News Poll: Data analytics has value in the industry

YARMOUTH, Maine—Data analytics and big data are big topics in the industry, coming up at several industry events—but is there value in it? Eighty-nine percent of respondents to Security Systems News' recent poll say their companies are either using data analytics or considering it as an offering.

When asked about key uses, 58 percent of respondents pointed to operational efficiency and business intelligence. Twenty-one percent said that gathered information could be helpful for predictive or preventative security measures. An additional 21 percent said "Other."

One reader noted that data analytics has potential in reducing false dispatches.

At SSN's 2017 TechSec Solutions conference, the topic came up in several sessions. In the dedicated panel, “Big Data: Mining for gold,” panelists discussed how harnessing data is an emerging trend. “If you are going to get into big data in the next 12 months in the physical security industry, you are going to be ahead of the curve,” panelist Steve Carney, senior director product marketing, video and integration platforms, TycoSP, said.

TechSec's monitoring-focused panel, “Monitoring the next tech,” brought up how central stations will be involved with data. “Our center is going to become more and more of a data mining center, a data resource center, because we're receiving all of this information and we store it in our systems for some ungodly amount of time. It's there, it's available—it's just a matter of how to use it,” Jim McMullen, president, COO and founder of COPS Monitoring, said.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said that they use data analytics to benefit their customers. Another 42 percent said that they are considering data mining as an opportunity. Eleven percent said that data analytics does not seem beneficial.

Will this technology benefit the industry? Forty-two percent said yes, data analytics could be a new source of RMR. Data analytics might benefit the industry through improving customer interactions, according to 37 percent. Twenty-one percent said it won't benefit the industry, or, if it does, it will be in minor ways.