COVID-19 has increased urgency for businesses to adopt VSaaS and ACaaS

A research into the impact of COVID-19 on physical security purchasing decisions has revealed a sharp increase in the necessity/urgency for businesses to adopt hosted video surveillance (VSaaS) and access control (ACaaS) solutions.

While 70% of 1000 senior decision makers in IT, security, FM and HR roles agree this to be the case, 78% also anticipate their organizations’ use of cloud technologies to increase as a result of COVID-19.

A survey by Morphean revealed that 76% of senior managers in UK, Germany and Sweden have increased their use of video conferencing; 65% have increased their use of office applications; and 70% of those in the security sector are now strongly inclined towards cloud adoption.

Growing appetite for physical security of connected digital devices

For security professionals already working with cloud services, the growth in connected digital devices is resulting in a growing appetite for physical security, such as network cameras, to enhance existing IT systems and assist business intelligence gathering. 95% agree that if an existing security system could deliver insights beyond security (i.e. occupancy or test and trace analytics), it would influence adoption.

More flexibility in working locations is the benefit respondents are most likely to identify from moving business functions to the cloud (50%), followed by easier collaboration (44%); more cost-effective (44%); safer/better security (38%). 82% anticipate the levels/frequency of remote workers and flexible working in their organizations to be higher post-pandemic.

For the physical security reseller, the study will demonstrate that hosted security solutions must play a major part in expanding their offering to a wiser customer base. Such solutions represent an investment into improving security and operations, a chance to forge new business relationships, and an opportunity to embrace future proof technologies in preparation for whatever challenges the future might hold.

Other findings

• 51% say their company is currently using a cloud-based service for VSaaS and/or ACaaS. This is an increase of 3% over 2019 (48%)
• 73% believe their organizations are more inclined to adopt cloud as a result of government responses to COVID-19
• 27% said physical security was optimised in their companies, a rise of 4% on 2019 (23%)