Frost & Sullivan’s new report, ‘Analysis of the Worldwide Physical Security Information Management Market’, finds that the world market for PSIM software generated revenues of US$80 million in 2009, and estimates this figure to reach $544 million in 2015, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 37.6%.
“While PSIM is seeing a higher degree of customisation coupled with increased connectivity, many market participants believe that PSIM functionality can or should be created with off-the-shelf software and not by customisation options,” said Frost & Sullivan research manager Matia Grossi.
“It’s anticipated that, while the standardisation process gains momentum, the need to provide customised solutions will remain dominant in the market.”
Declining costs and greater sophistication
Software development and processor power have certainly accelerated the adoption of PSIM. Today, the majority of deployments are made at maritime facilities and airports, along with critical infrastructure, homeland security and law enforcement applications.
According to the report, declining costs and greater sophistication are boosting the adoption of PSIM.
The advanced use of wizards and plug-and-play technology makes PSIM solutions viable for large and medium-sized organisations. As a result, PSIM has extended its boundaries from being limited to critical infrastructure protection and homeland security to the larger corporate market.
The migration of physical security technologies from analogue to IP is enabling easier communication, further fuelling the increased usage of PSIM.
At the same time, the increasing recognition of its benefits among both security-critical sectors and non security-critical ones is also boosting the prospects of PSIM.
Prices falling, greater accessibility
Grossi said: “Heightened competition is leading to a fall in price. Inevitably, more competitors means that this technology is becoming more accessible to a wider range of customers.
“CNL, VidSys, Proximex and NICE, with the acquisition of Orsus, are the clear leaders at the moment, and have a real stronghold in the market. These companies are driving PSIM adoption and acceptance.”
Ensuring interoperability across different vendors’ devices/systems remains a challenge for the market.
“The physical security market as a whole lacks common open standards,” said Grossi. “Thus, virtually any deployment requires the development of new drivers to integrate various systems.
“However, the first steps towards increasing standardisation are currently being made in the market by organisations such as ONVIF and PSIA.”
Further challenge to be addressed
“The capability to intelligently analyse and cross reference incoming data represents yet another challenge,” explained Grossi. “Even today, with some exceptions PSIM systems still process individual alarms.”
Despite such challenges, the report concludes that the outlook for the market is optimistic.
As traditional command centre solution providers have started accepting PSIM and end users are starting to demand it, so PSIM is emerging as a rapidly growing technology category promising increased year-on-year revenues.
