SSI: Identiv CEO Assesses Current Market Conditions in SSI Podcast

August 21, 2020

Steve Humphreys projects that cash-strapped end users will desire SaaS-based solutions to meet security, health and safety needs.

The podcast and article were originally published by Rodney Bosch via SSI.

Listen to the Podcast

Identiv CEO Steve Humphreys directs a portfolio of products, software, systems and services that address the markets for physical and logical access control, along with an array of RFID-enabled applications.

During an extended conversation with SSI, Humphreys explains in a post COVID-19 world that end users are necessarily expanding their concept of security to best safeguard facilities and occupants. Installing security contractors will play a vital role in helping end users across a range vertical markets — large and small — to achieve their goals in the new paradigm. Oftentimes, this will be accomplished by leveraging existing access control and video surveillance systems, Humphreys says.

“We always thought about security first and foremost, and now it is security, health and safety. That is what anybody wants from any of their systems. The cool thing is access control with video, intelligent readers and credentials, is a perfect platform for security, health and safety. You can correlate the meta data of people’s behaviors and activities,” he says.

Despite what is forecast to be an extended, “really rough economic environment ahead,” Humphreys anticipates the security industry to remain resilient with opportunities ripe for those security professionals who “get close to customers and listen to what they need.”

Expect many economically strapped end users to forgo expensive investments in all-new systems, he says, and instead opt for RMR-generating, SaaS-based services as cost-effective alternatives.

“We found that is very attractive right now for someone who cannot shell out many thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. If you tell them it is a few hundred dollars a month that really fits into their economic model right now,” he explains. “That really helps the customers and the dealers.”