Much like the video surveillance industry experienced with the shift from analog to IP technology, the access control market has experienced a similar transition with the move from on-premise, physical credential-based systems to access control-as-a-service (ACaaS) and mobile access offerings. And while these emerging access paradigms saw similar adoption hurdles, it appears the tide may finally be turning in their favor throughout the industry.
In fact, according to a new report from IHS Markit, ACaaS market revenues are expected to increase to $950 million by 2022, with similar strong growth expected for the mobile access market. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the leading adopters of ACaaS solutions and were estimated to account for 21 percent of market revenues in 2017. In addition, the market research firm said that global downloads of mobile credentials are forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 100 percent from 2017 to 2022 and that around 20 percent of the current installed base of access control readers will be mobile capable by 2022.
Jim Dearing, Senior Analyst for Security and Building Technology at IHS, said that demand for ACaaS has grown rapidly over the past five years and that this growth is expected to continue. And though there have been relatively few attempts to combine ACaaS solutions with mobile access, despite their apparent synergies, Dearing added that this type of integration will become more common over the next five years.
Among the key benefits of integrating ACaaS and mobile access, according to Dearing, include:
- A significant segment of ACaaS end users opt for fully managed solutions. Providers of managed solutions would benefit from the ability to issue and decommission credentials remotely, allowing them to lower management costs.
- Both mobile access and ACaaS are typically sold via subscription, or using recurring fee-based pricing models. Adding mobile credentials to an ACaaS contract would not be an issue for an integrator, and as mobile access becomes more popular in the traditional access control market, end users and installers are likely to become more familiar with the recurring-fee pricing model, which should generate additional interest in ACaaS.
- Like ACaaS solutions, the majority of access control solutions are cloud-based. As both become more popular, end users are likely to become more comfortable deploying cloud-based security solutions.
- ACaaS is increasing the penetration of access control systems in buildings, and many end-users are owners of SMBs who have never owned an access control system before. This situation poses an excellent opportunity for mobile access, as providers can ensure that mobile-capable readers are installed from the outset.
Barriers to Adoption
So far, Dearing said that early adopters of each solution are based in different industries. Mobile access has seen its strongest adoption in the education and hospitality sectors, while ACaaS is gaining traction with SMBs and the property management segment.
Due to the large number of smaller projects, the market research firm said a significant portion of ACaaS end-users value affordability over advanced feature sets and functionality and that ACaaS providers may struggle to convince end-users to install readers that are mobile-capable but also more expensive.
Despite both solutions typically being billed on a monthly or annual basis, Dearing added that the pricing models vary slightly. ACaaS solutions are priced according to the number of doors, while mobile access is priced according to the number of credentials or users. Creating an intuitive but optimal pricing model for the combined solution could prove tricky for suppliers, according to Dearing. If both original metrics are kept, suppliers are likely to encounter difficulty as end-users scale their solutions.
