MISSION CONTROL
Access control continues to be a vital part of the security equation, often now part of a more integrated and interoperable approach to protecting a business. Three of the senior management team of Siemens’ access control product line – Nicolas Richter , head of security products, Carsten Traupe , head of product management and John Thacker, head of research and development – offer their thoughts on the current market and where the technologies are heading
Despite the difficult current economic conditions faced worldwide, security in general and access control in particular appear to be weathering the storm relatively well. Carsten Traupe, who has been working in the security industry for 12 years, the last four of which have been with Siemens, has held a number of positions dealing with and customers, system integrators and operating through direct and indirect sales channels to ensure he has a solid understanding of the different elements that characterise the security market. He comments:
“We have seen a constantly growing market with high percentage rates, about 8-10% on average. Of course globally we see some impact from the economic downturn at the moment but we also believe that people, even in difficult times, recognise the importance of security. For sure this is a very interesting market, a demanding one but a market which is still growing.”
John Thacker, with 24 years of experience in the security industry including roles with a major RF identification company, Bewator and now Siemens, also sees positives in the current economic climate. “Having been through recessionary periods within the security industry previously, my perception is that it’s probably less affected during these downturns than other businesses. With increased unemployment and higher crime rates, people start to focus on how to protect their assets. It’s a negative effect to society as a whole but it can actually have a slight positive affect on our specific market area.”
According to Carsten Traupe, the market remains highly fragmented, and one of the main trends is a move away from this through consolidation. “We have seen companies like Siemens and also other multinational players acquiring smaller successful companies over the last ten years and with even greater frequency more recently. This will continue to increase, with the market becoming more professional and more consolidated.”
Nicolas Richter, head of security products for Siemens Building Technologies talks specifically about the Siemens acquisition of Bewator in this respect. “We saw access control as an increasingly important part of our product offering and it was a strategic decision to purchase Bewator which has certainly proved to be the right step. Over the last three years we have pushed the business integration, product portfolio migration and consolidation and are now implementing a comprehensive strategy for our access control portfolio.”
Integration and interoperability
Integration is a significant driver in the market, with end users looking not only to the benefits in terms of security but also beyond, moving away from a single discipline purchase mentality to one which sees security in holistic terms and also in relation to its integration into general business processes. Carsten Traupe says: “We see more sophisticated installers and certain customers wanting to integrate the access control system fully into their business processes. Even going as far as to say they equate access control with the means to add real value to the business. Of course, the traditional security aspect remains paramount, but at the same time everybody has to justify their costs – people are increasingly looking at innovative ways of using the information provided by their security system to save or even earn money.”
John Thacker adds: “Integration and interoperability are primary drivers. If I look back to when I started in the industry, you would not find a video surveillance and an access control system that were capable of providing real interoperability. They were all standalone security disciplines with the possibility to ‘connect’ either at a very low level (via hard wired signals) or at a very high level via expensive method (by means of ‘bespoke’ software applications) developed by the system integrators operating in the market. This desire for integration of the security disciplines is now not only confined to the high end installations as all customers now expect interoperability between the security disciplines as standard functionality provided by products ‘out of the box’.”
 Of course globally we see some impact from the economic downturn at the moment but we also believe that people, even in difficult times, recognise the importance of security. For sure this is a very interesting market, a demanding one but a market which is still growing ’ Carsten Traupe head of product management
John Thacker continues: “This is one of the core aspects of Siemens security products that we actually have in-house all three disciplines – access control, video surveillance and intrusion detection. That is one of Siemens’ strengths when compared with most of our competitors. They may be strong in maybe two disciplines but there are very few who are actually strong in all three. As such Siemens is uniquely positioned to develop interoperable products that can provide such functionality to a lower level of the market than the traditional integrators.”
 Integration and interoperability are primary drivers. If I look back to when I started in the industry, you would not find a video surveillance and an access control system that were capable of providing real interoperability. They were all standalone security disciplines John Thacker head of research and development Siemens
The IT impact
Anybody selling in today’s security marketplace cannot help but be aware of the ever increasing role of IT in the decision making process. With his R&D background, John Thacker recognises that within access control IT has always been more important than in some other areas of security, but even here its influence has increased dramatically. “Access control, by default compared with the other disciplines, has always had an application with databases and transaction logs and has used for many years the IP of the structure for communication. There are however two drivers that have really made IT demands from the market more significant. The first is an increased awareness of security within organisations generally. Now you often find that the person responsible for security in the organisation is a corporate level role and combines responsibility for both physical security (staff & assets) and also logical security (corporate information access). Even 5-10 years ago a security officer in a building was someone who sat in the control room and operated only with the responsibility of ‘physical security’, reporting either to an HR or facilities manager. The second driver is technology. Video surveillance has transferred into the digital environment, hence using the same IT infrastructure, allowing things to become more readily integrated. So the increased importance of the IT environment with respect to security applications is driven by both technology and also business evolution. A security system must now work in harmony with the IT environment deployed within an organisation. Supporting other business processes is important and IT managers/consultants now have a stronger impact in the specification process of the security disciplines.”
Nicolas Richter adds: “People’s general level of competence with IT has changed expectations. Everybody today has a PC at home and is getting used to the plug and play mentality. Therefore familiarity is key in the way systems and software interface as IT is becoming so commonplace that people just expect the interface to work in a certain way.”
Reliance on a project-specific approach to integration is also something that has changed. Perhaps 10 years ago many of the integration scenarios would have involved a software developer or a systems integrator. While some applications still do it this way today, says Traupe, you need to offer systems which are already designed for interoperability. “You install them and they already have the required interfaces built-in, so you don’t need project specific software development – you just set the right parameters and they interact. This saves money and is guaranteed to work smoothly by us as the supplier, something that we believe very strongly in at Siemens – a technology that is pre-defined, pre-implemented and fully tested to Siemens quality standards. It also makes the whole landscape of systems very modular and decouples dependencies.”
While recognising the focus at Siemens for interoperability across the company’s own products and systems, Nicolas Richter is keen to stress the importance of tackling both approaches. “We are not just talking proprietary in-house technology. Of course, it can speed up the process to be able to communicate within our business across the different product lines but we are keenly aware that we need to promote our ability to interface with other systems – the market demands it. In addition we often work with a system that is already in place. We recognise that more and more customers are aware of the total cost of ownership, from the planning phase, right through to installation, training to keep a site up to date and then the means to provide a smooth migration path for a system.”
And to the future
Wireless technology has already been adopted in certain security disciplines but so far not extensively in access control. For John Thacker this is currently the newest development from a technology point of view. “Security is generally a conservative market. Wireless in terms of detectors has been available in intrusion detection for some time and accepted but in access wireless is still one of the hot issues. Siemens has just launched a wireless technology based product which is initially deployed specifically within the Swedish market utilising the strong presence locally provided by the prior Bewator organisation but one which we will be looking to extend to a global capability. Wireless in access control will grow significantly in the coming years as the potential to reduce the installation component of the ‘total cost of ownership’ is significant and again Siemens are in a strong position to drive that.”
Biometrics is also very much a technology buzzword. John Thacker continues: “Within the access control area specifically, our perception would be that biometrics is still really a niche but an important part of the overall market and one that does offer a real increase in the level of security provided at locations that require this level of authorisation prior to access being granted. However, from a Siemens access control product line perspective, we would probably not invest significantly in development of our own technology in this area. If the technology is available within other Siemens organisations we would utilise that and deploy that within our portfolio, or we would partner with a strong global player in the technology and ‘integrate’ the support for the technology within our access systems – something which we do as a business generally when we recognise companies that have a particular expertise in specific areas aligned to access control.”
Carsten Traupe picks up on the biometrics theme, saying: “Market studies show that 70% of all biometric revenue goes into governmental-related areas like criminal prosecution and prevention or borderline protection. The really sophisticated biometric technologies like iris scan and palm vein scanning we might need to integrate into an access control system to secure perhaps just one of a hundred doors. Support for biometric technologies is important to us because we see this as an enabler but in revenue terms it remains a niche technology.”
 We are not just talking proprietary in-house technology. Of course, it can speed up the process to be able to communicate within our business across the different product lines but we are keenly aware that we need to promote our ability to interface with other systems' Nicolas Richter head of security products Siemens
Smart cards are another highprofile technology within the security industry. Carsten Traupe recognises their importance and their adoption in a wide range of applications but stresses the importance of the data they contain remaining secure – “Being an employee I would want to only use one card through which I use access control, time and attendance, participate in cashless vending, etc –certainly it’s very convenient to operate all these applications with one card which also decreases costs for the operator. But it is mandatory that the data stored on this card then is guaranteed to be secured and protected against unauthorised use or from being manipulated. We at Siemens therefore investigate the latest secure card and reader technologies in order to offer secure pplications end to end and to overcome any weaknesses in smart card security.”
In conclusion, Nicolas Richter sees the importance of thinking beyond the conventional confines and applications of access control as vital to future development, not only in terms of technology but also in potential market applications. “A major driver is really the business processes at the end customers’ site. We are therefore continuously listening to and collecting the requirements from our customers. We offer a high level of flexibility within our systems providing the ability to address the customer requirements. As we see some of these requirements moving from specific requests to general trends in the market, these features will migrate to become standard within our offering.” 
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