Following an eventful ISC West, global security manufacturer, Gallagher Security, is weighing in on some of the key themes and takeaways that emerged out of the flurry of activity on the showroom floor, chief among them the awareness that the security industry is evolving beyond traditional boundaries and becoming a mainstream technology integral to all sectors.
“ISC West 2024 had a record number of attendees, and I don’t think it's a coincidence that trade show growth is happening alongside innovative development within our industry,” says Scott Elliott, Executive Vice President – the Americas. “As we expand our solutions into new territory, we’re attracting new industries, tech partners, and curious-minded individuals to join us at the table.”
Industry innovation and expansion
At the Gallagher Security booth, the conversation about industry innovation and expansion was focused on the changing mindset of consumers and the role integrated systems play in facilitating those evolving needs.
The talk about industry creation and growth was focused on the changing mood
“When you talk to someone about their organisation and its mission, they never go ‘we’re just like everyone else’ - it’s always 'here’s how we’re different’ and there’s genuine pride behind those differences,” says Luis Colon, Director of Sales - US East and Latin America, who spent the bulk of ISC West chatting with the many new faces in attendance. “That’s why I love our system. We give our customers a solid foundation so they don’t have to worry about the basics, like controllers and readers, or the overly complex, like cybersecurity, because we take care of it for them, and we do it through a single pane of glass. With those in place, they’re free to go off and build out the exact solution their business needs, or to get creative and take their systems in entirely new places,” he says. “That’s real value, and if I had to summarise the theme of what I saw at ISC West this year, that’s the word I’d use.”
Business intelligence systems
Melissa Vidakovic, Director of Marketing – the Americas, takes it one step further and says her key takeaway from ISC West was that customers are eager for what lies ahead. “There’s always a buzz around ISC West, but this year there was a palpable difference in what lit people up. You could feel the excitement in the air as we talked about the direction our solutions are heading in,” she says. “People were dreaming up the possibilities of what they could achieve through our roadmap - it felt like we struck a nerve.”
People are catching on to the fact that integrated systems deliver more than just security
According to Scott Elliott, that’s because people are catching on to the fact that integrated systems deliver more than just security. “There’s a lot of business intelligence systems like ours can deliver,” he explains. “Industries like transportation, education, or manufacturing don’t typically extract the type of data we can deliver, and I think that’s why our industry is starting to garner more attention than we’ve traditionally seen, and why ISC West attendance is growing,” he says.
Brink of significant expansion
Luis Colon wraps Gallagher’s observations up by noting that empowering customers to create tailored solutions is the way forward for the security industry. “It's not about whether a system is open or closed, rather it's about a unified approach that creates a solid foundation to open the doors wide for new possibilities."
All in all, the Gallagher team believes that ISC West 2024 paints a picture of an industry on the brink of significant expansion. With security technologies becoming a mainstream aspect of business innovation, the focus shifts toward creating integrated, adaptable solutions that meet the varied needs of all sectors.