The IP Blinkers must be removed!

The electronic security industry is at a crossroads, and desperately needs to take a long, hard look at itself. On that basis, we could do nothing other than concur wholeheartedly with the conclusion drawn by Alan that the traditional installer is ill-equipped to adapt to the world of IP, choosing instead to bury their head in the sand in the hope that IP-based solutions will disappear.

Alan has taken the opportunity to stand back and look at the industry through a fresh, objective pair of eyes. He describes the wilful apathy of most installation companies who are singularly failing to recognise the significant threat to their businesses engendered by the convergence of the IT and electronic security worlds. Why is the situation like it is? Simple. The security industry is – and has always been – inward-looking.

The intruder alarms marketplace in which many of today’s installation companies grew up was a proscribed market. One created for us by the insurance industry. In most other businesses surviving in the real world, there’s a need to create a marketplace such that they might prosper. It’s now abundantly clear that installation companies need to move away from our customary, glacier-like attitude towards the adoption of new practices and methods and embrace the rapid adoption techniques of IT-engaged businesses.

It may well come across as ‘marketing speak’, but it’s clear that security installers must take heed of warnings like those outlined in Alan’s article and begin to ‘think outside of the box’ if they are going to survive. We are, after all, in the business of data communication – just like practitioners in the IT industry – and this must be recognised. The need is to move away from a narrow sense of security into a wider world embracing asset protection and management information.

What, then, can the installation contractors do in the current climate? As the young ‘whippersnapper’ IT companies increasingly circle above the security industry, all the while smelling blood, perhaps we need to look at what we do have and what we can still offer, as well as changing the way in which we think about the industry.

It’s true that existing companies will not start with a clean piece of paper, but they do have a wealth of knowledge and experience about what works and what exactly it is that customer’s require. We just need to shake ourselves out of this inertia and ‘get on with it’.

At Pointer, we believe we have made some progress in addressing several of the key issues. We have managed to build relationships with forward-thinking suppliers. Through our in-house Learning and Development Department we have been able to structure training courses to enable our staff to acquire the necessary skills. We also actively pursued key staff from outside of the industry to bring their skills directly into the company.

Now, we employ a number of individuals who originate from IT backgrounds with companies including Cisco. Specific examples of Alan’s “new breed of security professional”.

We believe that the demystification of IP and networked security systems holds the key to an end user acceptance of these technologies.

Andy Kirby Marketing Co-ordinator Pointer

The Editor replies: An excellent Letter To The Editor, Andy. We are always hopeful that the Opinion articles in SMT will provoke a response and engender debate. Alan’s polemic seems to have done just that.

On this occasion, we felt it would be opportune to elicit a reaction to your sentiments from Alan Hyder, Editor of our sister journal Security Installer. Here’s what Alan has to say on the matter...

“While the bigger installers have recognised the potential for IP, recruited IT professionals and trained their established staff, many smaller installation companies have put IP on the back burner. They accept, often reluctantly, that this is the future, but with demanding new regulations and fierce competition forcing profits down, it’s a challenge for them just to survive.

“Working hand-to-mouth, as many smaller installation concerns invariably do, means that they choose the easiest route – using the skills they already have. Unless they tackle the IP issue now, though, they run a very high risk of being permanently marginalised into low grade work offering the smallest of returns.”