SDM’s Industry Forecast Study indicates the economy is the No. 1 factor that will affect sales over the next three years, and that the No. 1 challenge to security businesses is increasing sales. A byproduct of the rotten economy is that it’s forcing security businesses to shift their plans and market focus, which then changes the game for other integrators.
“Companies have retooled from residential into commercial, so it’s more competitive. There are more people in a tighter space than there were before,” describes Ed Bonifas, vice president of Alarm Detection Systems Inc., Aurora, Ill., and president of the Central Station Alarm Association. “It’s not just that the economy’s bad; the business is being shared by a larger group of people. Some of our volume drop is tied to margin erosion that comes just from being in a more competitive market.”