Diving Deep Into Key Input on the Access Control Market
The SSI 2023 Access Control Deep Dive shows there’s some gray area in business when it comes to the security truism about authorization.
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While the electronic security industry has been built on burglar and fire alarms, it is actually access control that has been around the longest.
Eons ago, it was likely not long after one primitive human or tribe first met another that actions were taken, or measures put in place, to prevent others from accessing a particular resource or gaining entrance to a given area.
Now, envision if you will — like the famous opening of the classic film, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” with early Homo Sapiens discovering tools and the smash cut to elaborate space travel — the head-spinning shift to today’s advanced access control technologies.
With sophisticated and elegant solutions dotting the industry’s landscape, access control devices and systems have accelerated their ascension to swiftly gain ground on intrusion, fire and, more recently, video surveillance products.
This is the case not only in terms of viability and efficacy but also in applications, integrability, opportunities and market share.
And there is no end in sight as innovations like biometrics, wireless capabilities, Cloud and access control as a service (ACaaS), mobile credentials, smart locks, artificial intelligence and more continue to grow the overall market and propel new possibilities.
Of course, there are plenty of challenges too, with proprietary system constraints and the omnipresent threat of cybersecurity vulnerability among the leading technical ones, and the pandemic aftermath and sluggish economy being among the practical business impediments.
Then there are a host of channel and integrator obstacles, including supply chain hangups and technician training, that run further interference in what might otherwise be runaway revenue generation.
Regardless of the hurdles, many suppliers, dealers and integrators have realized healthy double-digit growth within the access sector in recent years.
Any good strategist knows that the key to gaining an upper hand is through keen scouting of the situation in which success is sought and insights pertaining to any opposing forces that might be standing in the way.
Think of generals analyzing intelligence to defeat an enemy or NFL coaches scrutinizing other teams’ video to gain prevailing advantage on game day.
That is the objective of Security Sales & Integration’s 2023 Access Control Deep Dive — a survey designed to help light the way for intrepid integrators to reach the winner’s circle among those who sell, design, install and service access security solutions.
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SOMPETCH
Inside the Access Control Deep Dive
Looking at this year’s data, it’s definitely a mixed bag with a roller-coaster ride of good news, bad (or at least not so good). For example, while access control business growth rates are higher in the long term, they are about flat compared to a year ago.
And, although the average number of access control installations being performed has declined, integrators are charging more for both residential and commercial systems.
Again, while the average profit margin fell off, the price integrators are getting for both residential and commercial systems per opening rose.
On the technology side, integrating access control with video is red hot, with wireless, biometrics and smart locks also stimulating sales. But once again representing the up/down scenario, ACaaS declined as an offering and its growth rate slowed. In addition, a scan of market applications illustrates the post-pandemic return to the workplace with a bump in commercial office clientele, as well as government and small- and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile, financial institutions and multi-dwelling residential buildings took hits.
Those myriad dynamics pulse through SSI’s Access Control Deep Dive ― the publication’s fourth dedicated research project into this vibrant segment.
The latest study was conducted during July 2023 and included dealers and integrators from throughout the United States and Canada. It also drew respondents from a wide range of company sizes spanning the residential, commercial and industrial access sectors.
Immerse yourself in a pursuit almost as old as mankind itself — controlling where people are permitted to go and when they do so, which to this day is one of security’s fundamental and most in-demand facets.
Access control also represents a monumental upside as yet to be scaled. Consider this your base camp, with supplies in the form of graphs, lists and sidebars, to help you and your company climb and access this profitable peak.
Click here to access the insights from the 2023 SSI Access Control Deep Dive!
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About the Author
Scott Goldfine
Scott Goldfine is the marketing director for Elite Interactive Solutions. He is the former editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He can be reached at [email protected].
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