Q&A on IP

Security Management Today (SMT): How would you summarise the fortunes of the security market as you’ve seen it develop over the past couple of years?

James Somerville-Smith (JSS): Technology is a key driver of growth. The availability of IP-based security products and systems has led to IT-focused teams and either security or facilities managers working more closely together. There’s also an increasing awareness of security issues in all walks of life, which has helped market growth. This has led to an increased focus on new security solutions, in turn pushing manufacturers to develop new technologies and drive them in to the marketplace.

SMT: What are the main drivers underpinning change at the present time?

JSS: The trend is to move from traditional security systems largely based on the data network to IT-based security solutions with IP over the network. I believe that the marketplace is looking for manufacturers who can supply the latest technology and a complete solution. Customers no longer have to multi-source products without any guarantees that they are compatible. Customers are seeking a reliable single source for their required solutions and services.

SMT: The market would seem to be moving towards more integrated security solutions, then, in turn combining technologies and services. How is this impacting on your product strategy?

JSS: One of Honeywell Security’s key strategies is providing integrated security solutions including access control, intruder and CCTV systems. This is a key differentiator in the security market.

We believe that businesses are seeking integrated security solutions to ensure better operational efficiencies, future-proofing, investment protection, flexibility and interoperability.

SMT: How real is the interest, though? There has been a lot of discussion about integration within the security industry over the last few years, but is it still really something for the future?

JSS: A recent UK market research report stated that 61% of installers said their end user clients were now expressing an interest in the integration of different security systems. The integration between CCTV and access control was identified in the report as one of the two main areas of interest – well ahead of everything except remote monitoring.

Honeywell has seen a major upsurge in interest in integration between intruder, access and CCTV systems. During our last seminar program on the new EN 50131 Standards, we found that integration and the need to offer clients more than just intruder systems was a constant theme coming from our installers. New technology also opens up integration opportunities beyond the standard boundaries of physical security – starting to move investment in security away from a grudge purchase to a management requirement.

Within the CCTV arena, installers can link Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) to Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) terminals to provide loss prevention systems, or offer managers enhanced marketing feedback through people counting and customer monitoring products. IP systems can also allow managers to monitor staff and systems remotely with much greater power and flexibility than ever before.

Electronic Visitor Management (EVM) is one of the fastest growing areas in the market at the moment. At a recent Security Forum in the City of London, 25% of delegates specifically highlighted visitor management as an area of interest for their businesses. This is being driven by a number of factors including legislation (for instance Sarbanes-Oxley and Health and Safety requirements), the ability to support comprehensive emergency evacuation and also pure image – a number of high tech firms see the move from handwritten paper systems to web-based EVM solutions as an integral part of their entire business ethos.

SMT: Who can take advantage of these opportunities at the moment?

JSS: In the past, true integration used to be the exclusive preserve of a small number of end users willing to pay large amounts of money for high level functionality. It was delivered by specialist systems integrators with strong engineering teams, who had the breadth and depth of technical expertise required to bring together a range of disparate products from independent CCTV, access control and intruder manufacturers and create a fully-integrated security system on behalf of the client.

However, over the last few years, the market situation has begun to change, driven by the increasing consolidation of the industry. This has resulted in enhancements to manufacturer offerings to enable them to operate on common systems platforms. What was once a technical nightmare of different protocols and technological incompatibility is increasingly becoming a plug-and-play solution whereupon the in-built technology manages all the integration work.

SMT: What are the main benefits of this technology for the end user?

JSS: Manufacturers are now striving to offer strong integration capabilities linking their low end access control software with entry level DVRs to give end users ‘one seat’ control of their specified access and CCTV systems.

New systems also offer scalability and future-proofing. The important message here is that if you fit the right product at the start, you will have the ability to keep revisiting and seamlessly upgrading the solution as your security requirements grow and budgets become available. Not only are you trying to ensure that you have a robust and reliable system that meets your requirements from Day One, you are also laying the foundations for a security system which needs to be able to expand over time to meet your future requirements.

SMT: What do you see as being the main challenges ahead when trying to ensure this technology becomes accepted?

JSS: In today’s business environment, IT managers and security managers are working in much closer proximity than they may have done in the past.

However, in these relatively early days that can create a number of challenges. These often include misconceptions about primary business interests (where each party believes the other has a different/hidden agenda they are working to) and a lack of understanding of each other’s area of expertise which can cause friction between the two parties involved.

In addition, the IT manager can be very protective of his network and often tends to see the security manager’s offering as a negative concept (in other words, if nothing happens then we will have succeeded!). These cultural issues can make acceptance of technology on a company-wide level very difficult to achieve.

That being the case, I believe that it’s the responsibility of everyone on the security side – the security manager through to the installer and the security equipment provider – to better understand the needs, concerns and language of the IT teams. In part this will come about by presenting the investment in electronic security and integration in business terms and showing how these systems can be a business enabler.