Growing confidence in security industry as business leaders look to 2015

The SIA Security Market Index rose to 74.6 in November 2014, up from 72.3 in September

SIA 2014/2014 Review and Forecast:

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has begun to conduct a bimonthly survey of select SIA members to measure confidence in the security industry through the SIA Security Market Index. Using a scale of 1-100, the SIA Security Market Index reflected growing confidence among security industry business leaders throughout 2014 and into 2015.

The SIA Security Market Index rose to 74.6 in November 2014, up from 72.3 in September. That continues a climb that began with an index that weighed in at only 62 in July 2014.

When asked about expected business conditions in the next three months, November respondents were optimistic. Thirty-eight percent expect much better business conditions and 42 percent expect things a little better. The most upbeat: systems integration, security video, identity, cybersecurity and access control. The more cautious: fire/life safety, consulting and officer services.

When asked what they expect over the course of the next 12 months specific to their company’s aggregate level of capital spending, November survey respondents are even more bullish than in previous 2014 surveys. In November, 64 percent expect such spending to increase.

Much of the discussion around challenges in 2014 at SIA conferences revolved around the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the security industry.

IoT promises a world of smart, connected devices that are able to monitor and communicate their own status and the status of interconnected systems to make automated decisions for human convenience and efficiency. Many of these devices will provide data streams that could be used as part of security and risk management. In the aggregate, they will also produce enough information that Big Data analytics become more important for the improvement of an organisation's overall security posture.

Many experts speaking at our 2014 Securing New Ground (SNG) conference this fall in New York City agreed the security industry will struggle with using of analytics effectively to make sense of and apply actionable intelligence to Big Data. Industry winners will make sense of collected data to empower security practitioners to mitigate or even to prevent incursions.

See the full coverage of 2014/2015 Review and Forecast articles here