Security chain evolution: Communication, customization & challenges in between

YARMOUTH, Maine — The relationship between security integrators, manufacturers and end users is increasingly one of enhanced communication and customization, as well as technical challenges, a panel of experts said during a recent industry webcast.  

Neal Mohammed, VP and head of technology at Rudin, one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in New York City, said enhanced communication has resulted in more customized solutions. 

“For us, it’s become a lot more involved,” said Neal Mohammed, VP and head of technology at Rudin, one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in New York City. “I’ve been with the company for 27 years and I’ve seen that evolution. We’re now involved in the initial planning stage providing direct feedback to the manufacturers and the integrator, and this has led to a lot more customizable solution. Comparatively to the past, where it was strictly the integrator, we’d never had that kind of communication or interaction with the manufacturer, so it’s definitely been a huge change in involvement in terms of how we get a customized solution within our space.” 

Hosted by Security System News and Editor Cory Harris, “The Security Chain: From Innovation to Implementation” featured Mohammed, as well as Jim Cooper, director of technology and cybersecurity at Pavion, and Darren Giacomini, enterprise solutions strategist for Paragon Micro. 

Late to the party 

But sometimes enhanced communication, particularly between end users and manufacturers, can leave integrators playing the role of reality checks, Cooper said. 

“Sometimes that (communication) involves the integrator, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. “We’ve had projects where we’re a little late to the party. The manufacturer and end user are already talking, and they’ve got a skeleton or some kind of outline done. Now we come to the table and it’s time to quote it, deploy the solution, put all the widgets together, and take this grandiose idea and actually make it into something deployable and operational. Now we’re trying to unwind some of the expectations that may have been set or miscommunications.” 

Giacomini agreed. 

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen that the manufacturers love to adopt that KISS principle (keep it simple stupid), and I see it all the time,” said Giacomini. “It’s more about perfect world products developed versus real world implementation and they don’t always match.” 

‘Knowledge gap’ 

When it comes to innovation in the security chain, Giacomini said emerging technologies can create hurdles. 

“I’ve worked for a few manufacturers, fairly large ones, and you’ll see that they’re sometimes slow to adopt these emerging technologies,” he said. “Not because product doesn’t support it and allow it to scale to infinite proportions, or get better performance, it’s more about the knowledge gap of the support staff. I don’t think manufacturers today have caught up with the technology gap as far as supporting those technologies, and so we see there’s a lot of hurdles when those complex installations occur.”