At the recently completed ESA Leadership Summit, the results of the annual ESA MegaTrends study, which polled association members on their businesses’ finances, product selection, and future plans, showed optimism and investment in the industry.

According to the study, average annual revenue growth increased 4.3 percent in 2012 after growing 3.3 percent in 2011 and 1.7 percent in 2010, showing strong upward movement. Much of that can be attributed, however, to companies with more than $2.5 million in annual revenue, which saw an average of 7.6 percent growth versus 1.4 percent for companies up to $2.5 million in annual revenue.

When it comes to product categories with the most potential, members are projecting the most growth in annual revenue over the next two years from video surveillance/security (9.1 percent), electronic access control (7.2 percent) and intrusion detection (6.9 percent). Of the non-security categories, energy management (5.8 percent) and home automation (5.7 percent) are expected to see growth as well.

The study also found a shift in business objectives seen year-over-year. For example, this year, 64 percent of respondents said it is very important to increase installation efficiency on video, access and automation to improve their RMR potential — up from 39 percent in 2012. That trend continued with other objectives, including:

·         Converting video surveillance and access control into RMR business via hosted and managed services architectures (“very important” up to 52 percent in 2013 from 29 percent in 2012).

·         Converting home automation/connectivity into an RMR business (“very important” up to 38 percent in 2013 from 17 percent in 2012).

When it comes to investing in their own companies and plans for expansions, respondents are focused heavily on IP/IT training and technical staff recruitment, training and development, with plans to expand into new products and applications organically.

One of the most talked about issues in the industry — the re-entry of telecom and cable providers — has most respondents agreeing that these companies are raising consumer awareness and enlarging the overall market.

The MegaTrends luncheon was sponsored by Digimerge.

ESX will cover these topics in its leading education program and exhibitors will display cutting-edge developments in the above product categories on the expo floor. Register your team for Deluxe Passes and get access to it all. Registration for ESX is open here.