industry innovations come in all shapes and sizes.
Indeed, noteworthy technology or product introductions, refinements, enhancements and advancements can run the gamut from an entirely new category to a fresh spin on what had appeared to be an obsolescing offering.
A security-related innovation can also be as simple as a cleverer mounting bracket or as complex as an algorithmic breakthrough.
Whatever their form, these innovations share the commonality of providing potential benefits that fulfill the industry’s mission of superior security, safety and operational efficiencies and effectiveness, the capabilities and success of installing security dealers and integrators, and by extension their end customers.
To drill down deeper, for dealer and integrator companies these technologies and products are the life-blood of their very existence, health, productivity and satisfaction. As such, they need solutions that boost their sales, installation, monitoring, service or business operations.
The best innovations cover more than one of those critical areas, in no small way because they are often intertwined. These were the precepts that led to Security Sales & Integration launching its Top 30 Technology Innovations of the Year program more than a decade ago.
Much more than typical product awards (heaven knows the industry has long been overrun with those), this program does not involve submissions to be eligible, entry fees, judging biases or vendor favors.
In fact, it is not even limited to products alone as services or any instrument that can bring about better results is fair game. Most special of all is that the selections are handpicked by SSI‘s technical editors and their decades of in-the-field security experience.
Once again SSI longtime contributors and columnists Paul Boucherle (Business Fitness) and Bob Dolph (Tech Talk) each identified 15 items representing a wide range of heady and helpful dealer/integrator tools.
With a background primarily in commercial enterprise environments, Boucherle tends to focus predominantly on access control, video surveillance, integration and end user-oriented solutions.
As an installation and technical authority, Dolph on the other hand leans more toward intrusion detection and fire/life-safety systems coupled with his keen perspective on field gear and test equipment. Naturally, they do blur those lines at times, particularly amid the industry’s ubiquitous convergence.
The pair independently singled out (limited to one entry per vendor) what they deemed worthy based on its propensity to deliver value, relevance or interest to security contractors.
This year’s Top 30 leaps from smart locks to cybersecurity to metal detectors to facial recognition to networking to sensors to diagnostics to repair services to HR guides to an intoxicating cocktail of leading-edge access control, video, intrusion and life-safety offerings.
Congratulations to the vendors comprising 2018’s SSI Top 30 Technology Innovations, from which security practitioners can fill their holiday lists and leverage to prosper in the New Year.
