| Open standards for access control and integration will offer end users far greater levels of choice |
ASSA ABLOY 2014/2015 Review and Forecast:
Editor’s Note: This article is based on Mr. Bone’s answers to several questions about the 2014/2015 Review and Forecast posed by SourceSecurity.com.
We will continue to see a two-speed economy in general terms in Europe in the New Year, with the northern countries doing well and the southern countries continuing to be difficult. Having said that, in the access control industry we have seen quite good growth in “e-locks” across all of Europe, and this trend continues from previous years and appears to be accelerating as the market seeks new and innovative solutions for access control at a reasonable cost during these testing economic times.
Open standards for access control and integration will play a major role in the New Year. They will offer end users far greater levels of choice and independence into the future and will ensure that they can have real choice in the selection of the products that they want to use rather than being locked in due to proprietary or communications technologies – all while achieving higher levels of security management for their facilities.
For sure, it is not an easy market in Europe or in fact in most of the global locations that ASSA ABLOY operates; competition locally is always strong and has new entrants. However, many areas of our business have done well so far in 2014, and we are hopeful of continued growth in 2015 and beyond. The critical issues are to offer the market innovative solutions, an area we are proud to be investing in continuously. Just as important is to make sure your business is easy to work with and to understand partnership – we will continue to work very hard on all these areas in 2015 and beyond.
Opportunity in the security market comes from one word – innovation! Much of the security market has seen moderate levels of innovation in the last couple of decades, but there is a real pace to it now. I am certain customers will see real benefit to not only the security of their premises but also to the economics and performance of running their business.
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