Security Sales July 2021 - 53

serving amenities and creating shared experiences
through interactive social tools.
As if all that wasn't turbulent enough, we had
a pandemic right in the middle of our digital
transformation, which hastened all forms of
technology adoption and shifted our industry
on its axis. As an entrepreneur, NYU professor
and author Scott Galloway points out,
" COVID-19 has initiated some trends and
altered the direction of others, but its most enduring
impact will be as an accelerant. "
It's obvious that this change in e-commerce is
a bellwether for all forms of digital interaction,
including our beloved security industry. Echoing
Galloway, a 2020 study from McKinsey &
Company showed that the pandemic sped up
the adoption of digital technologies by seven
years and that many of these changes could be
here for the long haul.
The translation of this trend for integrators
is that they need to adopt security-as-a-service
quickly and entirely. We often hear that
the security industry is slow to change, can't
change, won't change, doesn't need to change
and dislikes change anyway. That's baloney.
That's the old guard talking. If you ask anyone
in the industry under 40, you won't hear that
nonsense; they're all over the new technology
and business models. Even more importantly,
so are their customers. Last year, millennials
securitysales.com
surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation
in America, according to the Pew Research
Center. The single largest cohort of your customers
are people that barely remember a world
before the Internet.
But let's dive into the specifics of the changing
technology security landscape, and we'll
circle back to that point.
Evolving Security Needs
To understand the shift toward Cloud access
control services, it's important to understand
the shifting security needs caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic. First, physical security
was more important than ever, as previously occupied
buildings now lay empty and vulnerable
to breaches. Secondly, this increased monitoring
had to be done remotely, thanks to COVID
restrictions. And lastly, but most importantly,
there were additional health-safety needs that
emerged due to the pandemic, which at its
core, was a global health crisis.
Physical security has always been viewed seriously.
Brivo's 2021 Smart Security Trends Report
showed that the pandemic made security
professionals double down on this sentiment.
In fact, 75% of respondents said that the pandemic
increased the importance of physical
security in their organization. And for good
reason. In 2020, business closures caused comMany
conference rooms,
offices, studios and boardrooms
are now managed by a
scheduling system connected
to an access control system,
controlling who can enter
which room when.
We often hear
that the security
industry is slow
to change, can't
change, won't
change, doesn't
need to change
and dislikes
change anyway.
JULY 2021 Security Sales & Integration 53
VIACHESLAV LAKOBCHUK/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales July 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Security Sales July 2021
