Happy New Year and welcome to 2023! In today’s post we’ll look at trends and predictions in the physical security industry for 2023 and beyond. It’s an exciting time in the industry, with new technologies entering the market and others maturing from early adopter/potential status to mainstream. We’ll identify what we’re expecting in terms of trends and developments for the year ahead and then discuss five ways system integrators and physical security leaders can adapt to these changes and trends, fueling and optimizing growth along the way.
The Physical Security Market is Growing, Despite Recessionary Pressures
There are numerous global recessionary pressures, many of which may continue into 2023. Even still, the physical security sector is enjoying growth, with some firms enjoying record revenue in 2022.
The maxim seems to be holding true: the physical security industry is stable, even during economic downturns. It’s an important, even unavoidable investment.
What kind of growth is the industry seeing? By one measure, it will be a USD 153 billion industry in 2023, and by 2030 that figure will grow to USD 192.29 billion. That’s on top of sustained growth over the last decade or so: the industry was worth USD 78 billion in 2016. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent from 2017 to 2023.
Cameras for Video Surveillance and Access Control a Growth Driver
Where is this growth coming from? Video surveillance cameras and cloud based surveillance are one significant growth driver. Newer cameras offer expanded capabilities (some even using artificial intelligence to inform operations), often at higher price points. Additionally, the market is simply installing more of them.
Access control systems have also seen an uptick. The increase in remote and hybrid work has expanded organizations’ access control needs beyond simpler and inflexible systems. With more people coming and going at less regular intervals, new access control measures are needed to safely provide and limit access.
In these and other cases, technology is evolving rapidly along with the desire of organization to both standardize on key technologies as well as leverage integrations and best of breed. We’ll see more of this in 2023.
2023 Physical Security Trends
We’ve identified five physical security trends that are set to have an outsized impact in 2023:
- Ongoing global supply chain challenges
- Accelerated adoption of AI and machine learning
- Growth in mobile-first access control
- Integration of Proptech and security system design
- Increased physical security threats and corporate risk
Read further insights on each of these trends below.
1. Ongoing global supply chain challenges
While the supply chain slowdowns have lessened compared to the crises we saw early in the pandemic, these issues have not completely resolved. Lockdowns, shutdowns, bottlenecks, choke points, and labor shortages all continue to affect the ability of manufacturers to source components. Trickling down from there, distributors, vendors, and system integrators all continue to face their own related issues.
2. Accelerated adoption of AI, machine learning & cloud based everything
2023 will see a continued acceleration in the adoption of AI and machine learning, embedded within smart building technology both in new builds and commercial retrofits. More and more devices and systems are using these technologies in earnest, and we predict an explosion both in capabilities and implementation. This combined with continual movement of storage in the cloud for a wide variety of applications requires architecture and technology upgrades.
3. Growth in mobile-first access control
The shift toward hybrid and flexible work seems here to stay. With it, many organizations are reassessing their access control policies and the hardware that enables those policies. Mobile-first access control — where a system user’s smartphone is the primary tool for gaining access to controlled spaces — is rapidly gaining ground, no longer relegated to low-risk scenarios such as hotel room keys.
4. Integration of Proptech and security system design
Proptech includes smart building technology, next-gen security system design, and the interconnected tools and systems that power and interface with those technologies. In 2023, expect deeper integrations between previously siloed technologies and systems, allowing for a better tenant experience and increased energy efficiency. These deeper connections will further help connect the dots between current physical security measures and new Proptech solutions.
5. Increased physical security threats and corporate risk
Last, 2023 looks to bring an unfortunate continued increase in physical security threats and an associated increase in corporate risk.
ASIS reports an increase in both the number of threats and the severity of those threats, pointing to research in the Ontic 2022 State of Protective Intelligence Report. Nearly 90 percent of industry professionals surveyed agreed that their business saw a dramatic increase in physical security threats over 2021 and continuing into 2022.
Many are concerned as well with an inability to detect and manage increased threats or to stay compliant as they do so.
This increase in threats and corporate risk is not good news, but we see one silver lining: newer, more powerful physical security products and systems — such as those that interface with smart building tech or rely on AI/ML to improve detection — are a viable way to mitigate or at least attenuate these threats.
5 Ways SIs and Physical Security Leaders Can Optimize Growth
As professionals in the physical security industry, SIs and corporate/campus physical security leaders have unique opportunities heading into 2023 to capitalize on industry trends and optimize growth. Here are five strategies for doing so.
- Leverage data-driven, visual plans for better decision-making (help the business or organization see how an investment can help)
- Optimize the productivity of the team you have
- Streamline and integrate with vendors using collaborative tools
- Reduce the impact of supply chain issues through more accurate planning
- Gain the ability to procure an accurate design and bill of materials for any project
Let’s look briefly at each of these strategies.
1. Leverage data-driven, visual plans for better decision-making.
With a digital collaborative design tool in place, you can drive better decision-making and host more informed conversations with stakeholders throughout client organizations, vendors, and integrators. A physical security system design tool such as System Surveyor gives you a data-driven, visually rich collaborative space, taking the vague and theoretical and turning it into something all stakeholders can see and understand the value of investments and the future needs
2. Optimize the productivity of the team you have.
Second, by using new and emerging collaboration technologies strategically, system integrators and physical security leaders can optimize the productivity of their existing teams. It’s truly a matter of working smarter rather than harder (or more), or of doing more with less. From the site survey to security system design to a digital as-built, every resource on your team can do more, and do it more accurately thanks to more precise collaborative cloud-based solutions.
3. Streamline and integrate with vendors using collaborative tools.
Not only do collaborative tools enable better decision-making and smarter, more efficient work, but they also enable closer collaboration and integration with manufacturers and vendors than has ever been possible until now.
One of the challenges with brand new technology is that the labor force may not know how to leverage, design, or implement them properly. Take an AI camera, where does it need to be mounted, what is the distance, what is the resolution, etc. – there is a need to bring easy, intelligent design tools to as many new and experienced people involved in the process as possible.
Securely inviting vendors (or vice versa) into your collaborative design platform enables a greater degree of accuracy: vendors can include rich device data (including angles of security camera coverage, physical and hardware requirements for commercial access control system components, and so on), improving the accuracy and precision of the drag and drop system designer, and vendors can speak directly to what newer or less familiar security hardware might better meet a specific need.
4. Reduce the impact of supply chain issues through more accurate planning.
Supply chain issues seem to be the new normal, but security professionals can mitigate these challenges through intelligent, accurate planning. With a better option for site survey software, security solutions providers and physical security leaders can get product lists and requirements right the first time into procurement. One incorrect mount can delay a project by weeks or months.
No more piecing together photos and handwritten notes for a site survey or relying on unconnected bill of materials software. System Surveyor is vendor agnostic, allowing any vendor to input product requirements and accessories into the database, increasing the precision of your planning and eliminating costly (and time-consuming) reorders and retrofits.
5. Gain the ability to procure an accurate design and bill of materials for any project.
Last, security professionals can respond to the trends and challenges of 2023 by procuring accurate designs and bills of materials automatically, directly from within their collaborative site survey tool. How? Through better data and better collaborative tools, which directly influence the accuracy of your designs and bills of materials.
Customers are demanding faster, more accurate results — results you can achieve with a better software tool for integrated security systems design.
Try a Free Demo of Our Collaborative Digital Design Platform
As the physical security industry continues to evolve, so must the tools you use to work within the industry. System Surveyor is a powerful modern site survey tool and security system design platform that enables security professionals like you to respond to the challenges, innovate, and grow.
Ready to see more? Try a free demo of System Surveyor, the collaborative digital security system design platform built for the future of the industry.
