End user pressure changes value proposition for security industry
Many of us remember the not too distant past when the security industry’s landscape was a patchwork of proprietary devices where users struggled to cobble together systems that were not extremely efficient, costly to maintain and almost impossible to expand. Sure, convergence was a buzzword and integration was a concept, but neither represented reality and often teased the end user into thinking there were better options.
Interestingly enough it has not been technology that has driven the brave new world security is now in, where integrated building solutions operate across multi-dimensional business platforms. Instead, we find that it is the leveraging of business drivers such as operational efficiency, risk metrics, alignment of organizational values, the total cost of ownership and return on investment that are helping systems provide not only security benefits, but benefits to other parts of the organization.
The continuing breakdown of organizational silos and a better understanding of organizational risk and business alignment across a growing number of boardrooms have created a new consensus of what security means and where its place within an enterprise should be. Of course, the fast-paced evolution of technology has helped strong arm some improved relationships within the C-Suite. There is no mistaking the lead role IT has taken in purchasing, implementing and maintaining an increasing catalog of IP-centric physical security systems that now reside on the corporate network.
Veteran technology executives like Matt Barnette, who is currently the president of G4S Technology’s Global Products Division AMAG Technology, Inc., sees the paradigm shift in security as a positive for both the manufacturer and most importantly, the end user.
“When I started 12 years ago with AMAG it really was about selling product, but the philosophy has changed as has the market. It is about selling solutions now. What we need to do in order to experience success in this market is not only have great products but professional services and to keep going upstream with the product offering,” says Barnette, who goes back 25 years in the industry.
Unlike the Jurassic days of security’s infancy, where building products that met end users’ needs sometimes took a backseat to how expedient a vendor was getting product out the door, is no longer a prudent formula. Many manufacturers pour millions into product R&D and conduct client focus groups nearly as often as this year’s crop of Republican presidential candidates hold debates.
“The customers are much more informed. Technology has allowed them to do a lot more research, but they are also a lot more experienced with product. So the end users we are meeting with now tend to be a lot more knowledgeable about what they need as far as product and what solution best fits them. It has been a bit of a shift,” admits Barnette. “The end users are the best place to get information on what we need to do to provide workable and successful systems. They are very clearly telling us they want more manufacturer engagement, they want us to provide not only a great product but great support for that product; and not just the traditional tech support, they are looking for professional services and engineering talent to help their IT and security people really utilize these systems to their full potential.”
Manufacturers will tell you that it is a different conversation they are having with their end user clients. They are talking about integrated business platforms, partnering with IT and convergence of IP-centric technology.
“It is a constant guessing game of what you will find when you go in to talk with a client. It is an interesting dilemma in that not one is exactly the same. What has been the trend are customers are discussing a lot more IT-centric issues than in the past,” says Barnette, adding that IT is at the table and has a say in what ultimately will be selected and how it will be deployed. “It is no longer so much a sales conversation as a consultative session. The sales people are there in the meeting to be the ringleader, but we have our applications engineers and our solutions architects there doing the bulk of the presentation. There has been a shift in the way we now approach business and how we interact with our end user.”
Interestingly enough Barnette confides that he and his team still encounter technology and management silos in their travels. This surprises him.
“We still see a lot of silos in the organizations we deal with. Some of the clients are more integrated across business lines. But it is still amazing to me that in this day and age how physical and IT security are still separated in many cases and don’t seem to be cooperative. It makes it difficult for us because when we are being engaged we are being asked to wrangle up the end users to make sure they’re communicating,” he says, acknowledging that more than ever before, IT is calling the shots in many cases and becoming better versed in enterprise risk and the importance of physical security’s role in it. Yet there is room for improvement.
“The IT engagement has increased radically where they are involved in which systems will be employed. It most cases that is a good thing, but in others IT managers know enough about security to be dangerous, they get caught with the IT buzzwords trying to apply them to more physical security applications without knowing what they mean in that context. If you have a solid IT-centric security product, it behooves the IT folks to really dig deeper into functionality and application to understand how to integrate a solution,” Barnette adds.
The challenge for Barnette and companies like AMAG is to continue to meet the needs of a changing world and the increasingly customized needs of its customer base. It is even more difficult when your integrator partners are also your priorities. Helping them feel comfortable with the rapid advancement of product and intricacies of integrated solutions that now include the Cloud, SaaS and the expanding Internet of Things platform, can be daunting.
“It has been a bit of a maturing process. The industry has grown and changed as has our company. We still need to provide our customer base, which is the integrator channel, a product that they can use whether it is an 8-reader system or an 8,000 reader system. We don’t want to say we don’t compete in that area.
“We strive to be able to provide that integrator a product that can be a solution in a small, medium or large environment. But we have matured into a company that is providing those enterprise services and solutions for those Fortune 500 end users who want something more than holding up a card and having it unlock door. They have needs built around compliance if they operate in any type of regulated industry,” says Barnette. “Many access control solutions that I’m aware of don’t build in any audit and compliance capability in their policy engine. We have that available today – whether it’s in the cloud or on premise. We have a unique solution. We don’t need to bring in two or three other partners to meet that need.”
Barnette says that his team understands its customer base need for a unified solution.
“They don’t want to deal with multiple projects from multiple vendors then hope that at the end of the day there is a good outcome. We’re going to continue to build products that are easy to deploy and that will bring TOC down. We want to continue to develop products that we can sell as additional services where we can not only help configure those products as they are being installed but also monitor them remotely for customers who may not have the need to do that in house. We want to be able to monitor those systems remotely and securely without being intrusive to their IT infrastructure,” concludes Barnette.
