This article originally appeared in the September 2020 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention @SecBusinessMag on Twitter and Security Business magazine on LinkedIn.
Do you still sell CCTV cameras? I bet you don’t. After all, the term CCTV is a remnant of a bygone era – the era of closed-circuit systems and analog equipment. For the most part, if you still sell CCTV, it is fair to assume that your company may not be viewed as more technologically forward than a similar company that sells and installs video surveillance systems.
For these reasons, you won’t find the term CCTV in the pages of this magazine. You probably won’t find it on a trade show floor or in a vendor’s marketing materials either.
You also won’t find the term “Dealer” in our title anymore – after all, the term “Security Dealer” is a remnant of a bygone era…right?
As much as I want to and staunchly believe this fact after covering this industry in one way or another for nearly 20 years, the “security dealer” moniker lives on in our industry. Why? Primarily, it is because of the vendors in this industry, who see all of their integrator partners as their personal dealers. There are huge networks of authorized dealers and authorized dealer programs, and it actually makes sense that a Honeywell or a Napco or a Hikvision would call every security integrator who carries their products a dealer.
But does it make sense to call yourself one?
“A person or business that buys and sells goods” is, by definition, a dealer. The term nearly always carries a qualifier in front of it – as in a “car dealer” or an “Alarm.com dealer.” Is that what your security company is – a business that buys and sells goods? If you say yes, then I would call your business a distributor, no offense.
When I spearheaded this magazine’s name change from Security Dealer & Integrator to Security Business, I didn’t do it on a whim. I asked tons of security business owners and executives if the term “dealer” was still relevant, and not a single one told me it was.
Does your business “bring together or incorporate (parts) into a whole” or “make up, unite, combine or complete to produce a whole or a larger unit, as parts do?” That means you integrate – you bring together a range of alarm, video, access control and other systems together to form a cohesive security system. Your business fits the definition of integrator, whether you are doing it in an enterprise commercial environment or in a townhouse.
Every company that reads this magazine is, by definition, either an integrator or a consultant; but when you ask vendors, every company that reads this magazine is one of their current or potential dealers – and therein lies the rub. Do you call yourself what you are by definition, or do you call yourself what your vendors want to call you?
Back to eliminating dealer from our magazine title, I also spoke to a variety of vendors in many different technology markets. One vendor representative in particular made an impression on me when I asked him flat-out why they keep calling their integrator partners dealers. To paraphrase, he replied that the company has had many internal discussions on it, and simply couldn’t come up with a better term. I asked why not "authorized integrator," and he said the definition fits, but it didn’t have the same ring to it. I said, how about plain old "partner," and he said that would create confusion with the company’s partners in other markets and industries.
And so dealer lives on.
I admit that despite the many cutting-edge and futuristic technologies that we deploy, this industry is, to put it bluntly, a little “set in its ways.” Even so, I think we are well beyond the point where you would self-identify as “a dealer selling CCTV” over “an integrator selling video surveillance.”
Now, go tell your vendors to offer authorized integrator programs so we can put this dealer term to bed once and for all.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine (www.securitybusinessmag.com). Email him your comments or topic suggestions at [email protected].
