Integrators' new role

Did you see the new report out from IMS called "The Changing Role of the Security Systems Integrator"? Here's the link to the abstract.

At the root of the role change, IMS's Paul Bremner said, is the move to have all systems on the network. Yup. It's meant more IT integrators entering the market, skinnier margins for security integrators, and the absolute necessity for integrators to be comfortable dealing with networks.

IMS says that integrators who adapt to the new reality will reap the rewards of a market that they say will grow [worldwide] at an average of 10 percent to 2016.
This is something we've been writing about for the seven years I've been here: Integrators need to have network knowledge in-house, and they need to adapt their business models to a more service-based model .

To make up for the shrinking margins, IMS says that "design and consultancy services are likely to become a larger part of the typical integrators revenues. Such services include risk analysis, vulnerability assessment and cient security policy analysis."

Yet, according to several integrators I've spoken to recently, these are services that many integrators have either not charged for or have not charged enough for in the past. Here's a story about Koorsen Security where Skip Sampson talks about this issue. Stay tuned for a story this week about VTI Security where Thomas Asp president and CEO of VTI talks about the same issues.

Might be time to assess whether or not your company is charging enough [or at all!] for these valuable services.