IP's influence on global security industry

Between the time of our 100th and 200th issue (2007 to 2015), the whole environment of the security industry has been strongly influenced by IP technology, the local economy, as well as price competition. When IP was first introduced in 1996, security players had difficulty understanding the new network and computer technology. Now, with more training and education from manufacturers, channel players are catching up with IP technology and have started to embrace more benefits from it.
 
Bob Mesnik, President, Kintronics (U.S.): "More recently we are seeing some new trends that are affecting all the dealers in the last two years. The costs of cameras and storage systems have decreased quite a lot. The products have become more of a commodity. Another trend, that has accelerated, is more and more end users doing their own installations. Of course, ease of installation is one of the benefits of IP security systems, so we shouldn’t be surprised by this evolution. They found that IP cameras are very much like other computer equipment on their network, and the IT department has taken over the security responsibility, including doing the installation."


David Watkins, National Account Manager, Y3K Europe (U.K.): "Over the years, and in particular during the second half of our trading history between 2007 and 2015, we have noticed a significant number of changes on how we need to react to our customers’ requirements. It was obvious to us that while the newly available IP technology was making great changes in image quality and introducing different installation techniques, not all our customers embraced it immediately. It was up to us to increase our product portfolio to enable our customers make the choice. We believe that IP and conventional video surveillance will exist side by side for some considerable time before the price difference disappears."

Bram Creemers, Category Manager, Nedis (Netherlands): "The security business has become more accessible, both technically and commercially. At the same time the world has changed to the extent that security has become an issue in everyday life. These two trends have mainly driven the growth of the industry and the speed of technical developments. This in turn has led to the entry of many players, mostly non-traditional, non-security-oriented companies, but with large marketing power which has helped boost awareness. At consumer-level, this resulted in strong demand from retailers/ e-tailers. Because our company is heavily involved in bringing products to the masses from factory to shop, management has classified this business as core."
 
Alon Salpeter, CEO, Web2see (Israel): "Web2see was founded in 2003, with the vision that the security market is going to change very quickly to IP, and we started promoting, selling, and installing IP-based security systems. However, as the market and infrastructure were not ready for IP, the business was bad and didn’t bring any revenue. By making a shift to distribution of IP cameras and software to installers with free support and localized versions of recording software, business slowly started to grow. In 2009, Web2see became a Milestone distributor for Israel. As business grew this became the main revenue line for Web2see until today."
 
William Goh, Executive Director, Legal, Business and Regulatory Compliance, ADP Secure Group (Singapore): "In regard to how to face the convergence of physical and IT security: The first challenge is the barrier between ‘physical’ guys and IT guys. Physical security used to be managed by the administration department, and they usually do not have knowledge of TCP/IP. The other problem is, companies have to maintain more than one staff database. Physical access control systems usually has its own database, while the enterprise IT has another staff database that controls access to computers, networks, and files. Therefore, management of the company is demanding security, in both the physical and IT world. People with knowledge on both sides are required to close the gap. Finally, the security information system will combine both physical security and IT security management in one platform which ensure the total security for the company."
 
Rok Bajec, GM, Mobicom (Slovenia): "Eight years is such a long period that nothing is the same. Looking at the European market with a free flow of goods, buying power matters, so companies in countries with big population are selling goods all over Europe. To survive and remain a player in the security industry, systems integration is a must. IP technology is at this moment the main player, and I believe that it is the future. Prices are going down every day, and so if you want to grow, new solutions must be introduced on a daily basis. Mobicom of course had to change to remain a player. Distribution is not our main focus anymore; we are investing resources in systems integration and the solution business." 

Reza Eissari, Technical Manager, PFN Technology (Iran): "In the last decade, we encountered changes which made most of the clients use IP in Iran. Because IP video solutions can be fully compatible on any data networks with high flexibility and scalability,not only security administrators but also IT managers would rather have this technology in their current networks. Moreover, with the increase of Internet bandwidth, the remote video management alternative as well as remote monitoring of IP video are becoming popular. The progress of video management software and video analytics on network is extremely fast for high-end projects hence, customers prefer IP video solutions. As IP technology’s cost decreases, more projects will use this approach, which will increase competition among different vendors." 
 
Jorge Fernando Bardales Duarte, President, Tecnologia, Accesso y Seguridad (TAS) (Central America): "We were an electronic security company in 2007 with few software people, but with all the changes to IP technology, we became an IT oriented company. Most of the systems we sell have changed in the recent years in terms of connectivity, storage, analytics etc. Competition has grown too. Before, security was a matter of the electronic security companies, now IT companies, telephone companies, and other communication related companies participate in this business."