Top 3 Trends Gleaned from Day 1 at ISC West 2015

• By Ginger Hill
• Apr 16, 2015

ISC West 2015 opened to a packed floor, and I'm not just talking about attendees. The number of booths have increased as well, making the show room footprint a little bit bigger. And, just like we say in Texas, "bigger is better," this largeness didn't stand in the way of the normal camaraderie and friendship that is typically felt at this security event. Many heart-felt embraces were to be seen as if long-lost friends who haven't seen each other in 20 years.

When I attend security events, of course, I'm focused on products and services being represented; however, I also take another approach to soaking up all I can in a short amount of time when hundreds of security companies are contained together in one space. I look for emerging trends.

Here are the three main trends found at ISC West this year:

A New Way of Doing Business

Yet, some companies chose to embrace the power of intimate conversations as a large number of them decided to set up in meeting rooms as opposed to having a booth on the showroom floor. This provided a tranquil, relaxing venue for interactions to take place. Some even supplied much-needed nourishment, such as granola bars, and the even more needed commodity of this tradeshow: coffee.

In my opinion, this was a rather smart move and a sort of new way of doing business in a tradeshow environment. Maybe it's because we are such a web-enthralled society, but it seems people in general crave real, human-to-human interaction and these companies took care of that basic need. If you think about it, wouldn't you rather do business with someone you know?

The "New" Buzz Word of Video Surveillance

After meeting with a few different camera manufacturers, a certain word emerged from all conversations: "multisensor." Without getting too technical, this simply means that a camera has and uses more than one sensor when recording data so that it can be viewed in the highest definition possible for extreme clarity. Obviously, for security applications, the ability to identify as many details as possible in recorded data is the main goal.

What I found to be rather humorous, though, is the way in which "multisensory" was presented by each company. One claimed to be the "first" one to bring this technology to the market, while another claimed that their cameras stitched images together better than the others and still another claimed their cameras to produce the clearest images on the market.

Integrator-centric

From an integrator's perspective, it's so important that the companies they choose to do business with support them, and I don't mean just with training, marketing materials, friendly voices at the other end of the phone when questions arise. Although all of these are a must, too, integrators are searching for companies that when the inevitable happens, a product fails, the company steps up and helps instead of placing the blame on the way the product was installed or referring to a warranty that may have already passed.

I spoke with an integrator who had a very dissatisfied end-user as from day one the chosen product didn't function correctly. At his wits end, the integrator reached out to the company for help and support. Not only did the company replace the product for FREE, no out-of-pocket cost to the integrator, but the company sent out one of their own installers to install the product for the integrator as a way of directly interacting with the end user on behalf of the company with apologies and superior customer service.

Wow! Talk about not only a HUGE positive impression on the integrator, but now that integrator and the company, too, has a customer for life!

All the companies I met with claim to be extremely integrator-centric, supporting their integrators 1001%. I sincerely hope that this is what they meant.