Maybe. But probably not. One of your first steps should be to understand how your customer thinks about security and how they use technology. Let’s suppose you are meeting with Bob, the new person responsible for security at a large manufacturing plant. Your meeting is at 11 a.m. Let’s take a look at what Bob has been doing since he got up this morning.

There is no newspaper at his door; Bob subscribes to RRS feeds that provide him with up-to-the-minute news. Bob makes a quick jump to a weather website, followed by a look at his gmail email account, where he finds out are new posts on his Facebook page. An old friend has found him and Bob replies with a link to a photo album on his Flickr account. Bob’s BlackBerry has now rung twice with urgent notifications about the status of a critical backup system at the office that warrants a quick check. With his office laptop, Bob uses a VPN tunnel to connect to the office and view the offending system in real time. Before leaving for the office, he quickly logs in to his bank to pay the phone bill that had arrived via epost.

At the office, Bob’s desktop computer shows the company dashboard as soon as he launches his web browser. A collection of news, production statistics, and the status of critical systems are shown side-by-side. His online calendar reminds him of a meeting at 11 a.m. about the new security system. Bob wonders: How will the new system fit with all the other technology already in place?

Does this story sound futuristic to you? If your prospects are in their early 30s, they are most likely already using technology like this. And what about you? Are you reading this column on your computer? Are you receiving e-news via email? If you answered yes to either question now, would the answers have been the same just a year ago?

Security systems must evolve in the same way, becoming IT systems to remain relevant. How? Like everything Bob did this morning, it is not so much about the hardware anymore, but the application and the fluidity of the information. It does not matter if it’s a Blackberry, a desktop computer, a pocket PC, or a Linux UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer). What’s important is that it needs to be “connected” and able to access information. In the same fashion, our solutions must become more flexible and centred on the information and the application, not the hardware, because when, where, and how the end-user accesses the information constantly changes.

Salut!

JF Champagne is the Canadian Sales Manager for Brivo Systems LLC, a manufacturer of web based and web hosted access control. JF can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (416)238-5606.