The report, which is based on a survey of North American integrators and installers of IP-based security products, also found that more than 75 per cent of the companies said they deal with IT managers more now than they did a year ago.

A consultant I know who does a lot of work around the country confirmed this, saying it’s a trend he’s definitely seen in Canada.

Is it any surprise? Not really, when you consider the risk new IP devices can potentially add to a corporate network if not properly vetted and managed. It has taken decades of hard lessons along the way but IT departments have learned to build considerable checks into their selection, deployment, management, testing and governance. Security devices need to be put through the same processes. Standards are also just starting to be considered for many technologies in this industry.

The survey may come as no surprise to those who have been listening to warning calls from experts who embraced convergence years ago and have been watching this migration happen. It may however send shivers down your spine and into your wallet if you haven’t given it much thought, or if you aren’t comfortable speaking to IT departments.

Perhaps, more importantly, you want to ask your customer if you can get to know their IT manager a little better. IP products often use existing networks and IT managers are working much closer with security managers to facilitate the integration. That’s the best case scenario — where the two are coming together and working harmoniously.

Another key finding from the research was that almost 60 per cent of the systems installers surveyed thought that vendors do not provide adequate support for their IP-based security products. And more than 40 per cent of systems integrators also agreed that vendors were not meeting their needs.
Top of the list was additional training, telephone- and web-based support and better software and software development kits.

This reminds me of the shot Dave Tyson fired across the bow of security installers at Security Canada Central two years ago in Toronto. The former CSO at the City of Vancouver, who is now at eBay in Silicon Valley, said, for the most part, vendors build faulty products to start with and largely fail to support their product once on the market.

His message was that vendors don’t have a clear understanding of how their products can impact an organization’s environment, largely because most of the time they themselves don’t know.

That said, as I referenced in my editorial following ISC West this year, the message the manufacturers were sending, at least at the booths in Vegas, was that they were stepping up to help customers better understand and manage their products.

And during a round table with the SP&T News editorial advisory board late last year, Kevin Parisien, a project manager with MMM Group, and Michael Martin of IBM both suggested lack of training on the part of the installer was probably the more likely cause of product error.

If you want an example of a situation where a vendor is trying to provide direct manufacturer assistance to a customer to keep them loyal — albeit a very large and, I imagine, lucrative one — check out our story on page 16 of the July issue or online in which Rogers Centre VP of stadium operations Mario Coutinho talks about why he ended up staying with Keyscan.

Yes, he liked the product, but what he seemed to really appreciate was their willingness to handle on-going software development issues for him with hands-on service.

At the end of the day, the reality is that an IT manager and a security manager have one thing in common — understanding and mitigating risk in their organizations.