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Security flourishes in economic recession

Ironically, a depressed market is often the impetus for an upturn in the security market, driving sales higher as consumers and businesses desperately try to keep their assets and lives intact. Local manufacturers are gearing products towards providing users with higher confidence levels in terms of their safety and wellbeing.

Andrew Stead, RDC.

Andrew Stead of RDC says that product differentiation in terms of added benefits, features and service will define local manufacturers in the coming year. Alarm systems will become more sophisticated and instead of just providing an intruder alert, they will provide increasing levels of communication of details through an analytics process. He adds that the new products will connect serially with both the end user and the control room to provide information gathered from the alarm panel.

In addition to consistently rolling out new electronic security products to meet market demand, RDC is focusing on long-range communications as a key growth area and will also be entering the access control domain. Production will remain on South African soil, with all elements manufactured in-house.

Barry East, Impro.

Barry East of Impro says that as customers become more technology aware, so the nature of solutions has changed. There is better user engagement with the adoption of mobile technology and turnkey, integrated systems are now the norm. The company continues to rapidly expand its product base and has instituted a client services division to handle its new Portal range, which is app-rich and mobile friendly as a result of its HTML technology. As visitor management and contractor management consistently demand attention, the company is driving more product development in this space.

Local manufacturing remains the choice

The majority of the company’s manufacturing is undertaken in South Africa and a decision was made some time ago to withdraw the bulk of its offshore manufacturing in order to retain quality control. He points out though that where the company has a strong overseas footprint, such as in North America, it makes sense to retain a manufacturing facility close to its client base.

Charl Mijnhardt, Centurion Systems.

Charl Mijnhardt of Centurion Systems points out that in the future, reliability and intelligence will be key factors, together with diagnostics and logging of data. In the past there was little interaction, but new user interface designs allow for a more symbiotic relationship between the security system and the user, providing greater detail in a more simplistic and user friendly manner. Wireless technology will continue to grow in both sophistication and acceptance.

He says that Centurion has a credo of driving disruptive innovation, with connectivity as its current central theme. Wireless connectivity will remain a core focus of the company’s design philosophy and simplicity will be an underlining factor for ease of connectivity. While the company will continue to grow its access automation products, a wireless product is currently being developed for release in the next 18 months. In addition, two swing gate motors for domestic and light industrial use are due for release in the first half of 2015.

While Centurion does manufacture some of its products offshore, the key products are manufactured in South Africa. The Centurion access automation products have been designed and manufactured to cope with the very arduous conditions in South Africa and therefore find ready acceptance throughout Africa and in the international market due to their robustness and reliability. This has led to an expansion of the client base cross border and the company will continue to push its products into the African market.

Looking to Africa

Stead says RDC’s products are similarly popular in the African market where the common belief is that if something works in South Africa then it will work in any comparably demanding environment. The company has also gained a foothold in the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius, and has recently found acceptance in the developing countries in South America where durability is required.

Investment in South Africa remains a thorny issue, with many foreign countries regarding the country as a pariah. Stead believes that strike action and manipulation of processes remain extremely negative factors alongside the ever-apparent crime levels. These are exacerbated by unilateral decisions made by government that often leave the international community shaking their collective heads. This leads to international manufacturers appointing distributors rather than becoming directly involved in South Africa.

Mijnhardt adds that it is not an easy process to enter the local market so local manufacturers should capitalise on this fact and invest in the training of employees and further job creation. He believes that while our crime situation is less than desirable, we are more than capable of developing world class products that can easily compete with international competitors.

East comments that most international manufacturers succeed through leveraging local talent and experience. He continues that PSIRA’s emphasis on 50% local ownership will likely drive many foreign investors to other pastures.

He adds that Africa is a generally underexplored region that has always been important for Impro, but will become a major focus in the coming years. The SADC region countries, primarily in the Copperbelt will afford strategic growth.

Contact RDC: www.radiodata.co.za

Impro: www.impro.net

Centurion Systems: www.centsys.co.za

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