If there is one word that could describe 2020, both in life and for the top 100 security dealers, it is unpredictable. Following several years of growth — and a very strong 2019 — SDM 100 companies found themselves on slippery ground beginning in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like most healthcare facilities and hospitals, Renown Health has faced an influx of individuals infected with COVID-19. 

Milestone Systems has announced it will withdraw from ISC West 2021, the largest converged security industry trade show in the U.S.

For integrators willing to shake things up, opportunity awaits in managed access control.

In support of Carrier’s Healthy Buildings program and the safe return to work, LenelS2 introduced a COVID-19 contact notification subscription-based service for businesses and other organizations using LenelS2’s OnGuard or NetBox access control security systems along with LenelS2’s BlueDiamond mobile credential app. 

Three studios have been added with the latest technology and production equipment, allowing DMP to deliver simultaneous web conferencing on request. 

It’s amazing how much can change in a year. Last year’s state of the market report on access control was released at the beginning of April, just as the coronavirus started to spread throughout the U.S., and much of the research that went into the report was done before COVID-19 was a real concern.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES. As I sit in my home office in Maryland (unlike many of you I already worked from home, so that hasn’t changed), the first daffodils are appearing and the beautiful flowering trees are starting to bud. The vaccine news here and around the country seems to be getting more and more positive by the day, and there is a general feeling of real optimism that things might get back to closer to “normal” soon.

The first virtual Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) took place last week, March 2-3, for an audience of more than 6,000 registrants.

How access control readers and credentials have evolved in recent years, and how COVID-19 has impacted the market.