Article first published as Security Technology; How Much Do I Need, and Why? on Blogcritics.

About 25 years ago, I was showing off my new red 1987 Camaro to a good friend of mine who was an entrepreneur.  He was fascinated more with my enthusiasm than he was with my new “dream car”, but he withheld his sarcasm while I showed him all the cool gadgets.

It was the first time I had owned a car that had a push-button device to lock the doors and arm the security system.  This was my favorite toy.

My friend, the entrepreneur, was already ahead of me, thinking about how we could cash in on this kind of technology.  He asked, “Do you think people would buy a system to allow them to control their home lighting and door access from the same keychain they use for their car keys?”  I said something like, “Sure they would, but good luck with that!”  This was a comment right out of 1987 by someone who had no vision of the future.

I haven’t kept up with that friend over the years, but I imagine him to be sitting in some island paradise in the Caribbean, sipping on umbrella drinks, spending the money he earned from being much smarter than I.

Now that I find myself in the business of offering security solutions for schools and businesses, I have thought many times about the motivating factors which drive the security market.

These factors range from personal safety to the buyer’s desire for a more convenient lifestyle.  Sometimes, security and technology blend with vanity, and it makes for a very powerful motivational factor.  After all, it’s a fact in the home entertainment world that the Super Bowl can be watched on an old black and white television with “rabbit ears” for an antenna, and it can also be watched on a 65” LED television in the comfort of one’s own living room.  The line between necessity and convenience is sometimes hard to identify.

Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself when considering the purchase of security solutions:

• What are the potential threats I want to prepare for?
• How likely are the undesirable events to occur?
• What are the potential costs, financial and personal, associated with these threats?
• How much money do I have to invest in the solutions?
• How much will the solution improve other factors such as convenience, time management, and “lean management” of human resources?
• Is the solution one which is scalable and open to future developments in technology?
• Can the solution be integrated with existing systems?  If not, how important is integration, and what are the costs and benefits of replacing what you already have?

Above all, do some research in the fields of interest to you, and look to consultants and manufacturers reps to supply the best solution for your needs and “wants”, the more independent the better.  If the solution to your concerns does not currently exist, be patient, but ask the experts, who make more things possible in the security industry every day.  Or, better yet, become an entrepreneur and reserve your place at a beach resort in the Caribbean!

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/security-technology-how-much-do-i/#ixzz1UADgnRPh