Security Associations Such As SIAC Threatened With Extinction Due To Industry Consolidation

JH
John Honovich
•Jan 08, 2018
IPVM

The Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) has issued a warning / plea for help, excerpted:

The worst decision any company can make is to believe others will pay up and not let SIAC fall!  That fallacy will lead to the extinction of SIAC....

We face an ongoing trend that negatively affects what SIAC is able to do: Donations are going down on an annual basis. Industry consolidation eliminates some sources of money for SIAC and other associations that rely on contributions to do their non-profit work. This trend also continued the past year and has been in place for several years – companies merging or one company buying out another. When those things happen, typically one of the two sources of donations dries up. We lose, other non-profits lose, and the industry loses.

SIAC asked for others to share their post and we are doing so here.

We have heard other related concerns about industry consolidations, e.g., market research firms and trade magazines that depend almost entirely on manufacturers have also been impacted by consolidation. IPVM has not since we focus on integrators and charge on a per-user basis, rather than by company.

SIAC is asking for donations. We gave $200 today.

Any feedback, thoughts, questions, please share.

(2)
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Brian Rhodes
•Jan 08, 2018
IPVMU Certified

I wonder how prominently the DIY/Self-Monitoring trend has bitten into the coalition's membership and influence.

Part of SIAC's mission statement is:

"...to create a structure for all interested parties to come together under the banner of “dispatch reduction” and “alarm management” and through a coordinated effort maximize the impact on “false dispatch reduction” and “alarm management” across North America"

It seems the strongest growth in alarms have been systems that make central station monitoring optional, ie: Nest Secure Alarm System, Simplisafe, and even various DIY Alarm.com offerings.

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Jay Hauhn
•Jan 08, 2018
Hauhn and Associates, LLC
In reply to Brian Rhodes

First....thanks for posting this John, and THANK YOU for your contribution.   SIAC performs a very important industry function.

Second, that's a great question Brian.  I would anecdotally state that DIY/MIY has not had a negative influence on SIAC funding.  I do believe however, that the DIY/MIY companies, are driving the false alarm percentages up, complicating SIAC's mission.  

Mergers and acquisitions have certainly had a significant negative impact on SIAC donations.  Industry Affairs contributions often get caught up in the synergy savings.  As an example, if two companies merge and they had been contributing $10,000 each ($20,000 total), the resulting donation usually falls to $10,000 to $15,000.   With a lot of M&A activity the last few years, its had a major negative impact. 

It's my opinion that SIAC is a victim of their own success.  I wrote an article about that a few months ago.

The link should work however, if you have issues, I can get a copy of the article to you if you send me an email at jhauhn@tma.us ....or, I can just post the text in this thread.

  

LJ
Lee Jones
•Jan 11, 2018
Support Services Group

There can be other reasons for slow/no donations in support of SIAC.

Some of us alarm industry “insiders” believe SIAC has fulfilled its “Mission Statement” (see earlier Brian post) and now SIAC should be shuttered, not resuscitated. SIAC has been staffed by talented and dedicated people, but now time for the retirement party, including the non-profit status of SIAC.

Associations can be misguided by the self-interests of a select few of their Members.

One of the biggest threats to growth and market value is the specter of local police not responding to calls for help from licensed monitoring firms. However, for “unknown” reasons, SIAC seems to be ignoring that threat with the relentless promotion of the “SIAC Model Ordinance”, in conflict with law enforcement. Several examples of "model ordinance” conflicts include current class-action litigation against municipalities for improperly fining alarm sites; State wide legislation (FL, GA, TX) restricting monitoring firms from calling cops first… forcing verification calls to customer first for slow or no response. SIAC doesn’t even recognize the several programs that are supported by law enforcement, including VR-Verified Response and SR-Subsidy recovery, both of which require accountability by licensed monitoring firms. 

SIAC efforts have backfired, but they are suggesting your donations are needed to fund their services to combat the risks they created.

Source: Lee Jones; Support Services Group; leessg@att.net

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