Featured Stories - Articles - Page 64

How to Turn Your Techs into Truck Warriors

Equipping technicians with mobile communication devices is just the beginning of realizing bottom-line savings through efficiency, productivity, and in one case, scaling back an entire department.

Sabrina Gasulla

June 22, 2011

Every day it seems as if there is one less thing mobile devices can’t do. Personal applications now range from restaurant guides to movie players to virtual fortune cookies. But professional applications that enhance productivity and efficiency are quickly catching up as mobile devices continue to prove their worth to businesses across the board. When it comes to security installers or service technicians in the field, some companies have jumped on cutting-edge mobile technology while others are still keeping the gloves on as issues such as data security and cost make that edge just too sharp.

2011 SDM 100: Change Is Good

The industry’s largest security companies are seeing their markets change from stalled to hesitant to active; while the SDM 100 itself is changed to allow ranking of integrators with RMR.

Laura Stepanek

May 12, 2011

Turning the corner on the 2010 economy was like telling off a friend who had it coming — you got to offload some of the poison, and you could move forward with a lesser burden. While the performance of the security industry in 2010 was less than stellar, there were some generally positive economic indicators in the first two quarters of 2011 that hold promise.

2011 SDM 100: Facts and Figures

May 12, 2011

Take a look at the facts and figures featured in the SDM 100 report for 2011: There’s much to smile about this year, as more than eight in 10 of SDM 100 companies (82 percent) thinks 2011 will bestow increased revenues compared with last year.

2011 SDM 100: The List

May 12, 2011

View an abridged version of the SDM 100 report as well download the entire report.The SDM 100 has been published since 1991. Its primary objective is to measure consumer dollars gained by security companies, in order to present an account of the size of the market captured by the 100 largest security providers.

7 Trends Moving Integrators Towards Physical-Logical Convergence

Developments that span new government requirements to user patterns are creating opportunities for security integrators.

Joan Engebretson

May 12, 2011

The convergence of logical and physical access control has taken longer than some stakeholders had expected.

Dealers Dish About Distributors

Dealers tell the good, the not so good, and the ‘needs improvement’ in their relationships with their distributors.

Karyn Hodgson

May 12, 2011

How do dealers really feel about the distributors that sell them their products? The relationship between the dealer and distributor can be critical to a successful sale and installation, and the ideal situation is to have distributor partners that really understand the dealer’s business and how to help him build and keep customers.

Field Guide to HD & Megapixel Cameras

From compression, to storage, to lenses, and more, project designers and technicians will find this guide to be a useful resource on the desk and in the field.

May 12, 2011

If you had to identify the topics that seemingly everyone is talking about, high-definition and megapixel video would rank at or near the top of the list.

State of the Market: Fire Alarm 2011

The focus on fire protection and mass communication is stronger than ever, providing opportunities in 2011 and helping shift the fire industry ‘from neutral to positive.’

Heather Klotz-Young

May 12, 2011

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude quake hit northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami with 10-meter-high waves that reached all the way to the U.S. West Coast.

Maturing technologies lead the way in the 2011 access control market — all the way to the cloud.

State of the Market: Access Control 2011

Heather Klotz-Young

April 11, 2011

Two documents were released by the United States government in February with an impact on the access control market.

Wireless tech for outdoor intrusion detection is very popular, as well as the ability to set up temporary detection. All that, plus false alarm reduction, makes for a growing opportunity.