The type of client seeking security today can run the gamut from schools, hospitals and financial services to gas stations, real estate, manufacturing, warehouses and a ton of other small businesses. The CCTV and database combination is proving to cut losses and is making huge inroads into retail. Integrated point of sale and CCTV systems combat fraud on many levels.
Being able to monitor several sites from a central point is also proving to be a cost-effective solution for a variety of applications. Your clients are becoming sophisticated in their request for live video. They have to be, in order to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminals. The term "vertical marketing" is becoming part of the dealer vernacular.
Not only are premises requiring security, guarding information is increasingly becoming a concern. U.S. companies lost up to $59 billion in proprietary information and intellectual property, according to survey results just released by ASIS International, through its Council on Safeguarding Proprietary Information and aided by the sponsorship of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the ASIS Foundation.
The 10th Trends in Proprietary Information Loss Survey was conducted among CEOs of Fortune 1,000 companies and of 600 small and mid-sized companies that belong to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The report found that responding firms experienced proprietary information and intellectual property losses between $53 billion and $59 billion from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001.
"The theft of intellectual property is where companies are incurring the most losses to date," comments Jay Ehrenreich, senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers' Cybercrime Prevention and Response group. The most common areas of infiltration were R&D (49%), customer lists and related data (36%) and financial data (27%); however, the number of reported incidents, in order of magnitude, were customer data, strategic plans, financial data and R&D.
Biometric systems are already widely used in public security
venues but keeping the private sector private is yet another new business opportunity
for dealers. Indications are that small firms want all the gear, too. Private
sector adoption of biometrics should outpace public sector use by 2005, according
to a new report from ARC Advisory Group, a business-strategy consulting firm.
Growing concerns about terrorism and identity theft are increasing demand for
biometric security, among small businesses, the new report says.
Both the public and private sectors are realizing that biometric technologies
offer significant potential to improve business productivity, physical and logistical
security, personal privacy and customer satisfaction, comments John Blanchard
and David Clayton, ARC Advisory Group analysts and authors of the report. Currently
5% of small businesses are using biometrics for security, according to the report.
Yet, some 25% of small firms are expected to rely on biometric systems within
five years, it says.
Another issue evident in these areas now opening up to dealers is that customers want the latest technology. These type of customers already know something and they are funny. They want to skip the stepping-stone technology. It's become like, "Give me a Web connection and a big, fast, clear picture-now."
