Security is not afraid of crisis

By: Julián Arcila/Duván Chaverra It is no secret that the crisis is still present in the economy, a phenomenon in which everyone has been affected in one way or another. However, this is a cycle that when it comes to an end will surely give a new beginning to the security industry, a market that may not have suffered the same affectations of other sectors, as it remains at the forefront of technology, and projects, although on a smaller scale, continue to develop.

This is a business that continues in constant movement and that demands the best products, all because of the incessant requests and needs of consumers who seek to feel safe, because Latin American countries, despite the financial climate will not stop investing in this regard, although now the priority of the client is to seek quality at a competitive price.

This is what they made clear to us at the last ISC West fair, held in Las Vegas, USA. In the U.S., some prominent industry executives gave their point of view on the current state of the security market, its present and future in Latin America and some trends and developments that can be expected soon.

At that location, SECURITY SALES had the opportunity to chat with John Whiteman of IOImage; Carlos Pacheco, general manager for Latin America at GE; Fernando Tomasiello and Steven Wallin, representatives of Samsung GVI Security; Chenyu Liu, sales director of ACTi; Hans Klein, President for Latin America at Magal Senstar; and Víctor Merino, sales director of Xtralis for El Cala (Latin America and the Caribbean).

Our sources agree on something specific: the crisis is an opportunity that the economy is giving to the security industry and those who take advantage of this circumstance and put it in their favor will see the results.

How to do it? The key is not to stop investing, to continue developing the projects, because that is when the competition can take advantage to remain in force and gain ground.

Has the crisis affected security?
After this introduction, let our guests now be the ones to give their perceptions about whether in fact in this market the crisis has been felt as much as in other industries.

For example, John Whiteman, of IOImage, a company that belongs to the video analytics segment, believes that perhaps it is the medium and low distributors who have been most affected: "The crisis has affected small distributors. Where the business continues to move is in the government and critical infrastructure sector, in which resources that were somehow destined continue to flow. In those medium and small segments such as vehicle distribution and warehouses, some projects or investments are being delayed or cancelled."

For his part, Steven Wallin, says that GVI Security has worked under the current financial climate to take advantage of its competitors. "There has been an overall impact across industries, but ultimately these crises create opportunities for companies like ours, taking into account and taking advantage of the fact that we are a robust company; so, we have the possibility of taking advantage of those slowdowns that other competitors are observing."

For Wallin, training, research, development, among others, are some of the investments that should not be left aside: "During these times you have to increase your investment in more sales resources, in more research and development, in more training and technical support, because doing it when your competitors do not is an opportunity that allows you to gain position in the market and take a real advantage of this situation."

Meanwhile, Víctor Merino, from Xtralis, believes that the security sector continues to develop and that is why his company seeks to remain active: "The industry continues to grow, there are still projects, not to the extent that was expected, but the slowdown is not as strong as in other sectors. The idea is to try to position the largest number of products and close the largest number of projects."

In this region, the crisis has left its mark, however, the impact has not been felt as strongly as it has in other regions of the planet, especially in the United States.

Given that, many companies continue to look at this market with great potential, where they can gain a lot of participation, taking into account that it is a region that still maintains an outstanding intervention in its economy.

Companies continue to analyze the best strategies to enter the Latin market strongly. This was assured by Pacheco, who spoke about the best way to enter the region.

"There are two important elements for growth in the region. The first is how we can make sure we bring our products to the region and make them real opportunities for our customers. Another important possibility is that of credit. We have to innovate in possibilities so that our customers can acquire our solutions."

In other words, Fernando Tomasielo spoke about the panorama that currently exists in Latin America and how to enter this market: "The main challenge we have in the region is the economy. What happens in the United States really affects business in Latin America, but we see that there is a great opportunity in vertical segments. The government does the same as well and what we are doing is working hard to be closer every day to those customers, to government entities with a large sales and support team."

For his part, John Whiteman told us about the way his company is working in this region: "Most of the work we have developed in Latin America has been related to critical infrastructure, such as gas and crude oil, mainly in markets such as Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica. However, there are still not many developments or applications in segments such as residential."

The trend
As we all know, the security industry is a market that does not rest when it comes to innovating in technology, therefore, manufacturers only think about launching innovative products that keep the customer satisfied and that anticipate the competition.

In Xtralis, an Australian company in the ccTV, access control, alarms, among others sectors and that also designs softwars and hardwars for these sectors, they consider that video continues to be the pillar of the market.

"As far as security is concerned, the main issue is still video, along with integration. To the extent that a company has possibilities to integrate access control, video, credentialing, logical security; all these applications will be able to give greater coherence to the market."

In the case of GVI, Fernando Tomasielo reveals the developments that the brand has launched during this year: "We have a new line of CAMERAS AND IP domes, high speed and very easy to install, which is very beneficial for the client. We completely changed the design of the domes, both analog and IP, and we have a new line of DVRs. Our line of solutions is certainly quite cost-effective."

At ACTi they are designing new high-tech products for cameras: "We are working with a line of megapixel cameras based on the h.264 compression algorithm."

There is no doubt that there is prudence when it comes to investing, but from this current moment of the market will come out alive the companies that bet on continuing to improve both inside and in the service to a customer now much more knowledgeable and demanding with the product he buys.

This is a topic that everyone has already analyzed: the crisis is full of opportunities, only that many times there are few companies that act quickly and those that risk continuing to grow under the cloudy financial landscape that is still present, that has an uncertain end, but that has not been able to leave a permanent mark on security.