Our cover subject this month, Interface Security Systems’ president and COO, Michael McLeod, may pique your interest with his vision of the future company that will serve the corporate and commercial client. McLeod believes that a new breed of security provider – one that combines the core competencies of the alarm dealer and the systems integrator – must occur in order to provide the high level of technology and services demanded by today’s sophisticated clients.

“Security companies must position themselves to deliver services beyond the design and installation of systems,” McLeod says. “The next-generation security provider will need to function as an Application Service Provider (ASP) in order to administer and monitor a customer’s access control, video surveillance and critical alarm systems via a centralized platform running across the internet.”

And while security manufacturers and installers navigate the turns and bumps of the global, integrated systems road, SDM is bringing the business of security to the local level. Through new research of 20,000 U.S. households, SDM has delved into how security systems are consumed in both the workplace and homes. A new series of articles, beginning next month, will present the results of our new study, “Workplace & Home Security,” in a format that will make them real to you.

With demographic data that covers up to 30 metropolitan areas – including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, Tampa, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and more – SDM’s articles will focus on the cities with stories to tell. Why, for example, does Hartford-New Haven, Conn., have the highest penetration of alarm systems in the workplace, as cited by our survey’s respondents? We examined the business environment, the alarm markets in those cities, and end-users themselves – to provide the answers.

Our “Workplace & Home Security” article series begins in October with results of security in the workplace, and continues through early 2005 with results of security in the home. Stay tuned, as I think you will be fascinated with our coverage.

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