Branding
International vendors in China have poured money into local development and channel expansion, while Chinese providers have improved product quality and increased manpower. Branding is becoming essential for differentiation in a competitive market.
Existing competitors will face pressure from outsiders as well. More telecommunications and IT providers have entered physical security, which will require current vendors to prove their worth.
User Needs
In the face of rigorous competition, understanding end user needs remains a must. Having a complete product line and experience will be the best way to go. The latter requires sound operation practices, ranging from customer consulting, after-sales services and targeting specific user needs.
Top verticals include highways, airports, educational institutions, hospitals and power plants. It is expected the Chinese security market will be prosperous in 2011 as the economy picks up.
Road Map
While IP and HD video technology has heated up, access control and intrusion alarm solutions are relatively unchanged.
However, logical access control is playing an increased role in physical security. HID Global (an Assa Abloy company) combined physical and data security, resulting in a partnership with Sony for laptops embedded with its logical access control solution. The crossover between physical and logical access control will extend to other security systems.
With healthy competition and robust market demand, Chinese security looks forward to an exciting 2011.