Capital gains

What do you get when you bring 40 journalists together to Washington, D.C.? If you said a presidential briefing or a congressional hearing, good guess, but for me, the answer is a one-of-a-kind experience learning about the inner workings of a physical security solutions provider.

This week, myself and other security journalists from literally all around the world (yes, from as far as Singapore and Australia), have gathered for the Genetec Global Press Summit, a two-day event featuring a combination of plenary sessions and site visits highlighting Genetec’s transformation from a video management system (VMS) provider to its expansion into access control and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR).

Today’s agenda began with a “Seismic” session conducted by Andrew Elvish, Genetec’s VP of marketing, as he offered observations on how the physical security industry is in rapid transition, or as he put it, “What's driving a lot of our thinking right now and what's driving the sort of motivations behind changes that are going on in the market?”  

I’ll give you a truncated version of Andrew’s main points as I will delve into his session in a separate article, but his discussion focused on the ‘seismic shift” that is happening in the physical security market, based on the results of a survey Genetec conducted in 2023 and revealed in its “State of Physical Security 2024” report.

Before Elvish dove into the results of the survey, he talked about the evolution of Genetec over the past 10 years in emerging as one of the top VMS, access control and ALPR providers in the world, the result of what Elvish called “doing business well” by “working with our channel partners in getting products to the end users.”

He noted that Genetec’s evolution as a leading provider over the past decade resulted from the “maturing of an industry and how mindsets are shifting right now,” adding that Genetec’s platform is based on unification, or as he described it, “bringing together the core functions of security into one platform.”

Elvish then discussed the “State of Physical Security” report, which polled more than 5,500 physical security professionals, divided into two target groups – end users and channel partners.

Key findings showed that cloud adoption in physical security had been gradual but is now accelerating, with the future of most physical security solutions appearing to be a blend of on-premises and cloud-based solutions.

“The real growth in the market is happening with cloud-connected physical security tools,” Elvish noted. “Moving to the cloud is a means to an end, and the end is achieving greater output, greater quality, and greater efficiencies.”

Another key point from the report was that a “concerning” 31 percent of end users indicated that their organization was targeted by cybercriminals in 2023, mostly in the banking and finance industry (46 percent).

Elvish noted, however, that businesses are prioritizing a better cybersecurity strategy in response to these threats, with 42 percent of organizations increasing deployments of cyber tools in their physical security environments in 2023, up from 29 percent in 2022.

He added that “channel partners are taking a lot of action on this front as well, but there's still quite a bit of work to do.”

Speaking of channel partners, Michel Chalouhi, Genetec’s VP of global sales, followed Elvish by focusing on how important channel partners are in deploying and supporting Genetec’s portfolio.

He cited Genetec’s mission statement – “To deliver a continuous flow of clever innovations by achieving excellence, execution, and enhanced cooperation with the best-of-breed in our ecosystem’ - and explained that the ecosystem is comprised of technology partners, consultants/industry associations, and certified integration distributions that connect Genetec’s solutions to the end users and integrators that make up the company’s customer base.

Chalouhi pointed out that Genetec has approximately 2,000 channel partners, with 65 percent (1,426) based in the Americas, 24 percent (511) in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, and 11 percent (195) in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region.

“That number might seem big, but the reality is it's very small,” he noted. “When you start breaking it down by city, by state, by country, by region, and you look at the density of partners that we have globally, this is a relatively small number. And when you look at that and you look at where the channel partner footprint is global, it follows clearly where the revenue split is.”

Chalouhi then explained how channel partners complement Genetec, bringing a combination of expertise and certifications, scale, reach, and intimate vertical/domain knowledge.

“That's your traditional profile now, a lot of them are going to have that,” said Chalouhi of what makes up a channel partner. “When we look at it and we design the solutions, we have to design a solution that is catered to that profile because those are the people who are going to help our business.”

He added, “Having partners that are the forefront of that is going to be part of the DNA of the partners that we'll be looking for as we progress forward. We can't know everything about every vertical. Looking at partners that have that knowledge and expertise within every one of the verticals that we operate in is key for us when we look at expanding our ecosystem.”

Great insight during the morning session on Day One of the Genetec Global Press Summit. More to come, including a site visit to the Capital One Arena on Day Two, so stay tuned on our site and in our March print and digital editions for a wrap-up of this insightful event from our nation’s capital.