TOP or MIDDLE or BOTTOM
The market has been generally flat, with underlying economic fundamentals that have proved challenging yet seriously rewarding in a forward-looking sort of way. For privately-owned businesses, managing these ups and downs in revenue is easier than for organisations answering to bean counters. Regardless, in the face of a quite tough period, the industry has soldiered on.
I don’t know about the rest of you folks in the security industry but 2024, which was arguably the first all-out post-COVID year, has seemed long, with plenty of heavy lifting on all sides.
The market has been generally flat, with underlying economic fundamentals that have proved challenging yet seriously rewarding in a forward-looking sort of way. For privately-owned businesses, managing these ups and downs in revenue is easier than for organisations answering to bean counters. Regardless, in the face of a quite tough period, the industry has soldiered on.
The Cloud
While commentators moan about slow bit rate, LoRa is perfect for security applications with their teensy packet strings, low current draw and appetite for very long range.
We all know competition between security distributors is intense and this won’t change. It’s already impacting on technology take-up, as disties fight for angles that don’t involve slicing margins so thin they’re transparent. There’s a limit to this margin-shredding, even for the big box movers.
As always, relationships and careful distribution agreements are the keys to long-term success in the electronic security industry, as the revolving door of successful new boutique disties reminds us. What are these newbies offering clients that the established national distributors can’t? Often it’s the same product attached to a more meaningful local relationship.
SEN thinks increased competition and thinning margins will drive the market into the arms of smarter tech in 2025. Trying to get product to market at competitive prices is likely to impact on route to market, too. Gallagher taking SMB to the distribution channel is part of this. Looking further back in time, Genetec’s decision to go direct to installers looks prescient, especially given its new Security Center Cloud offering.
Speaking of cloud, we think there’s going to be growing competition in cloud access control as providers and installers agree on an RMR and database ownership model that makes both sides feel financially secure. ANZ’s installers have not taken fully to cloud yet, but we think it’s coming, with plenty of new product releases on the way.
Something else that will impact on cloud and wireless take up is time pressure. Has time pressure ever been so intense? We think not, and it will drive installers towards solutions that are increasingly easy to install, as well as encouraging distributors to ‘pre-integrate’ CCTV and access control solutions (that’s a reach, we know).
“The Future Of Electronic Security – Products And Trends In 2025 And Beyond.”
