One of our integrator members, Fouet, shared his predictions about the evolution of access control technology and considerations on how current video surveillance solutions serve to promote Digital Marketing.
Fouet Mexico SA de CV is a security solutions integrator with more than 20 years of experience in the Mexican market. Hence, he has a very formed vision of the market, in addition to having developed adaptability strategies to keep up with changing market requirements.
Then, in an exclusive interview with Ventas de Seguridad Magazine, Ricardo Carrasco, the director of Fouet, addressed two interesting points regarding the security market. The first is the global future of access control; secondly, the current potential of video surveillance devices to be a source and support for Digital Marketing.
Access Control Trends: Goodbye Cards
Since Fouet has a consolidated offer in the integration of access control solutions, we wanted to address what are the trends that are coming in the future in the face of this technology.
In response, Ricardo indicated that currently worldwide there are two marked preferences, firstly biometrics and, secondly, the use of mobile devices as an access card; The first phenomenon, he said, was a consequence of the pandemic, a situation that increased the need and accelerated the installation of contactless biometric solutions. While the use of mobile phones streamlines access control, by avoiding card production costs and delivery times, as well as reducing the environmental impact of this. In addition, nowadays you can even forget your wallet, but not your smartphone.
"In the future, I believe that biometrics will reign because cell phones will end up becoming some kind of wearable device. I believe that in about 15 to 20 years cell phones will no longer exist as we know them and, therefore, they will no longer be used as an access card. On the other hand, biometric data such as fingerprints or faces now have very impressive levels of development that make me think that technology will continue to be developed there."
On the other hand, Ricardo also addressed what has become an inconvenience. "Right now the problem that I analyze is the debate around data protection in developed countries. People don't want them to have their face, but when you go to get a document like a passport, when you enter and leave any country, you are already identified."
Electronic Security as a Digital Marketing Strategy
Another point that Ricardo addressed was how security solutions can be used as a complement to other needs in companies such as digital marketing.
According to the expert, the camera you are using at the entrance to your store serves you for several purposes. The first is to keep an eye out for potential attacks by criminals entering the space, hence the use of blacklists. But also, the security device can help you obtain demographic information, such as gender and average age. In addition, if you have that person registered and an application for information management, you can obtain data about that buyer's profile and use it to offer products through digital signage.
That is, a buyer who is registered enters, is identified by the system and that means that wherever this person moves, information related to their tastes or related to the latest purchased products that they could already be in need of, such as toiletries, including special promotions, appears.
Ricardo added that "that is what we promote. As a friend says, we are evangelizing users that they can make better use of their video system with the current possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics. This means that security, which is seen as a cost, is also dimensioned as a business generator within the company itself, due to the information and metadata that they are obtaining from AI."
This business model, according to the explanation of the director of Fouet, has the advantage that it allows the retail sector to better understand the route that its customers usually take, the points with the greatest movement, (that is, the so-called heat maps) and in this way it can pay the price for the shelves with greater visibility of customers. the best location points for product advertising and better planning the installation of digital signage.
Another prediction of the future focused on cameras
Finally, Ricardo pointed out another prediction for the future and that is that he considers that cameras will be more similar to computers and software will be able to load them, so that they exercise functions, are updated and in that sense it will not be necessary to change them so frequently. "Although in our industry, all equipment is made to operate 24 hours 365 days a year, then we can say that its durability is already high overall."