India Needs Protection

From the Mumbai terrorist attacks to the recent Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the need for the security and surveillance has increased manifold. The security market currently stands at $550 in India and communication and surveillance cameras contributes more than 50 percent of it. IP surveillance is growing at more than 35 percent CAGR every year. According to a report by the International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC), the Indian physical security market is likely to grow to $3.5 billion, which is expected to grow up to 30 percent YoY. The trends suggest a rosy picture for the vendors as well as system integrators. Canon, Axis Communications, Bosh, Schneider Electric, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Honeywell, Zicom, Johnson Controls, Smart Guard Systems, HCL Security, Diebold Systems, Matrix, Cobham, UTC Fire & Security, Chubb Alba and Digitals India are some of the among the major vendors who operate in India. Besides police and traffic, enterprise and SMBs are also adopters of the security and surveillance equipment and solution.

Trends
India is witnessing a high growth in segments such as banking, retail, infrastructure and transportation, where the physical security and surveillance is a key area of concern. One of the major players in the field of IP-based surveillance systems, Axis Communications, has claimed to be offering the latest in the IP-based surveillance cameras and thermal network cameras, which help in the surveillance of an area or a perimeter in complete darkness by generating images based on the heat that always radiates from any object, vehicle or person. “Traditionally, thermal cameras are used for force protection, border surveillance and coastal surveillance. However, our cameras Axis Q1910 and Axis Q1910-E, thermal network cameras are targeted at the commercial and industrial segments. They are excellent for monitoring hotel premises, freeways and railways. Thermal cameras can handle difficult weather and atmospheric conditions,” said Prakash Prabhu, Country Manager, Axis India.
The government has ambitious plans of investing up to $3 trillion in the next five years on internal security and other physical infrastructure. “The government would like to develop a 'safe city' model across the country. A typical safe city system employs an integrated security management system which enables prediction of a threat or a breach of security, and a plan to react and resolve any potential security risk around the clock. It has expressed its interest by inviting private sectors to augment the security of its Infrastructure, Maritime, Civil Aviation, Power Petrochemical Oil and Gas (PPOG) and other verticals,” said Anand Stanley, MD, UTC Fire & Security.
On a larger context, trends suggest that BFSI, retail and hospitality sectors are the major adopters followed by the government. The red tape and cumbersome processes are some of the factors, affecting the deployment in the government sector. “Hospitality sector has its own business issues like the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. The advantages offered by IP surveillance are plenty like remote monitoring, scalability, flexibility and standardization. The quality of images offered is better in the IP. Retail has its issues of loss prevention as Indian retail has one of the highest percentages of theft and losses. The infrastructure sector comes with its own complexities and multiple sites. This can be managed from remote and central locations, which also integrates with the larger aspects of the city surveillance and homeland security. Smart Guard is addressing verticals like infrastructure, hospitality and retail,” said Gurudas Parwani, CEO, Smart Guard Systems.
Pramoud Rao, MD, Zicom Electronic Security Systems said that the awareness for the need of electronic security is on the rise. “In the past our concerns were more limited to threats in public areas while personal threats at homes, business and office areas were not of major concerns. Today, the need for electronic surveillance is not only limited to deter petty thefts and burglaries, but to maintain office decorum and discipline, improve productivity and as evidences in issues like harassment etc. All these factors are shaping up the trends in security and surveillance in India,” said Rao. According to Rao, Zicom's holistic product offerings that include security solutions and CMS services, make them unique in India.

Challenges
Despite of carrying varied advantages, physical security still seems to be a battling barrier with the channel community. Parwani said that their major challenge is to educate the customers and channels about the technology and benefits. “Another challenge is the lack of ecosystem for electronics manufacturing for which we would look at all the players and industry to come together and work on it,” added Parwani. From home users to jewelery stores, banks and corporates, the challenges vary by customer segments and product categories. “Zicom has one of the largest coverage and direct presence in the country with service and installation engineers covering over 40 cities and towns in India. Competition for us is fragmented depending on customer segments,” said Rao. As customers require multi-location approach, but the pain points include the absence or the minimal presence of security integrators beyond metros and around 20 large cities throughout the country.
In India there is still a low per capita spend on fire and security. “Adoption and rigorous enforcement of global standards that require mandatory certification through third-party agencies such as UL and FM is still in its nascent stage and needs to be bench marked with global standards for effective roll out.
This puts pressure on the project execution. In large projects we also experience coordination issue with third party service providers where tasks are inter-related. All tier-1 system integrators are our partners,” said Stanley. There is also a lack of regulations and enforcement of standards and codes compliance with respect to fire safety and electronic security and surveillance. “These regulatory challenges need to be addressed immediately in order to provide for comprehensive security and fire safety systems for protecting India's people, property, and critical infrastructure,” he added.
”The major pain point is absence of standard protocol and plug and play products which mean that to provide a solution there are multiple technologies and vendors; some of them having their proprietary equipment and most of integrators find difficult to have skilled manpower for all the systems and technologies,” said Sudheer Puthhiran K, President-Field Services, inTarvo Technologies, which offers service repairs to the electronic security equipment vendors. Services industry in electronic security has typical challenges as are in all high-technology electronic industries. “Buyer of security products or services require help in installation, integration, commissioning and training services which may also require a technical call center in case some issues come up which require the manufacturers' help,” said Puthhiran.

Service Support
The Electronic Security industry requires a quick response time and requires IP integration services. The 24x7 support is the key to all security-related deployment and installation. inTarvo is pioneering the third-party service provider field in electronic security and helping OEMs and channel partners in serving their customer base better by maintaining critical electronic security infrastructure in time. It maintains partnerships with around 15 vendors in this space. “inTarvo is today spread across the country with more than 400 service centers in over 200 locations. We have support from most of the leading security manufacturers and thus can support customers for OEMs as well as their channel partners,” commented Puthhiran.

MUNTAZIR ABBAS
(muntazira@cybermedia.co.in)