The report was carried out by IMS Research and was based on a survey of system installers and integrators.
The report found that installers and integrators were most confident with network design but were less sure of other IT disciplines such as intelligent switch management and network security. “Acting on this skills shortage, integrators from the IT world have taken advantage by getting involved with physical security projects,” the report says.
Market analyst Alastair Hayfield said the customer’s IT department is becoming increasingly responsible for specifying IP-based systems. “On projects requiring IP technology, installers and integrators are seeing the security manager and IT manager as equal stakeholders in the decision to choose IP-based security products.
“For the time being security managers have the edge when the final decision is taken as to which products to purchase but this could easily change as bandwidth shortage and network congestion increases.”
The report found that, in Europe, over one third of installers and integrators now source IP-based physical security products from IT distributors and 15 per cent purchase from IT Value Added Resellers. In future, decreasing numbers expect to source their IP-based security products from traditional security distributors, IMS Research believes.
