Not so long ago, if you had said that security would be a prime concern for the education sector you would probably have been laughed out of the room.
But the last few years have seen schools and colleges take the threats to their security very seriously, with high profile attacks and incidents highlighting the potential for pupils and staff to be at risk.
This interest is backed up by forecasts from IMS Research, suggesting the education security market is likely to grow by 8% per annum between 2012 and 2014.
Naturally the security industry has moved swiftly to find secure access control solutions that not only make educational establishments safer, but also integrate with other systems, to help make the most of existing investments.
Lucrative prospect
This has made the education sector a lucrative and attractive prospect for value-add installers looking to extend their portfolio of work from more traditional markets.
As with the commercial sector, undoubtedly the education market has benefitted from the use of integrated access control systems in conjunction with other buildings’ services (such as intruder systems, fire systems and the School Information Management System – SIMS).
Also, manufacturers are now offering easy-to-install systems that have all the components to secure a door and can be linked directly to the rest of the access control network, or simply used as a stand-alone solution if more convenient.
In the past, software compatibility had proven to be a significant hurdle for true integration with some systems.
Increased integration
Fortunately, there is now a pervasive move by many vendors towards making sure various systems can talk to one another, which has been critical for increased integration and is helping schools to make the most of their investments.
As well as beefing up security, integrated access control has other useful traits for schools. Working in conjunction with the SIMS it is much easier for schools to ascertain pupil attendance and presence in certain parts of the premises at specific times.
If this is integrated with CCTV cameras for example, the school authorities have a powerful surveillance tool which simply would not have been available otherwise.
A well planned, integrated system means a systems integrator can offer its education clients a significant value-add above the basic installation.
Equally, access control installers can also offer significant savings through integration with a wider range of other school systems, such as lighting or heating.
Savings through flexibility
Each part of the school facility that is used incurs a cost for services used. Lights, heating and cooling systems, as well as general electrical usage through computers for example, all add to the bills.
Take into account extra seasonal usage (such as air conditioning in summertime or additional outside lighting in the winter months) and the benefits of intelligent systems are obvious.
There is a huge degree of flexibility. If the facilities are used outside hours (perhaps for evening classes or adult education) the default timings can be altered or tweaked to find the most economic settings.
Additionally, a burden of manual control is lifted from members of staff (that may be sparse at less popular times of the day) which further saves on resources that could be used elsewhere.
Adding value to installations
Being able to limit the usage of school resources to when they are actually needed is a huge value-add to access control installation – giving schools the ability to more finely tune their resources whilst using a combination of systems that would be used in isolation from one another anyway.
The general trend towards further integration is likely to continue to influence the way in which schools approach their security needs.
As well as internal networks, installers are likely to find that education clients will be increasingly looking to control their secure access using IP systems which incorporate video feeds as well as access control.
Other pervasive technologies, such as biometric readers (and increasingly, intelligent solutions such as facial recognition and video analytics) will take more of the strain as automated technologies come to the fore.
Superb opportunity
For the uninitiated installer, the education sector might not at first appear to be the most obvious target market.
However, the integration of access control systems gives installers a superb opportunity to provide on-going maintenance support and an ideal platform to cross-sell other useful products, such as CCTV systems and alarm systems.
With predictions for growth suggesting a clear interest in education access control, it’s a sector that could provide installers with a lucrative amount of progressive business opportunities.
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