On June 30 we closed nominations for our third annual Integrator of the Year competition, sponsored by
Anixter Canada. It’s always exciting to see who has been nominated and read the details of the projects.
We’ve had some good integration stories come through in the past two years, but this year I think we’re really starting to wake up the industry to this challenge. Past winners have included a big
IT integrator implementing a biometric project and a
small, regional integrator managing fire and security for a manufacturer.
This year I’m seeing a whole other flicker of interest in one particular nomination. In addition to some great integrator-led projects, there’s an in-house integration team that has nominated itself and its vendor partners. I won’t give away all the details right now because, at the time of writing this, the
SP&T News editorial advisory board judges are busy going over the nomination details. They are the ones who will ultimately choose the winner, and they are asking some tough questions.
In general terms, however, a security director of an internal security department nominated his team for an access control project they worked on — a project that brought together multiple players internally and externally. While a GTA software developer and large enterprise building integrator had a role to play in the project, the in-house security team spearheaded drivers of this application. As the nomination outlined, the approach was to “provide the best possible data at the lowest cost possible.”
I know of a handful of large security departments that are also going this route. In many cases they see it as the means to greater control and, more importantly, understanding the increasingly complex electronic security systems that operate in their organizations.
The City of Toronto has its own system experts with project management expertise — a critical component when taking on complex, integrated systems across a large enterprise. Others, such as Alberta Health, have built a solid systems-strong skill base, providing training to technicians on CCTV and access control systems.
