Features Research
IMS: IP technology changing the role of the integrator

The firm cites several influencing factors including: the number of IT-based integrators entering the market, shrinking product margins and more emphasis on the importance of network-based skills. However, integrators can expect to see the market grow at an average of almost 10 per cent to 2016, according to the research firm’s predictions.

Paul Bremner, market analyst at IMS Research said in a statement, “As more IT integrators have been entering this market they have been fundamentally changing the way security systems integrators do business. IT integrators have brought their business model of lower equipment costs but higher service costs, and this has translated well when dealing with IP-based technology, which often requires a lot of network planning in the design stage to offer the best available solution. Design & consultancy services are likely to become a larger part of the typical integrator’s revenues. Such services include risk analysis, vulnerability assessment and client security policy analysis, to name but a few.”

The IMS report, Security Systems Integration – World – 2012, says that a strategy some integrators are using is to focus their efforts on specific vertical markets and hone their knowledge and expertise in those areas.
 
Bremner added, “The opportunity for design & consultancy revenues is highly dependent on the vertical market in question. Projects in transportation for example, are much more likely to include design and consultancy revenues than projects in either retail or commercial. This is mainly due to the nature of the projects themselves, but is also, in part, due to the different organizational structures found within those verticals.”
 
Security Systems Integration – World – 2012 Edition, was published in October in three regional volumes, the Americas, Asia and EMEA.