There are two major challenges within the UAE security market at present, the first being the mandatory increase in basic salaries for security staff in Dubai.
According to Craig Mackenzie, Country President of Securitas UAE, there are two major challenges within the UAE security market at present, the first being the mandatory increase in basic salaries for security staff in Dubai. Whilst this is an initiative to be applauded, it has seen many organizations reducing the number of security personnel onsite to meet their budgets.
“The second is the very traditional view of security services held by many local companies and SME’s, this centers around the provision of security manpower to combat perceived threats,” Mackenzie said. He added that in his opinion the solution to both issues is the same, with security technology becoming ever more affordable, the integration of security systems with personnel is a natural solution.
“Securitas are world leaders in the provision of security solutions, due to our unique organizational structure and world wide experience and knowledge base, we seamlessly blend the two together to deliver optimized security services both in terms of cost and effectiveness,” Mackenzie continued. “The biggest challenge is changing the mindset in the region as a whole in relation to security services. This needs to be done through education and the demonstration of our capability to deliver effective security services in this way. As we make progress with our current clients in the move to security solutions, the word will spread and this, in turn, will naturally lead to a change in the Security market.”
While Mackenzie’s opinions provide some fresh insights into the region’s industry, others mainly stuck to the economic factors as the major challenge.
“The macro-economic development during 2015 - 2016 adversely affected governmental budgets in the region,” said Harri Rantanen, Director of Sales in the Middle East at Teleste. “We have also seen an influx of cheaper security solutions start to saturate the market. Our strategy here is twofold; first, to maintain our customer -centric approach with a keen eye on quality, whilst at the same time ensuring that our customers get the high-end quality at competitive prices. Secondly, we continue to educate the market as to the benefits of highly engineered solutions versus their cheaper counterparts – we maintain our focus of continuing to be customer-centric and transparent in all our business practices.”
“We have experienced a slight downturn in certain markets,” said Marwan Khoury, Regional Marketing Manager for Axis Communications. “However, we remain optimistic for the overall GCC that these projects will pick up pace in the coming months. Security should be the first step every project invests in to ensure zero errors when the project completes. Education is very important when stressing the importance of investing in security. In a project, it might be relatively straightforward to estimate the initial product investment, but much more difficult to predict such costs as system design, labor, maintenance, upgrades, or the decommissioning of the system. Using Axis’ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model can help capture all the costs associated with a video surveillance system over its complete lifecycle.”
“The security infrastructure demand is much higher than previous years and hence there is a lot of activity and newcomers in the field matching international expertise,” said Jabir Hameed, CEO of Lantern Software and Security Systems. “We have invested in acquiring new talents and built up our organization to meet these challenges in the market to grab a significant share of the security business in the region.”