Blog Archives
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March hoop tournament brings madness to IT administrators
By Steve Lasky - Wednesday March 20, 2013
As the NCAA collegiate basketball tournament tips off this week, March Madness is not just reserved for the court. Because if you are one of thousands of IT network managers across the United States, March means more stress on your corporate network than a last second three-pointer for a game-winner. Network administrators can expect, on average, a 30 percent increase in network traffic as employees download streaming video on their desktops, laptops, iPads, smartphone and any other BYOD they have stowed in their sports bag. The challenge for haggard IT folks is to understand the impact March Madness traffic will have on their networks and proactively address potential issues before they face significant events. Being able to monitor... -
Getting creative in finding new customers
By Rob Phillips - Friday March 15, 2013A successful security company starts with a sustainable business model. The right budget, overhead, staff size and operations and sales strategy (door-to-door vs. telemarketing) give your business a chance to keep flowing and growing. If you’re a new company, door-knocking is the most cost-effective way to market yourself and create buzz in your target areas. Both new and established companies can consider these creative ways to find new business: Get involved in your community. Volunteer for charity events on behalf of your company, such as food banks, donations and marathons. Small business clubs often leverage relationships for referrals. Consider joining your local chamber of commerce to gain access to community activities and... -
Giving integrators the recognition they deserve
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Friday March 15, 2013
As we ready for ISC West 2013 in Las Vegas, I wanted to give a heads up on the 2 nd annual SD&I Fast50—America’s Fastest Growing Systems Integrators. I want to laud all the companies who entered our best practices and ranking program—and thank everyone for a job well done! It isn’t easy being a systems integrator today. For years, technology seemed to stand still and then poof—everything seemed to shift in the blink of an eye, although that’s mostly perception. However, the last several years have seen widespread changes in connectivity and electronics—and it has been difficult for alarm dealers and installers to make these changes, but that’s just what they have done. This year, we had close to 70 companies enter the... -
Filling the gaps in security information management
By Joel Griffin - Friday March 8, 2013
There has been a debate within the industry for some time now over what exactly constitutes a true security information management solution. Everyday, security personnel at organizations both big and small are bombarded with data from the security devices they use, be it alerts from video analytic software monitoring surveillance feeds or alarms triggered by intrusion detection sensors. While having more data to work with can be a good thing, the challenge comes in being able to aggregate all of this information into actionable intelligence. In a panel discussion entitled “Security Information Management Platform: The Death of the Closed System,” at this week’s ASG Security Summit/The Great Conversation event in Seattle, industry... -
The essentials of a dealer program
By Rob Phillips - Friday March 1, 2013The general benefits of a dealer program are well-documented: Capital needs, program support, and competitive purchase prices that help dealers secure immediate cash flow and keep their business growing. Whether you’re an independent security company or an authorized dealer, there are deeper factors you should consider about your current or prospective program. Do they offer the right training? A good dealer program should provide comprehensive training that covers foundation-business operations, creation costs, sales, marketing, funding, installation, and field service policies. Dealers should have no questions about what a customer or the program itself expects with regard to service. Monitronics’ dealer program, for... -
Preventing retail hacks with some commonsense
By Steve Lasky - Thursday February 28, 2013
It was truly the stuff of a bad Hollywood crime movie. Eastern European criminals hack into an unsuspecting high-profile business stealing valuable information and creating havoc for their victim. But in the end, a sloppy trail of unsophisticated maneuvers leads to the thieves’ downfall and provides a costly life lesson for the corporate patsy. When four Romanian hackers compromised the credit card data of more than 80,000 U.S. customers and used the data to make millions of dollars in unauthorized purchases, they were certainly looking for a better deal than a Subway $5 foot-long sandwich. Their successful caper saw them hack the credit card information of 150 Subway restaurants, along with another 50 unnamed retailers. And according... -
Security—change is in the air!
By Deborah L. O'Mara - Thursday February 28, 2013
The 2013 Leadership Summit in Orlando was a stunning example of how the industry is changing. The discussions centered on interactive services, automation, energy management and customer experiences. And this sentiment of embracing change is definitely shared across channel lines as I met with alarm dealers, systems integrators, central station companies and third-party monitoring firms as well as manufacturers and distributors at the show. One of the highlights for me was the Diamond Celebration—hosted by Interlogix—as we trekked to Universal Studios to award those true worker bees in our industry who go above and beyond their day-to-day jobs to give back, or pay forward! Presentation of Weinstock Award In a bit of a surprise... -
How industrial, commercial organizations can benefit by cuts in military spending
By Darnell Washington, CISSP - Tuesday February 26, 2013In my nature of not being a gloom and doom person and always looking for an optimistic side of any problem, I have been closely evaluating the current preparations for significant layoffs, especially within the defense and government sectors which could be as high as 20 percent, according to recent published reports. This magnitude of cuts in government spending doesn’t mean that innovation, productivity, and research and development should be lost, but rather refocused into commercial and industrial efforts. Most large defense organizations that develop significant military and warfare capabilities should redouble their efforts toward health, energy, cybersecurity, and infrastructure management efforts that can be applied towards... -
Outlining business trends among integrators
By Steve Lasky - Friday February 22, 2013
There were a few major themes that permeated throughout the annual Electronic Security Association (ESA) Leadership Summit this week in Orlando — one was that video is still a driving technology force in the marketplace for security dealers and integrators; another was that the migration to IP-centric solutions is quickly changing the landscape of both the services and monitoring sides of the security business; the third was that the big are just getting bigger. These facts were highlighted when ESA director and CEO Merlin Guilbeau presented the findings of the 2013 Megatrends Research Report during a luncheon at the Rosen Centre Hotel. The online survey was sent out to the ESX industry database — from the 22,000 professionals... -
The economics of security
By Joel Griffin - Friday February 15, 2013
Over the last five years, the American economy has been on a roller coaster ride – from the bust in the housing market that has slowly started to recover to the stalemate over the debt ceiling and Congress driving the country right to the edge of the fiscal cliff. However, temporary bargains among Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have only served to kick the proverbial can down the road. If lawmakers can’t come to an agreement by March 1, an automatic round of across the board spending cuts known as sequestration will take effect, with the Defense Department being the most heavily impacted. "In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion...
