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Security trends for 2013

As we close the door on 2013 it is time to reflect on the huge steps taken in technology throughout our industry this past year. At the same time, when one reflects on what is to come in 2014, the possibilities seem endless.

John Powell

We predict that the larger organisations in South Africa that are employing or facilitating huge staff complements, outsourcing staff, students and visitors, are going to demand technology and service providers that are equipped to support these large applications.

The sheer volume of transactions and accumulation of data require highly skilled support staff or outsource skills and technology that is capable of managing various sets of data that can be combined into one super database. These applications require careful system design to ensure that these solutions cater for the huge volumes of data, multiple users, and effective management reporting across multiple platforms and full bi-directional integration to ERM systems, like SAP, People Soft, Sage, Active Directory and Novell. We therefore urge institutions to seek locally supported, proven technology partners that have a solid support base with qualified reference sites, before embarking on such projects.

We see many more IT departments taking an active role in the security environment within institutions, and technology is being driven to cater not only for static IP points at various locations, but we will see a steady migration to a WiFi or wireless environment. This in turn will ultimately lead us into the situation where portable devices, packed with features (LDS scanning, RFID, DLS, biometric, camera and PAC code technology), will become widespread and solutions will be available to cater for people, products, assets and management on the move. We are fortunate that we have such solutions available now and they will become a major focus for us in 2014, as we take this technology to the trade.

As the risk of carrying cash on site becomes more of a threat, cashless solutions, that are either biometric or card and pin based, are being demanded. Now that we have cashless solutions that can run effectively over an organisations network, we will start seeing more management demands from the end-user with regard to audit trails, inventory control, quality control and critical management of vending/cash machines in 2014.

In 2014, solution-oriented companies that can adapt quickly to the demands placed on them by the market place to meet bespoke solutions around proven leading technology, will continue to strive.

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