With an issue focused specifically on integrators and the technology trends that can lead to growth, excitement abounds in the potential for sales.

With PSA-TEC 2013 taking place the week of May 5, we have devoted this issue to topics that will enhance the knowledge and skills of systems integrators — as well as articles that will spark ideas for business growth. SDM has collected preliminary data from the 2013 SDM 100 and Top Systems Integrators Reports, showing that integrators offering security-as-a-service has taken hold as a trend that is here to stay. No spoiler alert here, but several companies considered big-name systems integrators will be ranked for the first time on the SDM 100 by their RMR. What? Systems integrators growing their recurring monthly revenues? (Bill Bozeman will be pleased.)

In this issue, “State of the Market: Access Control,” beginning on page 50, looks at all of the various factors that are driving growth, including integration, mobility, managed services and regulations. According to Dave Porter with systems integrator, AlphaCorp Security — featured on this month’s cover — leveraging things such as enterprise capabilities, video integration, visitor management and asset management — all of which can be built around an access control platform — is powerful, and end users are seeing it, making it an exciting time.

“We believe there is momentum in the direction of thinking that a failure to protect and prepare is where the real cost and liability lie for any enterprise, and that synergies can be realized which reduce various operational costs when the right system is designed/implemented,” Porter thinks.

Furthering the discussion about potential in the access control market is found in SDM’s annual story about feature sets that sell, titled “Buzzwords: Valued Technologies or Hype?” beginning on page 73. In this story, the author finds that while many of the hottest access control trends may get an integrator in the door, the biggest sellers have much more to do with the ultimate goals of the majority of end users — choice, convenience and cost.

“People want choice,” says Alan Kruglak with systems integrator company, Genesis Security Systems LLC. “They want reliability. Most of these guys want this thing to unlock a door in a reliable manner and make sure the product has adequate distribution so if it does break it can be serviced quickly.”

Many end users in this economy are looking to do more with what they already have, which doesn’t mean they aren’t investing in new access control products. They want to do more and different things with them, writes the author.

“As an overarching theme, the new ways of using security are not necessarily security-minded,” says Peter Boriskin, with ASSA ABLOY Americas. “If I had to say the sale is about one thing it would be ‘Help me do my business.’ If I am someone who manages personnel, help me get those people safely through, but allow me to tie into business systems so that if I am a bakery, I know the person lighting the oven has come in on time.”

These trends and more can be found inside the pages of this issue. Other good reads are, “IP Camera Analytics: Catching up With Prime Time TV”  and “A Broader Market Is Embracing PSIM” .