The two fastest-growing segments of the electronic access control market are ACaaS and mobile access, writes Jim Dearing, senior analyst, security and building technology, at the market research company IHS Markit. An estimated 20 percent of the current installed base of access control readers will be mobile capable by 2022.
Demand for ACaaS has grown rapidly over the past five years, and this growth is expected to continue. While there have been relatively few attempts to combine ACaaS solutions with mobile access, despite their apparent synergies, this type of integration will become more common over the next five years. Following are the key benefits of integrating ACaaS and mobile access:
A significant segment of ACaaS end users opt for fully managed solutions. Providers of managed solutions would benefit from the ability to issue and decommission credentials remotely, allowing them to lower management costs. Both mobile access and ACaaS are typically sold via subscription, or using recurring fee-based pricing models. Adding mobile credentials to an ACaaS contract would not be an issue for an integrator, and as mobile access becomes more popular in the traditional access control market, end users and installers are likely to become more familiar with the recurring-fee pricing model, which should generate additional interest in ACaaS.
Like ACaaS solutions, the majority of access control solutions are cloud-based. As both become more popular, end users are likely to become more comfortable deploying cloud-based security solutions. ACaaS is increasing the penetration of access control systems in buildings, and many end users are owners of small and medium-sized businesses who have never owned an access control system before. This situation poses an excellent opportunity for mobile access, as providers can ensure that mobile-capable readers are installed from the outset.
Barriers to adoption
So far, early adopters of each solution are based in different industries. Mobile access has seen its strongest adoption in the education and hospitality sectors, while ACaaS is gaining traction with small and medium-sized businesses and the property management segment. Due to the large number of smaller projects, a significant portion of ACaaS end users value affordability over advanced feature sets and functionality. ACaaS providers may struggle to convince end users to install readers that are mobile-capable but also more expensive.
Despite both solutions typically being billed on a monthly or annual basis, the pricing models vary slightly. ACaaS solutions are priced according to the number of doors, while mobile access is priced according to the number of credentials or users. Creating an intuitive but optimal pricing model for the combined solution could prove tricky for suppliers. If both original metrics are kept, suppliers are likely to encounter difficulty as end users scale their solutions.
