Clearly the single most significant influence on the industry this past year had been the economy.
It, along with legislation, and standards will continue to reshape the customer, so in turn it will change what we provide and how we do business. 

Law enforcement has been quick to realize the value of video alarms for verification. From their perspective, video alarms deliver more apprehensions, improve officer safety with better situational awareness, and ultimately make their response teams more effective. In one visible case study last September, the Detroit Public Schools used video alarms to make over 65 arrests in eight weeks. The industry’s largest dealer association, the ESA (electronic Security Assoc. formerly the NBFAA) recently published an article on a company in Phoenix that had over 40 captures at one site equipped with video alarms. Alarm dealers and law enforcement are taking notice and the potential for video alarms to improve service and effectiveness.

Our consulting firm has been closely following the evolution of this trend towards video alarms and priority response because we believe that in addition to ensuring the industry's business model remains viable, it also has the potential to increase profits and value for the dealer organization that embraces it. We recently completed a study in which we compared the value of a “traditional” alarm dealer with 5,000 standard accounts and one with 5,000 video alarm accounts. The difference in cash flow, profits and long term value creation was staggering. The company with video alarms was worth over 50 per cent more than the company with standard alarms. When you combine the greater value of the accounts and the company with the fact that law enforcement actually prefers this technology and will prioritize their response based upon the increased verification, you begin to realize that this truly is a major paradigm shift in the industry.

The commercial market has been leading the push of video alarms in Canada. Beginning in difficult applications including securing electrical substations of the major hydros, video alarms have made their way to securing outdoor assets in the oil sands of Alberta. As the costs have come down, affordable video alarms are now beginning to find their way into the residential market in Canada as well.  Safeharbour, based in Halifax, has been aggressively encouraging its dealer base to move into residential video alarms and the greater revenue they can provide. Chubb has also launched a significant effort to bring the value of video alarms to their commercial and residential customer base. Protectron is making investments to provide these services to their dealer base. From our perspective, there is no reason that video alarms and priority response will not have the same impact in Canada as they are having in the U.S.

 

 It is time that alarm dealers begin to seriously consider adding video alarms to their product/service offering. 

Sandra Jones’s consulting firm assists, integrators, dealers, manufacturers and investors with profit development strategies, M&A and business growth plans. The firm is also a founder and the producer of the Securing New Ground Conference.  www.sjandco.com