Given the current state of affairs, many vertical markets in the physical security industry are growing. Some, however, are more active than others, and there are some interesting trends to watch as electrical contractors continue to add security specifications to their projects.

Integrated systems rule

Ed Widlitz, vice president of North American sales for Vanderbilt Industries, Parsippany, N.J., said end-users want to elevate and simplify their security solutions, which means integration between technologies is paramount.

“Organizations are investing in intelligent technologies that can take data gathered through traditional security devices and use it to increase intelligence, streamline operations and provide valuable insight for business and marketing purposes,” he said.

There is consistent growth in markets with large-scale reach, such as healthcare and education, but smaller enterprise businesses also are stepping up with security plans.

“Small to medium businesses look promising as these organizations realize the importance of building a security profile that helps protect people, customers and assets from threats,” Widlitz said. “They don’t have a dedicated IT department to keep tabs on the safety and security of the organization. This makes way for integrators to be instrumental in the implementation of solutions that are cloud-based and allows business owners to take the security of their facilities into their own hands by bringing all of their video and access control technology into a single, easy-to-use mobile application that can be accessed anytime and anywhere.”

Brian P. Coulombe, principal and director of operations for DVS, a division of Ross & Baruzzini, Hamden, Conn., said there is strong movement in the commercial sector and education.

“In the commercial market, major corporations are seeing high corporate profits,” he said. “As they reinvest some of those earnings, many of those investments will be in security and infrastructure upgrades and capital construction, which will come with new security designs. In education, with the horrific and widely publicized school security events happening with troubling regularity, school districts and municipalities will invest in security upgrades and enhancements to help protect occupants. Looking forward, if a major infrastructure bill is passed this year, we may start to see growth during the fourth quarter in areas like utilities and transit.”

Active-shooter discussions

Coulombe said much attention is being paid to active-shooter response.

“Most of that response has to deal with policies, procedures and training,” he said. “However those elements need to be backed up by staffing and technology. Some clients are interested in advanced systems like shooter detection, and we are working with them to understand the concepts of operation that would have to be developed to support that technology.”

In the commercial market, users need to streamline operations and deploy advanced technologies that show a return on investment.

“The commercial sector has always been great at adapting technology to increase awareness, reduce response time to security events and deploy resources more effectively,” Coulombe said. “Technology continues to support these drivers by providing better and more accurate information to users.”

The K–12 education market is drastically different in terms of what they can spend, Coulombe said.

“Schools are working with limited budgets and staffing, so security designs need to be effective and straightforward,” he said. “They need to ensure that the envelope of the school is secure, detect an event in progress and call for help as quickly and easily as possible.”

Frank Pisciotta, president and CEO, Business Protection Specialists Inc., Victor, N.Y., concurred that secondary and higher education vertical markets are extremely active.

“In this market, there will be a strong push for enhanced physical security and gun discussions,” Pisciotta said. “However, those arguments are generally missing the most important component of crime prevention, which is education, training and prevention.”

The elephant in the room

In all markets, the overriding discussion is cybersecurity, Widlitz said.

“We continue to see an acknowledgement of cyber threats to many existing security systems within various vertical markets,” he said. “The growing use of the [internet of things], as well as increasing connectivity between devices, has brought many opportunities to the security world but also presents heightened cybersecurity risk. This threat should propel the understanding to craft new requirements and policies needed to properly and responsibly design and install new systems.”