As part of SSI‘s 2021 Industry Forecast, we asked a dozen experts to share what might catch security pros off guard in 2020. Here’s what they had to say:
▶ “A changing compliance environment and realizing what worked in the past will not sustain your business in the future. Leadership culture, investment in training, mentoring and personal/ company communication skills will determine your success. Old school is still cool if those values can be communicated to effectively transfer skills.” – Paul Boucherle, Matterhorn
▶ “New technologies are more plug and play and less dependent on integrators, which is going to surprise a lot of people. How to be best prepared for that? Be open-minded, learn, push privacy and work with your salesforce to revamp that culture.” – Jamie Vos, ESA
▶ “Security pros might be surprised to find that the industry’s reboot could occur faster than they expect. Pent-up demand and the need to kickstart stalled projects and accelerate new ones in the wake of COVID-19, along with consumers who are eager to return to normal and an economy that’s hungry to reopen, could very well make security pros busier than ever.” – Fredrik Nilsson, Axis
▶ “Security pros seem to be surprised by how quickly the user experience drives new product innovation as well as how much influence Silicon Valley/Big Tech disrupts our industry.” – Tim Brooks, PSA
▶ “Being more remote has sped up end users becoming better educated and self-serving, which could be good or bad. The importance of adding services and value to every sale will be even more prevalent.” – Cody Fritz, ScanSource
▶ “Fast technology and innovation development will raise operational efficiency to a new level. This concerns cyber criminals too; they’ll constantly find new ways for security breaches. Highly protected and encrypted, as well as physically robust, security technologies are the answer.” – Jerry Burhans, ABLOY USA
▶ “How much business you can do without leaving your home or office. Remote working is now an acceptable way to conduct business. To really stand out, be prepared to do a comprehensive remote live demo of your products. Doing this, instead of resorting to a PowerPoint slide on Zoom, is going to put you on top.” – Kichul Kim, Hanwha
▶ “Changes in access control and visitor management technology are changing extremely fast. Also, does the market realize how fast ADT commercial/industrial was growing before the pandemic, and is the industry ready for ADT’s pent-up demand rebound in that segment? Does the market realize into how many premises-related industries and countries Alarm.com has expanded its SaaS model? Finally, we believe access and video as a service is about to gain critical mass, and the industry better be able to run with it.” – Jeff Kessler, Imperial Capital
▶ “Big Tech may redefine security in the usage of intelligent data to notify users around patterns of behavior about threats and interactions within a home or business. Big Tech may fundamentally disrupt central stations and traditional providers as communication technology and services exist to push full alarm data traffic, including video with dispatch info, directly to responding authorities without any involvement from our traditional services.” – Clint Choate, SnapAV
▶ “5G cellular networks will enable applications of technology that were too difficult or prohibitively expensive to implement in the past with previous generation networks. Integrators should continue to monitor rollout of these networks and explore the new opportunities they support.” – Brian Wiser, Bosch
▶ “A stock market crash and the resulting impact on both consumer spending and business investment. The market is now ‘pricing in’ a recovery in economic growth and earnings as a vaccine begins to reduce the drag caused by the pandemic. With markets at all-time highs, however, investors have priced in ‘perfection,’ leaving room for ‘disappointment.’ When everyone is leveraged, an unexpected, exogenous event could cause a rush for the exit and another crash. Security pros should keep an eye on the broader economy and the stock market, and adjust their investments and activities accordingly.” – Charles Durant, Sandra Jones and Co.
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