Remote Guarding Alliance formed

A new trade association used the occasion of the ASIS event to announce its birth: Eight industry leading companies said that they are joining forces to create the Remote Guarding Alliance. The charter members — Elite Interactive Solutions, Rapid Response Systems, Smart Interactive Systems, Statewide Security, SureView Systems, VideoIQ, ViewPoint CRM, and Visentry — are joing hands to address best practices, customer adoption, and technology standards which will drive the use of remote guarding solutions in the market. The formation of the new alliance signals the healthy state of remote guarding technology and systems. Advances in these technologies are creating a shift in the guard services market, offering attractive opportunities for vendors and customers. To fuel the growth of the nascent remote guarding market, the eight companies felt that two steps wre required: 1) the value of remote guarding approaches must be more aggressively promoted to as-yet-largely-unaware audience of potential users; 2) standards for quality and performance of remote guarding solutions must be established in order to increase confidence in in systems and products. The founding companies said that Remote Guarding Alliance is being formed by this consortium of companies and technology enablers to advance these goals and determine the right course of action in furthering these objectives.

“Remote guarding is one of the biggest changes to ever affect the guard services market,” said Scott Schnell, founding member of the Alliance, and president and CEO of VideoIQ. “Underpinned by video analytics advancements, remote guarding presents an entirely new paradigm for security protection — in much the same way that digital dialers transformed the alarm monitoring market over 30 years ago. Sites can be guarded better and at a fraction of the cost of manpower-only solutions. In forming the Remote Guarding Alliance, we will promote awareness of new possibilities fostered by these technological advancements and help set industry standards that ensure the development and delivery of quality solutions in the marketplace.”

Let us look at the numbers. Today, guard services represent a $40 billion - $50 billion market worldwide. The Remote Guarding Alliance believes that at least 20 percent of this business can be managed more effectively and less expensively through analytics-enabled remote guarding. In addition to the existing market, there is even larger opportunity for new applications where guard services have been too expensive in the past, but where remote guarding can add personalized security protection at a practical cost. “Remote guarding is far better than video systems that only record and provide evidence after the damage has been done. Less than five percent of all surveillance cameras are monitored, making them reactive tools rather than pro-active ones,” said Aria Kozak, founding member of the Alliance, and CEO of Elite Interactive Solutions. “Through the Alliance, we hope to make the marketplace aware of the alternatives available through remote guarding as well as ensure that the best possible solutions are delivered to market.”