Rapidly changing needs of tenants and today’s workforce have forced property owners and landlords to focus on transforming buildings and workspaces into multi-purpose, digitally equipped and attractive places to work.
To keep pace with millennial demands and a global drive for workspace innovations, property managers and developers are using technology to attract and retain tenants.
However, as such investment increases, says Derek Lategan, managing director at Excellerate Services, parallel investment into physical/building security is “just as important”.
“Many emerging security technologies mirror the trends that are impacting businesses and consumers, such as the use of Big Data, automation and machine learning/artificial intelligence.”
Key tech trends set to impact building security and facilities management include:
Integration of AI and video analytics
Progress in AI varies from industry to industry. And although machine/deep learning technology is increasingly being embraced as a way to deploy smart video analytics tools, Lategan says in the physical security and property sectors, AI is not commonplace.
“Over the past few years, the cost of high-performance servers, hardware and software has dropped radically, meaning video analytics is becoming affordable for more businesses and property managers. Coupled with the increasing capabilities of machine learning and data analytics tools, the security use cases, and demand for, video analytics is expected to grow exponentially.”
He says technologies that building and security teams can implement include facial recognition, licence plate reading, motion detection and people counting.
Harnessing mobile access controls
With smartphone penetration increasing, security innovators are integrating them into home and building security systems. Lategan says an example is tenants using their phones to gain entry to their office building, harnessing hands-free and keyless technology.
“This type of integration is a quick win for security professionals as it can be cost-effective and usually does not require a major IT or infrastructure overhaul. The mobile-first access control strategy also provides opportunities for personalisation.”
Given that many of today’s working professionals want to use and access space in different ways, and on different schedules, technology that allow this will have to be enabled.
Shift to intuitive security systems
Security technology is evolving to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly and visually engaging experience.
“As younger and tech-savvy professionals join the security industry, they bring an expectation of seamless, innovative and engaging solutions that mirror their personal devices and platforms.
“This, for example, will drive a wholesale shift to data-driven security strategies that rely on real-time data feeds, smart sensors and AI tools to provide key insights,” Lategan says.
Rise of networked systems
Many experts predict access control systems will no longer be isolated from other critical information sources, including security and non-security systems.
Lategan says networked systems will instead provide insights and intelligence in the form of data.
“Such data can be harnessed to develop a security approach using predictive analytics.”
This unified control platform can bring together and analyse data from key, real-time feeds, including visitor management, photo imaging, video surveillance, attendance and building control.
“Landlords and property managers will need enabling infrastructure to support this shift, such as robust and reliable internet connectivity and data privacy and cyber security policies and platforms.”