A Renewed Sense of Excitement

Oct. 19, 2009
The technology is in place and those integrators and resellers who move into the IP and IT space will find they will be able to grow their businesses, perhaps like no other time in its history.

As a cub reporter straight out of journalism school, my first gig was the editor of the employee magazine for the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. I’ll never forget my first press conference with then Illinois Governor Jim Thompson. It was an exciting affair, with press from all the major daily and weekly and other publications covering the event. Governor Thompson hit the podium to talk about funding for the state, and that was to include some dollars earmarked for the transportation infrastructure, the railroad more specifically. Of course the outcome itself was not good – there were some monies to go to transportation, but it wasn’t enough and that’s another story in and of itself. This was during the time when the railroads were going through some major changes, and the likes of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe as well as the Chesapeake and Ohio and others were buying each other up like it was fire sale or something. Well, in a sense it was. To me, it was so cool to hear the governor speak, and run to the telephone to call the president of the railroad to let him know the details. It was exciting.

Today, I have that same sense of excitement, but it’s over the security industry. We are in the position to make a difference. The technology is in place and those integrators and resellers who move into the IP and IT space and can leverage it well as a value add to their customers will find they will be able to grow their businesses, perhaps like no other time in this industry’s history. For those central stations out there, they too are in a position to take advantage of offering monitoring services, managed access, remote video and so much more -- everything the customer and end-user is now looking for. SD&I magazine has the tools to help you grow, the content you need to make positive business decisions and to elevate your company to the highest heights. Take a look at the cool cover focus story on wireless on the farm, a great emerging niche, page 54. Also check out our in-depth piece on perimeter security and critical infrastructure, starting on page 46. Our dealer profile, page 62, focuses on a very interesting video niche and installation by Data Consultants Inc. of Michigan and that’s only the beginning of what we have inside, so be sure to scope it all out.

Don’t lose sight of everything you can do in this industry. Because the excitement is only beginning to hit and you can be part of it in a big way.

Deborah O’Mara, editor

SECURITY Dealer & Integrator magazine

[email protected]

Editorial Advisory Board Members:

George P. Gunning, USA Alarm Systems Inc.

Michael Horgan, H&S Protection Systems Inc. Alan Kruglak, Genesis Security Systems LLC

Mickey Lavery, I2C Technologies

Richard A. Penney, VISCOM Systems

Adam C. Thermos LL.B., MA, Ph.D., Strategic Technology Group>