Kohala Coast, Hawaii
As part of theCentral Station Alarm Association (CSAA) annual meeting educational agenda, Hank Goldberg created an annual survey of alarm industry technology use and plans. As the security industry matures, it is increasingly necessary to adopt new technologies. The survey results were in line with expectations. It will be interesting to see how expenditures are changing in the years to come.
Over 240 responses (90 completed) with 12 outside North America. Approximately 30 large regional/national providers were included in the results. The majority of the industry is still comprised of independent alarm providers.
Alarm Company Annual Revenue
84% of respondents have under $10 million in revenue.
Central Station Employees
73% of companies have less than 20 central station employees.
Central Station Technologies Used 2007
The central station is still dominated by digital dialers. What was very interesting is the number of alarm companies that use other technologies. The question asked did not relate to revenue and was not meant to total 100%. Communications over wireless and IP are very common (over 60% of companies use some). Even more common is the use of IP communications for both video and access control.
Percentage of companies using
Annual Spending in IT
The key finding of the survey was the lack of spending related to technology. We asked about IT (information technology) and found the majority of companies spent less than $50,000 annually. While still very low, we were encouraged by plans to increase spending to over $85,000 (average) by 2010.
During the past 3 years annual spending on IT was under $50,000 for more than half of all alarm companies.
IT Expenditure Current and Future
Central station technology spending is growing over 100% in 5 years from an average of $82k in 2005 to $169k in 2010.
