North American MNS becoming saturated

DALLAS—The North American market for mass notification systems is getting saturated, IHS said, projecting the MNS market in the entire Americas region to see a CAGR of around 5.3 percent. However, MNS software is still driving the market's growth.

“One of the issues with North America is that it's a pretty mature market for mass notification technologies.” Jared Bickenbach, IHS Research market analyst, Access Control, Fire & Security, told Security Systems News. “After September 11, 2001, there was a big push to adopt notification technologies.”

IHS examined the MNS market by product types; hardware, software and service and maintenance. It also examined eight vertical markets including assembly facilities, commercial, education, government, health care, military, industrial and transportation. The report examined the Americas and the EMEA—Europe, Middle East and Africa—market.

Software is one area in North America that will grow in this time, Bickenbach said. This sector started at $323 million in 2014 and is projected to exceed $410 million in 2019.

Software will be the second fastest growing market segment, Bickenbach said, with service being the fastest. Out of the total market, software will make up about 19 percent in 2019, he said.

The perception of MNS as an “emergency-only” solution is another challenge in increasing implementation. Showing end users the benefits of using the system for multiple purposes could be a strong selling point, Bickenbach said.

A side trend—not discussed in the report as a technical matter but noticed by IHS in its interviews, Bickenback said—was that MNS apps have had a low adoption rate. One reason for this, Bickenbach offered, is that employees do not opt to voluntarily install apps on their personal mobile devices.

“Especially for the government sector, there are other options [besides MNS apps] out there, [which don't] require people to download things or run an app on their mobile device.”

IHS recognized integrating technologies across an enterprise as a technological trend in the MNS market, Bickenbach said.

PSIMs could be a point of competition, Bickenbach said, with MNS suppliers each looking to have their offering integrated into PSIMs.

“[MNS] software suppliers have already anticipated that [apps are] probably not where the total market is going or even going to be the largest for them, because they've developed the ability to use the web browsers instead.”