Cloud-based services, integration with the hot video market, IT- and legacy-friendly options and more are expected to give integrators reason to celebrate in the 2014 access control market.
Someone once suggested that to get an invitation to a party you really wanted to attend you should offer to contribute something to the party. If the video market’s predicted strong year in 2014 is the kind of “party” access control is hoping to attend, then the market has tapped into that principle, contributing a strong argument for security systems that integrate both video and access control.
Challenges — in many forms — have come fast and furious over the last few years. The trend continues in 2013, but so does the alarm industry’s ability to meet and beat the obstacles.
For every challenge the alarm industry overcomes, another pops up, almost like a fast and furious game of Whac-A-Mole. “Whack!” The industry beats the advanced mobile phone service (AMPS) technology sunset in 2008.
Two tiny acronyms: IT and IP. A3 Communications, Irmo, S.C., is an expert in both. Founded as an information technology (IT) company 20 years ago by chief executive officer (CEO) Joe Thomas, the company added Internet protocol (IP)-based surveillance and access control to its portfolio in 2005.
Winning a security project today is a bit like playing a game of chess. With every potential job, you face a wide variety of opponents (competitors) who have an even wider variety of moves (security offerings/competitive advantages), all aimed at putting your king into checkmate; in effect, freezing you out of the job.
Steady and rapid growth in the dealer program market, like the kind Security Networks, SDM’s 2012 Dealer of the Year Honoree, has had in recent years requires more than a good marketing program or exciting services. Security Networks, West Palm Beach, Fla., prides itself on an average of 40 percent growth year-over-year for the past eight years, its president, Richard Perry, tells SDM.
Changes in Protection 1’s culture, execution, services and infrastructure — all centered around the customer — have transformed it from a declining company into an innovative, dynamic force.
Talk to a Protection 1 employee and there is a palpable energy that radiates outward about their job, the company and the customer. Chicago-based Protection 1, has always contained a deep-rooted love for the customer. But while employees embraced the concept, the execution was missing, as Protection 1 experienced declining growth for seven consecutive years.
Enabling its vision of Quadrant Four enterprise-level integration has brought SDM Systems Integrator of the Year, Convergint Technologies, positive results and a proven path for growth during transition.
In systems integrator circles, Convergint Technologies is a company that people admire. Homegrown by Greg Lernihan, president and co-founder, and Dan Moceri, CEO and co-founder, Convergint was born of a strategic plan that centered on a core platform of values and beliefs.
Security system dealers and integrators are being tasked with determining a solution that helps staff members both feel safer in their work environment and become proactive about their personal security as well as those around them. Today, dealers and integrators can choose to leverage an enterprise mobile duress system for increased employee protection.