Growing Convergence, Replacement, and Upgrades Keep the Mood Upbeat in the North American Electronic Access Control Systems Market

DUBLIN, Ireland, Jun 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- FRSU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7b0a14/north_american_ele) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "North American Electronic Access Control Systems Market" to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled North American Physical Access Control Systems Market provides an overview of the physical access control technologies, the revenue forecasts for electronic access control systems in the North American region, and profiles of leading market participants. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine electronic access control systems in the government, enterprise, retail, healthcare, and education sectors.

Market Overview

The North American electronic access control systems market has seen staggering growth in recent years, with growing security concerns over protecting life and property in the light of increasing incidences of vandalism, break-ins, sabotage, and business espionage. Critical infrastructures such as government agencies, military bases, water treatment plants, power plants, airports, financial institutions, and seaports are vulnerable targets. Access control systems have been of invaluable assistance in safeguarding employees and protecting property, driving the uptake of proximity cards, smart cards, biometrics, and one-time passwords.

At present, the widely deployed technologies are smart cards and biometrics. "While they are viewed as competing technologies for a variety of access control applications, an emerging trend is the convergence between the two, where the biometric identifiers of individuals are stored on a smart card for multi factor authentication," notes the analyst of this research service. "This also helps in offline authentication in the absence of a network." The use of biometrics contributes the additional layer of protection, while the smart card provides the memory and processing power for multiple applications such as PKI and payment besides access control. Government mandates, such as HSPD-12, TWIC, HIPAA, FFIEC, SOX, and GLB have been a strong driving factor, accelerating the utilization of these systems for the enhancement of transaction processing systems.

Modern surveillance systems encompass a host of subsystems, including video surveillance, intrusion detection, access control, fire and safety, time and attendance, asset tracking, and visitor management. In large commercial enterprises, these systems are deployed in various forms. "Since all these sub systems are trying to achieve the same goal, combining and managing these systems would seem the next logical step," notes the analyst. "This would require communication between various systems, leading to upgrades, replacement, or installation of new access control systems." Thus, the need for integrated security systems will fuel growth in the access control systems market. More headway is being made in this sector with the high replacement rate of existing proximity systems. Proximity cards form the majority of the installed base of access control systems; however, they are being increasingly replaced by more secure authentication technologies, such as smart cards and biometrics.

Conventional systems were limited to the authentication of identity cards and providing access but recent advancements have rendered access control an integrated system that performs a multitude of tasks. Besides monitoring access to facilities, the usefulness of these systems extends to other areas including people tracking, asset tracking, time and attendance, and emergency evacuations. End users are largely unaware of the inherent potential of these technologies, preventing them from articulating their requirements and deriving maximum utility. As end users comprise the critical link in the value chain, the way forward lies in promoting an innate understanding and providing increased training on current systems. Building awareness on the multifaceted benefits of access control technologies can help increase the buoyancy of the market.

The following technologies are covered in this research:

- Smart cards

- Proximity cards

- Contactless smart cards

- Biometrics

- Physical access

- Logical access

Key Topics Covered:

- Executive Summary

- Market Dynamics and Trends

- Market Analysis and Forecasts

- Competitive Landscape

- Appendix

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7b0a14/north_american_ele.

SOURCE: Research and Markets Ltd.

Research and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index