Systems integration market to increase 9 percent by 2018

WELLINGBOROUGH, England—The security system integration market worldwide rose nearly $5 billion to $59.5 billion from 2012 to 2013 and is expected to increase more than 9 percent through 2018, according to a new report from IHS Research, based here.

The North American market should see an increase of 7 to 8 percent through 2018, senior research analyst Paul Bremner told Security Systems News.

Large companies looking to streamline are primarily fueling the market growth, Bremner said. After struggling over the past five years or so they're looking for more efficiencies in operations. For example, instead of multiple installers, they're looking for one who can handle diverse projects, he said.

In North America, those streamlining companies are in the retail, utility and education verticals, according to Paul Everett, IHS senior director, based in Austin, Texas.

Having some experience in those particular verticals can only be advantageous to integrators. Another advantage will be the ability to serve a large company with many locations, such as Home Depot, “but it all depends on what [integrators] are going after,” Everett said.

What it comes down to is that integrators will need to bring more to the table, Bremner said.

“Customers' needs and desires are evolving at a record pace as much as we've seen in past, but there doesn't seem to be a major technology driver forcing customers to change; the threat profile hasn't changed and the technology to mitigate those risks tech hasn't changed either,” he said.

Instead, he explained, it means integrators must enhance their offerings to meet customers' needs.

Security as a Service (SaaS), whether it be Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS), or Access Control as a Service (ACaaS), offer promising opportunities for integrators to expand their RMR and become more attractive to customers, the report said.

“Managed services is a trend in the marketplace today and there's the whole kind of movement around the cloud. NFC is more apparent,” Everett said. “There are a lot of systems now and being on the leading edge, obviously, is going to be beneficial to the installer.

A challenge that might impede the projected growth is not new to integrators, but one they have been facing for three or four years, Bremner said. The continuing decline in equipment margins, driven by price declines in the equipment itself, means integrators have to focus on the cost of delivering the project and how they can bring more operational efficiencies to themselves.