Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
Issue link: http://sdi.epubxp.com/i/927906
R egardless of what segment of the secu- rity services provider market you work in – from large, commercial systems integrators to small residential alarm dealers – one thing everyone can agree on is that this is an industry in a state of transition. ings are changing in so many ways: market construction and consolidation; the rapidly evolving technology land- scape; the entrance of new players into the marketplace; even the overall busi- ness structure of the traditional security dealer and/or integrator. For integrators, hardware commoditi- zation means the days of reaping healthy profit margins on the products them- selves are nearing an end. For alarm dealers, the proliferation of do-it-your- self and smart home technology contin- ues to alter the traditional RMR busi- ness model of monitoring contracts – so much so that it is effecting the overall valuation of RMR and security compa- nies in general. Change, of course, presents both chal- lenges and potential opportunities for companies that are willing to embrace it. A good example is the rise of the cloud and the ability to capitalize on So- ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastruc- ture-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings. e promise of more change is likely on tap for the security industry in 2018; however, depending on who you talk to, most agree that the upcoming year holds a lot of promise – especially with regards to the strong economy and the ongoing construction boom. Savvy security busi- ness owners must also be cognizant of some pitfalls to avoid falling off the pace in this fast-moving industry. 2018's Opportunities Opinions vary widely among integrators as to what presents the single greatest market opportunity in 2018, but most of the responses we got can be boiled down to a few different schools of thought: • Better leveraging of the Internet of ings (IoT) and big data; • Broadening the scope of solutions and services offered; and • Being prepared to take advantage of changes in the overall business landscape. Soon it will be Everything-as-a- Service (EaaS)... (but) the industry itself remains on the short end of a very steep curve when it comes to cloud-based services, and in particular, Security as a Service." — Tony Varco, Convergint Technologies January 2018 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com / Security Dealer & Integrator 33 Leveraging data and the IoT: "e biggest opportunity in 2018 and beyond is helping customers convert their big data into smart data or actionable intel- ligence," says Tony Varco, VP of Con- vergint Technologies' Security Division. "Security has become a boardroom dis- cussion, and is no longer considered sim- ply a cost of doing business. Customers want to produce a return on investment that comes from harnessing the power of all the data they have available." According to Matt Zucker, President of Sales and a Partner at Beacon Protection,