Who better to ask what product categories are selling best than the industry’s leading distributors? In the “Leaders Roundtable” this month, Security Dealer does just that, and while the dialogue will not shock you, it did have a profound effect on the magazine.
As far as the Best Performing Product Category, it is not a runaway. Good news for the industry, our roundtable distributor participants indicate that intrusion, IP video surveillance, CCTV and access control in general, and video combined with identification products, are all performing well this year.
Within these categories the distributors say that wireless, video servers, cameras and DVRs are the Best Performing Product Groups. Sales volume has significantly increased in these product groups, the respondents point out.
It is a sign of the times that system integration as a whole is entrenched in every level of security. According to James Rothstein, senior vice president, Tri-Ed, this is because technology has made it easier for smaller dealers to work as micro-integrators, whereas in the past, only the larger companies were doing these installations.
Security Dealer Technical Editor, Tim O’Leary, will argue that dealers have had to be systems integrators long before the concept was even in vogue. I can remember when the term was being used (or overused) quite a few years back and I’d be on the phone with him discussing his next article. He would go off about how he had to make a system of disparate pieces of equipment work, using his own techniques learned from years of experience in the field.
He always says, security dealers are integrators. The industry, however, did not give all dealers that much credit. It seemed that the industry wanted to make a systems integrator synonymous with those individuals who did only the highest end installs or really big jobs.
Security Dealer has always stayed true to the traditional security dealer and for the last five years or more has served the thousands of systems integrators who are receiving the magazine. Now that the lines are no longer as differentiated between the two and since our Roundtable proves dealers of all sizes are integrators, just like O’Leary has claimed, we are now embracing you both with recognition. Notice the new tag line on the cover of Security Dealer this month: Technology Solutions for Dealers & Systems Integrators. It is a new age of security.
Susan A. Brady
Editor In Chief
