2015 was one of the more stable of the last five years. We’re seeing a fundamental increase in confidence that is freeing up capital spend. There’s a good bit of pent-up demand, and larger projects are being funded. We’re seeing more M&A deals, not an explosive change, but a marked increase and more quality deals. These deals reflect an interest and demand for services and solutions. The commoditisation of cameras and NVR/DVRs is putting pressure on long-term players as we move to “solutions” over components.
Looking to 2016, players like Dahua and Hikvision will continue to bring downward pressure on hardware prices. Also, Canon’s acquisition of Axis is a major competitive challenge for Arecont and others. Companies relying on commodity products are not in great shape going forward.
Mining dark data for competitive advantage
3xLOGIC was just awarded Deloitte’s Fast Technology 500 recognition for our growth during the 2011-2014 period. That growth is not slowing down. We continue to make a heavy investment in R&D, and we’re adding application-based engineers. We’re making investments in resources, support and education to ensure we are that strategic partner for our customers.
Our goal is to create competitive advantage in our overall Service Offering and Service Experience. We’re looking to be a Business Partner, not a vendor — we can do that with our VIGIL Trends business intelligence software. With this solution, we become strategic partners — we become part of our customers’ overall planning and embedded in their organisation. You don’t turn us off because you’re never “done.” There’s new, more value-added intelligence every day. That’s a great place to be.
It’s a fantastic time to be in security because there’s been an un-tapped market in our industry for 20-plus years. Nobody collects data better than we do — video, access control, intrusion, biometrics, and all sensor-based hardware data — and for the most part, nobody is doing anything with that data, or certainly not enough.
We have a platform that allows us to take all that “dark data” and turn it into actionable information to drive big change. That is the new world: We’re extracting more value from already-collected data and solving problems that have been eluding the industry for many years.
See the full coverage of 2015/2016 Review and Forecast articles here