Three invited companies will give us a clear vision of the current state of the security market in Central America, which seeks to gain a more important space and recognition in Latin America.By: Duván Chaverra Agudelo
Central America, within the security market, is a region that although it is not the strongest within the Latin American industry has been raising its numbers thanks to a growth in the demand for products in the sector.
In this opportunity VENTAS DE SEGURIDAD sets its eyes on the Central American security market to know, based on the experience of some companies in the sector, what is the current moment in this region, what economic differences have occurred during this year compared to 2009, and what expectations there are for the rest of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.
To solve all these concerns we contacted three companies representing three of the seven independent countries in the area, which, from their experience, will give us a vision of the market in a region that has around 35 million inhabitants throughout the subcontinent.
The guests are Mónica Vargas, security solutions supervisor at Diebold in Panama; Roy Gordon, representative of the company Setodomi of Costa Rica, and Grayson Wright, representative of Sescom of Guatemala.
From the perspective of the three companies participating in this article, the year 2010 has meant a remarkable recovery, due to factors such as the current present of the economic and social sector of each country and the interest on the part of foreign investors.
For example, Mónica Vargas analyzes how this year has been for Diebold: "During this year we have observed an increase in the confidence of the economy, which in turn has increased the purchase availability associated with electronic and physical security solutions, in general the financial/banking and industrial sectors are investing in renovation and adaptation of security in their agencies and buildings. In that sense, the demand for electronic security and fraud prevention products has been increasing, as more and more entities seek alternative methods that allow them to protect their customers and minimize the impact of vandalism."
The fact that large companies in the region are worrying much more about protecting themselves has also contributed to the growth of the industry: "This year has been very good for our company, there has been a great demand for security products, especially because of the need to be able to protect goods more and try to protect themselves a little from insecurity."
In the same vein, Grayson Wright said that "due to the high levels of insecurity in the country (Guatemala), the security industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds."
But that growth during this year is more noticeable when you go to analyze how the year 2009 ended for each of the invited companies. Two of these reported a decline in sales, a product of the financial crisis from which Central America could not escape either.
Roy Gordon states that the uncertainty in the economy during the previous year prompted companies to be more prudent with their investments, which meant a decline in the security sector: "Our market declined by 10% in 2009, as a result of the great uncertainty that existed when not knowing what was going to happen to the economy in the global arena, therefore, the companies decided not to spend and thus see what 2010 had in store for them. In Costa Rica the crisis was present for a very short time, and fortunately we are already heading towards a better result for this year."
In Panama, the economic phenomenon also left its mark, although this allowed to take better advantage of the business work within the local environment: "The crisis caused the freezing of investment in infrastructure and therefore stopped the purchase of security solutions. The entities were very cautious and attentive to the behavior of the markets in the different economies. It was a year that favored the approach with the Central American market, with customers and with their needs," said Mónica Vargas, from Diebold.
Meanwhile, the representative of Sescom in Guatemala, revealed that during 2009 "our sales rose approximately 26%".
An important change
The year 2010 has generated a revival in the security industry, companies recovered financial optimism and investments are growing little by little. For that reason, we consulted the invited companies about the goals they have managed to meet so far and asked them what growth expectations they have for this year.
Initially, Grayson Wright indicated that "for 2010 we expect growth of 34% compared to the total of 2009."
Mónica Vargas said in this regard that "this year has represented an important growth in our market share. Investments in infrastructure, civil works and tourism have been reactivated, positively impacting the acquisition of security solutions. The increase in crime in Latin America has forced the increase in the demand for solutions in the field of physical and electronic security. It is clear that security is a real and current concern in our countries."
"We have met a large part of our expectations in 2010, we managed to do business and alliances with several companies, and our growth expectation for this year is 15%," said the representative of Setodomi.
Fashion solutions in the region
In addition to traditional video surveillance cameras, IP technology, system integration and intrusion alarms are some of the solutions that distribution companies are offering to their customers in Central America.
"In the area that is most invested is in video surveillance and intrusion prevention (alarms), being the integration of systems a highly sought after requirement among customers. If to date investments in CCTV systems, alarms, access control and fire had been made separately and in proprietary platforms, today the trend is to look for systems that can co-exist in an integrated way, thus maximizing event management and the consequent increase in operational efficiency. From the same platform and with fewer operators, in a Monitoring Center events can be managed in a timely and accurate manner. For example, the issue of atM security has become more relevant and seeks to combine elements that increase physical security, electronic security (to protect and delay attacks) and logical information security, "explained the supervisor of security solutions at Diebold.
For his part, the Sescom representative spoke of alarms as one of the products with the highest demand in Guatemala and mentioned a product that has not had the expected reception: "We grew significantly with the alarms that transmit their alarm signal via radio frequency. These have been a success in the countries of the Central American region. The opposite is true of GPS systems, which have not grown at the rate we expected."
In recent times, the representatives of the invited companies claimed to have made different investments, both in security solutions and in training and promotions. Which shows an evident development in business strategy. "During 2009, we invested in staff training to better face the threats of competition in the service. In 2010 we are investing in marketing, to give a greater positioning of our company, "said Ray Gordon, of Setodomi.
"Despite the difficult situation of the economy, Diebold continued to grow in Latin America, all operations showed growth and dynamism in the introduction of new business lines such as Security Outsourcing, which has placed us in a privileged position in various industries. 2010 has allowed us to consolidate ourselves as providers of integrated security solutions, actively participate in industry events and sow the ground for new opportunities in the market," said Bolide's representative in Panama.
Finally, our guests explain below how the current situation, politically and economically speaking, of their respective country has affected or benefited them, as the case may be:
Mónica Vargas, from Diebold Panama: "The level of insecurity, the growth of violence due to drug trafficking and crime have forced entities to invest more in security systems, since they see it as a tool to reduce vandalism on their properties."
Roy Gordon, from Setodomi in Costa Rica: "In our country and as in any other place, at the moment the insecurity is latent, so everyone is looking for a way to protect their assets or at least try to minimize theft, that is where we intervene to be able to give them a solution."
Grayson Wright, from Sescom Guatemala: "Due to the high levels of corruption, there is no investment in security from the current government. Private companies have had to take on the role of hiring their own security. Our goal has been to use electronic technology instead of human technology, because it is more functional, cheaper and more reliable."
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