In the fast-paced world of advanced security technology, understanding your clients’ needs and ensuring your development and sales teams are in sync when it comes to creating the organization’s strategic roadmap can define a solution’s ultimate success in the marketplace. So, it is not surprising that like several enterprise-level vendors, HID has made the security consultant and A&E a vital part of its developmental food chain and an essential liaison with its end-user base.
As the HID technology portfolio continues to expand, Harm Radstaak, HID’s Vice President and Managing Director of physical access control solutions, says that events with companies like Mercury, which took place earlier this month in San Diego at MercTech5, provide the perfect script to instill trust and the spirit of cooperation with consultants seeking to keep abreast of M&A fallout that might effect go-to-market strategies. Radstaak praised the Mercury event platform where OEM partners and consultants meet as a group and later in intimate one-on-one breakouts to discuss everything from technology issues to standards updates. He stresses that OEMs and consultants are in an environment and ecosystem that fosters a collaborative relationship.
“The platform being provided (at MercTech5) provides an opportunity to get to know and learn from each other, receive updates on new product releases, not only from HID or from Mercury but also from other technology OEMs and see what they are doing with the products and solutions we provide them. I think, for the specifying community, it's knowing what's out there, what's happening in the market and how vendors like HID are approaching it and how they can help the consultant. From an ecosystem perspective, consultants are an important part for HID but and for all the partners at the event,” says Radstaak, stressing solutions providers need to have the consultant community on board as trusted advisers. “There are trend technologies out there where we have, I think, as a market leader, a responsibility to inform and to educate. And as I said, a consultant needs to be independent. Otherwise, you cannot be a trusted adviser.”
Understanding Trends to Create a Proper Roadmap
When it comes to assessing the vulnerabilities of physical access control as it continues to converge with the cyber world, Radstaak has a different perspective on its impact on the end user and the solutions providers themselves. He tends to take a more holistic approach to trends shaping the security market.
“Elements of our roadmap can come can be informed by both the user perspective and a technology (development) perspective. As a vendor, our entrance into the market is being driven by technologies that are becoming more and more connected,” he says, explaining that with the advancement of mobile identities which reside either on a phone, on a wearable, or any basically any device, it allows for new virtual identity platforms. “Technology trends open up possibilities for what I would call non-traditional players in our market. They can come from the billing space into the physical security space. They can come from within the security space like video interactions with the controller or the other way around. Then you have to also consider the IT players, or maybe the phone manufacturers, and other connected device manufacturers coming into our play too. That's a trend which we need to be very mindful of because of how we provide an identity to an end user.”
He adds that end users have the need and expectation for identity options to be handled in a secure manner, as well as being able to create, use and manage everything around it for the entire life cycle of the technology.
“As an identity provider, HID has a role to play here and help end users, consultants, and OEMs in that journey,” Radstaak says.
Another prime element in the technology ladder that is playing a part in HID's roadmap also relates to Radstaak’s focus on connectivity. The ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) shapes the thinking of his team and of its partners. But the goal of HID, Mercury and its other technology partners and OEMs is not to just marvel at the explosion of interconnected devices, but to be the impetus for charting the course of IoT’s future in the physical security universe.
“The fact is, we are more connected now than ever before and it will only increase. So, our products and solutions are getting connected in that manner too because, ultimately, end users are asking for that connectivity. They want to do more than just access control with either an existing credential or an identity residing on a phone. They want to use that for logical access control, in combination with mechanical hardware and digital identities. If you're in a building already there are so many other building automation functions that can be tied to a single credential – no matter what platform it is on,” stresses Radstaak. “And with the cloud environment, we have started to build up connectivity even further. Since early 2016, we’ve gathered a lot of insights into end-user behavior, and we can leverage the insights from all kinds of security and business data to create solutions as a result of our acquisition Bluvision.”
Like its acquisition of Mercury last year, HID’s 2016 Bluvision transaction widened its technology base to include solutions for tomorrow that provide a clear roadmap into the IoT and Bluetooth Low Energy world. Radstaak says the data resources gained from the Bluvision technology portfolio play perfectly into the company’s vision of technology differentiation. Adding that the goal is to have the data available to control, monitor and secure any environment.
“How valuable would it be to know how many of my rooms or my floor space is really being used in my facility? Workflow management and space optimization are all playing into a cost-effective approach to a large-scope project with multiple facilities,” he adds. “They want to have that intelligence to decide if they can manage a smaller footprint or how to route people to find open meeting rooms or office space. All new technologies play into the ability to move into different directions, and ultimately adjacent directions for HID which will add more value and functionality to our products.”
But the high-profile acquisition of Mercury Security and its market-leadership position in the access control sector has been a key driver for HID heading into the new year, as both Radstaak and Matt Barnette, President of Mercury, both share a like vision.
For Barnette, his mantra of platform connectivity and consolidation of applications mixes well with the HID approach. Consolidating applications such as elevator destination dispatch, wireless locks, intelligent power supplies, biometrics, and strong authentication credentials in support of FICAM (U.S. Federal Government) and ANSSI (French Critical Infrastructure) requirements are demands he hears from both users and consultants.
“Mercury has been a frontrunner in this development, working closing with technology partners and Mercury OEMs to enable intelligent controllers to easily embed these functionalities on board,” says Barnette. “Last year, we introduced our next generation intelligent controller platform, the LP Series, and the new MR Series IO modules that continue to drive our open architecture approach, enhance the cybersecurity posture, and provide partners and users with the access platform of the future. These new additions to our portfolio will be a major contributor to our continued growth in 2019, and will fuel our ability to meet the expanding market needs in an evolving security landscape.”
Barnette adds that Mercury’s primary goal during 2019 is to enable more integration of more applications that customers require to build their security infrastructure. Consultants and end users are comforted that both HID and Mercury are playing off the same sheet of music.
“We had our own portfolio, and still do, in the controller space, but we acquired Mercury for a couple of reasons. First, it gave us a very strong position in the controller market and that play on that connectivity element. Ultimately, if we want to have connection to what is out there, an identity or a reader, we need to have some kind of communication and the controller is that device in an access control space,” explains Radstaak. “Mercury put us in a very strong position with large OEMs here in North America because they are standardized. But more importantly, from a strategic perspective, the acquisition gave us the ability to add new functionalities to an install base which Mercury has been building over time.HID's acquisition of Mercury will provide additional and great value add for our collective OEM customer base as we work together to continually strengthen their position in the industry in our evolving market. So, we have worked in synch, including interconnected architecture, philosophy, principle, and thought processes -- that plays a major role moving forward."
