“Customers want their systems to work together,†notes Scott Howell, manager of worldwide marketing for security equipment manufacturer Hirsch Electronics of Santa Ana, Calif. “Interoperability saves time and money, and it also automates routines and solves problems that couldn’t be solved otherwise. What is driving the acceleration right now is newer tools that make interoperability easier to implement.â€
Tom Heiser, director of product management for another equipment manufacturer, Tyco Fire & Security of Boca Raton, Fla., also is witnessing strong customer acceptance of integrated systems. “By integrating customer systems, what we’re able to do is to use technology to enable the work force to respond better to an event,†Heiser says. By integrating video with intrusion protection, for example, Heiser notes that alarms can now be linked with video and automatically presented to a security guard. “We hand it to him rather than requiring him to figure out which camera it was and call it up, so he can respond faster and more efficiently.â€