Convergence at a Price

HEADNOTE

IT execs have as much to worry about as you do.

The security/IT barrier is shrinking a bit more every year. Now that we're in 2006, I thought a little flip flop could help us look at the other side of the convergence coin.

We keep hearing

a lot about what's going to happen to the security industry's traditional modus operandi when IT managers start telling security managers how to place an order for a new security network. Sales forces and consultants serving the security industry are augmented each day by IT distributors looking for a new world to conquer, and we're getting closer to a converged business model as digital technology takes another step forward. So we started looking not only at the way in which IT managers operate, but also what worries them. After all, they have problems and concerns like everyone else, some of which are amazingly similar to the problems and concerns that worry the security manager when the magic word "network" is mentioned.

Networks are everywhere now, whether they're local, wide-area, neural, IP, wireless, video or integrated security. They're the real source of operational efficiency and fast response. Senior managements always bring them up when the subject turns to cost reductions. And then it's up to the IT executive to execute a company's networking strategy in just the same way that it's up to the security executive to implement an integrated security network.

We know that one of the difficult tasks for security executives is the effort to secure funding from upper management for a new or upgraded network. So it should come as no surprise that the same problem bedevils IT executives. Corporate managers today are awash in cash, and corporations are buying their own stock back just to use their cash hoards. Yet they part with network funding only with the greatest reluctance. This poses a significant challenge for IT executives, as a recent InformationWeek survey showed.

The InformationWeek Research survey "Analyzing the Network Vendors" asked 623 business technology professionals the question, "What are the biggest challenges, if any, that your company faces in executing its networking strategy?" The most common challenge, at 40% of respondents, was high cost. This must ring a loud bell for security executives who face the exact same problem. We hear from time to time that security users have a little difficulty with their servicing integrators. And very often the issue at hand is as much the cost of a network as the service of the integrator. The study statistic serves as proof that even in a strong economy, money plays the dominant role in the procurement of IT as well as security networks.

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What are the other challenges facing the IT executive? Choosing the right product comes in just below the cost factor, followed by difficulty of administration, difficulty of capacity planning, lack of clear ROI, and lack of in-house expertise. This makes it sound as if the convergence trend is tossing as many obstacles in front of the IT executive as it is the security executive. Every day the security buyer confronts questions like What product should I choose, Who should do what, How much should we buy, How much and when is the payoff, and Who's going to run it all once the network is in?

As Yogi says, its d?j? vu all over again. If anyone thinks the IT executive and the security executive are living in different worlds, they're only partly right. One deals with information systems and the other with security systems. But as the drive for networks continues to lead the vanguard of corporate America's drive toward greater productivity, let's all have a proportionate amount of workplace consideration for the travails of both executives in the crosshairs of the convergence movement.

AUTHOR_AFFILIATION

Joseph P. Freeman is CEO of J.P. Freeman Co. and J.P. Freeman Laboratories, providing research, consulting, and product testing services. Current market reports: 2006 Worldwide Video Surveillance, 2005 Worldwide Network (IP) Video, 2005 Intelligent Video & Smart Camera. Mr. Freeman can be reached at 203-426-6023 and info@jpfreeman.com.