11 minute read
Ready for the Data Age?
INTERVIEW
This month we talk to Alistair Enser of Reliance High-Tech about the security market and his predictions for an increasingly data driven sector
The UK economy is going through a tough patch at the moment due to various market forces both at home and abroad. The security sector does not escape these pressures yet the demand for security is a constant, whatever the financial picture. Technology continues to evolve along with our familiarity of using smartphones, apps and remote monitoring /management systems and greater integration between devices is bringing new benefits to customers.
So what is in store for the security sector going forward and how will we need to adapt to keep up with consumer requirements and expectations? PSI caught up with Alistair Enser, CEO at independent integrator Reliance HighTech, to talk about the current state of play in the market and his thoughts on the future for the way in which we will use technology to meet the demands of an increasingly IT focussed customer.
What have been the big business changes for the security sector? If I go back into the 90s, which is when I joined the industry, we were still using black and white cameras and colour was an emerging technology. CCTV itself was a closed, analogue peer-to-peer system. In those days we were basically selling video recorders for £1500 and people had security equipment installed because they were mostly concerned about protecting assets, people and property. The technology we had at the time was a bit of a blunt instrument, if I’m honest, and the access control kit we had was quite basic, as PC based systems were only bestarting to become ‘a thing’. Security, other than a deterrent, was very reactive. Access control might stop unauthorised entry and CCTV might record theft, but analytics and proactive decision making were still the stuff of dreams.
If we roll forward to today, security is much broader in terms of risk management and mitigation; it’s not just about whether a handbag has been stolen from an office - there is a heightened focus on data to make better informed decisions to avoid security breaches, improve outcomes and to drive additional value such as helping other parallel business decisions such as energy usage, footfall, health and safety etc. Reputational damage is also much more at the forefront. Security in 2022 means protecting people, assets and also reputations rather than just physical things.
As a result, businesses and users are now looking for value beyond security with the realisation that any kind of security system - whether it is intruder, fire, CCTV or access control - is essentially another data point that can provide valuable information for the company. This data can help businesses make better decisions on security and reduce risk, and it allows them to improve in lots of other areas.
Alistair Enser
INTERVIEW
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The changes haven’t happened overnight have they? The added value model came from the digitisation of the sector we saw at the end of the 90s and early 2000s when we started to do things like online access control, which brought in a whole new layer of flexibility and reporting.
On the surveillance side of things, when CCTV first started going digital on the recording side, most of the camera parts were still analogue. Then networked systems came in through the 00s and 10s and we went IP. Now we’re in the next phase, which is the IoT space and data age. Each of these steps has brought new benefits, new reports, better analysis and improved benefits, be they cost, accessibility, cause and effect, or now data and analytics.
I would say that today we are all operating in an IT-centric space. This is a big challenge for the industry because we have had to develop networking skills, new competencies, and understanding what IT means. This has not been fast enough and there is still a skills shortage in the industry. Remember, a typical engineer in 1995 was competent at setting up a camera - which in those days was quite a complex procedure because it involved lots of pre-building component parts, setting manual dip switches and configuring setting - which today are often automated. He/ she wouldn’t know the first thing about networking, or more critically the responsibility and risk associated with it. For example, what would their true understanding be of cyber security, a DDoS attack, port forwarding, password management, or the critical importance of security patching etc? … This is a whole new language that the industry has had to learn on the job.
How has the way in which installers approach business today changed given this data gathering nature of the tech? It’s the classic consultative sale. The first thing we need to do if somebody wants a security system - or thinks they want a security system - is to find out why. We also need to find out a bit more about their business objectives and their concerns. They might well be thinking, “I want a camera to cover the front gates”, but why do they want to cover the front gate? What are their worries? What is it they are protecting and how are they currently protecting it? We also need to determine if what they want us to do is appropriate to suit the task. By listening to their needs and by understanding their wider business requirements maybe if/when we do put the camera in, it can do extra beneficial things beyond the original requirement of watching a gate.
For example, a customer might want to cover an area for security purposes, but by using technology in the system they can also tell whether people in that area are wearing hard hats, or whether they’re smoking where they shouldn’t be. There are huge potential side benefits that customers can get from using video analytics which we could never have offered them 20 years ago. By looking beyond the original question of security and elevating the view to cover risk and general business objectives, customers will see the additional features of what the technology can do with all of the data they are collecting.
Analytics came to the fore during the pandemic along with contactless access. Did this change people’s attitude towards system specifi cations longer-term? I think it raised awareness, but I wouldn’t say it resulted in a technology U-turn. What COVID did do was give people a higher acceptance of new technology, like analytics and biometrics. We are mostly naturally cynical by nature and like to do things the way we always have done, so when new ideas come along there is resistance to begin with. During the pandemic we adapted to the situation when people began working from home and learned how to host virtual meetings and operate remotely. We changed the way we lived our lives and became more accepting of the technology that, up until then, many of us hadn’t used.
It was the same with the cloud. People originally said that they didn’t trust cloud, or even know what it was, yet they were probably using it already. It is understandable to have uncertainty about having important information stored off-site; it is only natural to want to hold all of your information yourself, but ask yourself - is an Amazon data centre more secure and more protected by it’s 40,000+ employees and back up systems than your onsite storage , backup server and IT manager? Nowadays we are more familiar with cloud storage and don’t www.psimagazine.co.uk
think twice about running business critical CRM and ERP systems this way. Of course it is not right for every application and accessibility, bandwidth and cost are some of the other significant considerations too.
Which vertical sectors are increasing their security focus? To be honest the whole market is very buoyant. The public sector, government and higher education are strong for us at the moment, even with the sort of political socio-economic environment that we are seeing now and the associated uncertainty. Commercial spaces are in a current state of change, which also presents some opportunities for the security sector, especially as footprints and offices are adapting. Other strong areas include anything involving the critical national infrastructure and we are doing extensive work in data centres as the world generates more data everyday which needs protecting.
On the commercial side we’re seeing lots of change, often driven by the transformation in working habits and cultures, which has moved the risk away from the corporate office.
Organisations are now looking at management issues that come from having a distributed workforce. For example, a mediumsized business with around 300 employees could have six or more fire marshals in the office - but how do you control who is working from home? If all six are out at the same time this would be a problem. It is the same for first aiders or health and safety personnel. Fortunately we, as a sector, already have a potential solution to this with access control, as we know who is and isn’t in the building. Combining the information that we can obtain from various data points in the security system - including the IT structure, the building management system and the working from home rotas, we can do things that are far more intelligent - even though they are not necessarily security related - but they’re very powerful and relevant to the corporation, especially for Health and Safety Compliance.
So if a company has a problem (such as the one with first aiders) how would they know to contact their security installer for help? The first thing we need to do is work consultatively with our customers to understand their broader business, because quite often we will see use cases or applications suitable for them that they might not see, especially in today’s fast changing world. Of course, not all www.psimagazine.co.uk
end users will know the capabilities of security technology as well as the installer, so if we talk to them about their risks there might be an issue that we can help with because we’ve come across it in a previous installation. This may be something that requires new kit to be bought, in or it may be a problem that can be solved by using existing equipment.
As an installer we know that our customers have a security system, but can we give them more value? We should use our knowledge and expertise to help deliver exceptional value, not just simple security, especially when budgets are so important. There are some end users that are quite forward thinking and they’ll say, “I’ve got this problem and I don’t know how to solve it, but I think you could help”. Those customers are obviously a joy to deal with because we’re already halfway to providing a solution.
What does the future hold for the security industry? Purely from a technology perspective we have to improve our sector in order to navigate the modern IoT/IT/IS world. If we don’t, poorly implemented or maintained systems will become the security risk rather than the solution – a bit like installing a broken padlock!
As an industry we need to recognise that we’re not fitting just a security camera, or an access reader anymore, we are installing an IT device. Once we get our head around that and we are thinking in more of an IT manner, we might reduce installation cost by preconfiguring devices and remotely commissioning them. We might build systems that take less management time, such as the arduous task of reviewing or searching 10,000’s hours of video for a suspect when analytics might assist. Naturally this all has to be compliant with legislation, privacy and human rights - which is a whole topic in itself.
I think as we move forward with security technology hardware, the industry will continue to develop and become more IT-centric and using apps during an installation will become standardised. Why, then would you need to log onto a computer if you’ve got your phone or a mobile device?
I think we are moving into a new “data age” where we will see automation of the information within the security system. We’re already capturing lots of relevant data that can be used to make better business decisions, better security decisions, better health and safety decisions and better building management and energy decisions, thereby creating smarter cities and buildings in the future. “As an industry we need to recognise that we’re not fitting just a security camera, we are installing an IoT device. Once we get our head around that and we are thinking in more of an IT manner, then we can start adding value”
