As an industry we have traditionally built security systems in a way that was generally from a single or limited number of manufacturers. These systems were designed for a single purpose and generally stand-alone from other systems. However, today the pace of security technology innovation is moving much faster and ushering in new requirements for security departments to meet. These innovations within access control, surveillance systems and enterprise information technologies are enabling interoperability and data sharing capable of transforming a system into a platform. These platforms are made up of products that are cross-functional, multi-purpose compared to the past when systems were single purpose with limited functionally.
Pick the right platform and you can earn the organizations trust and build strong partnerships with your vendors; pick the wrong platform and reputations on all sides are tarnished, and productivity and service erode. With the many options available in the physical security industry, how can you differentiate between, and ultimately make a decision upon, which manufacturer, platform or system is the correct one? Some of the key factors that need to be considered are: