Open dialogue promotes industry progress

Mar 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Paul Caplan

At this year's Security Industry Association's (SIA) Forum held in San Diego in February, many of the industry's top suppliers and security professionals gathered to discuss industry trends and new technologies. It is critical that those who bring technology to market interact with those who will ultimately put it to use.

Forward-thinking security professionals such as Kodak's Tom Rohr Sr. and Mike Mikulki of IBM were candid in explaining what they need and expect from suppliers, integrators and dealers. This open dialogue is essential if the industry is to provide solutions companies need to meet new challenges. It is our desire that Access Control & Security Systems Integration continue our role in assisting this communication among all the parties and to serve as a primary information conduit for the industry.

John Wells, manager of asset protection technology for Target Corporate, identified several key requirements he demands from his technology suppliers. Wells says manufacturers should:

• understand users' issues
• seek to provide “skip-a-generation” solutions
• help security professionals shift work from people to systems
• develop software, not hardware, solutions
• develop attentive environments
• enhance return on existing systems.

Do you agree or disagree with Wells' list of priorities? Let me know your thoughts by e-mailing me at pcaplan@ intertec.com

One subject that dominated the conversations at the SIA Forum was the ever-growing convergence of physical and logical security. We began charting this phenomenon over the past several years and now publish our quarterly supplemental magazine, iSecurity, which focuses on the issues and technologies that foster and exploit this integration. Not only must security professionals gain knowledge of how physical and logical security needs connect, they must also nurture internal relationships with their IS/IT counterparts.

We will be doing our part to help keep you on top in this arena.

In this month's issue, we cover a number of types of security installations. Our cover story by regular contributor Randy Southerland unveils the challenges of protecting the massive Venetian resort/casino. How many security managers need to worry about protecting canals and gondolas?

About security at a different scale, an article on Westchester Medical reveals the diverse requirements for this 1,000-bed advanced care hospital. Contributor Carol Carey's profile (page 36) reveals a system that is as “state-of-the-art” as the facility it protects.

And, speaking of “state-of-the-art” — once the general press got a hold of the story regarding facial recognition technology used at the Super Bowl, the public at large became suddenly aware of the growing influence and pervasiveness of biometric applications in security systems. Associate Editor Jeanne Bonner now gives you an in-depth and knowledgeable look at how this system was used and how the actual results matched up with expectations (cover).

Wrapping up this month's cornucopia of stories is a review of the 2001 ISC West New Product Showcase entrants (pages 51-63). This season's new product offerings are as unique as they are numerous.

We hope to see many of you in Las Vegas on April 4-6 at the ISC West Expo. If you have a moment, come by and see us at Booth 3151 and let us know how we're doing.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue