Laura Stepanek

As a reseller in the security channel, you know that if you choose the right vendors to partner with you will get plenty of support — technical support, sales support, marketing support, and advanced product solutions. This is especially important to smaller security dealers and integrators, who may not have the time or resources to do these functions in-house. Recognizing the vendors that offer top-notch support in these areas is the purpose of SDM’s Channel Partners Awards, now in its fifth year.

In many ways, traveling down a road symbolizes the future — in this case, the future of a changing systems integration industry.

Security systems integrators had expected to pull ahead in 2011, but instead they experienced a dismal first half of the year and a better-by-comparison but still “just average” second half. Following a 4.4 percent drop in 2010, systems integration revenue among the industry’s largest security companies fell yet again — by 3.6 percent in 2011 — leaving many wondering what it would take to get back up to speed. Integrators face sharp curves in the need to quickly adopt IP as the primary infrastructure for security systems, as well as to create business models that offer security as a service.

Every security system is a crime-fighting tool; that is where the industry’s efforts should be. It is ironic that as security systems evolve into more sophisticated appliances, their value is becoming more muddled. On the one hand, a broader platform gives security dealers more hooks — lighting automation, energy management, and remote connectivity are a few — with which to sell to consumers.

Axis Communications recently hosted its fifth annual A&E Technology Summit which, from bow to stern, was a rigorous educational program that intertwined Axis’ development and technology partners. From a “This is Axis”-themed dinner on the first evening of the event, to a group gathering on the fourth evening to watch Super Bowl XLVI, the program was packed with sessions that covered product detail, technology trends, application challenges, business opportunities, and idea sharing.

Not only does the SDM 100 now have a new top 3, but signs of the SDM 100 becoming more of a services-focused business model are apparent. Since the SDM 100 began ranking security companies by their recurring monthly revenue (RMR) in 2007, the top three companies have been ADT, Protection 1 and Monitronics (with the exception of Brink’s Home Security/Broadview, which subsequently was acquired by ADT).

One of the security industry’s own, David Gonzalez, director of business development at Tri-Ed / Northern Video Distribution, is being credited as a hero who was primarily responsible for restraining a pilot who behaved in an enraged manner during a JetBlue flight yesterday morning. Gonzalez told the Show Daily that the real hero is the co-pilot, who landed the plane safely in Amarillo, Texas.

New players are entering the security industry in a mass market fashion, with a solution that provides more than just a traditional home security system. Is that wrong?

Check out SDM’s fourth virtual trade show, iSecurity, for starters. Admittedly, I’m not the most high-tech, gadget-oriented person. As an example, I’m just now doing the research in anticipation of buying my first smartphone (any advice?). When I watch TV, I still need to adjust the “rabbit-ear” antenna positioned next to my HD flat screen. (My family is among the 10 percent of U.S. households that never appreciated the value of subscribing to some form of pay TV such as cable or satellite.) And for those of you who ask — yes, you can get “free TV” on an HD television.

A confluence of both opportunities (energy management, mobile technologies) and challenges (depressed home construction, reduced consumer spending) keeps pushing installation companies into market segments in which they’ve never gone before. One result is that more security dealers are seeking sales of residential systems that go beyond traditional security, especially those targeted for the existing home market.