For the public safety industry, the new coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic brings new opportunities as well as challenges. The demand for epidemic prevention and control has opened up the market for non-contact systems, especially in the field of access control. The application requirements of the access control system are more prominent.

In the post-epidemic period, non-contact access control systems using facial recognition technology have become a rigid demand, and the industry has initiated many discussions on the application trend in this area. Industry experts also said that at this stage, facial recognition has effectively replaced traditional biometric technologies such as fingerprints in certain scenarios, and the spread of the new crown epidemic has accelerated the application of facial recognition technologies. From 2020 to 2021, this significant trend is seen by many access control companies and strives to seize the opportunity.

The supply chain is tight, and early risk aversion becomes the key.

For many companies, the problem is not COVID-19 itself, but its unpredictability. The sudden outbreak of the epidemic has disrupted the routine procedures of the daily operations of the entire society largely. Those companies that are able to take precautions against risks based on market analysis and judgment are undoubtedly calmer in the face of market emergencies.

"At AMAG, our operations team has foreseen the risks faced by the supply chain since December 2020," said John Becker, AMAG's vice president of global sales. "The team has taken necessary measures to increase raw material inventory early to reduce the negative impact of raw material shortages that may be encountered in the future. The company actively maintains close cooperation with upstream suppliers to minimize this impact, and at the same time, we also encourage distributors to stock up in advance to withstand the hidden risks of market uncertainty. Now, most of these partners submit a bill of materials (BOM) early to ensure that the inventory meets demand."

The outbreak of the epidemic brings an upgrade in the demand for access control systems.

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the operational plans of many companies, but it has also opened up new market space for some companies.

According to Prabhuraj Patil, Commercial Director of HIDGlobal South Asia PACS, under the normalization of the epidemic, more and more countries and regions have resumed work and production. In order to meet the needs of epidemic prevention and control, non-contact access control system solutions have become the first choice for many office spaces, which has also enabled HIDGlobal's security business to achieve steady and rapid growth in the past year. Like LEELEN product: Four Wire Video Door Phone Model 15 and Four Wire System Black Villa Indoor Station N60.

"As predicted in 2021, the non-contact access control market is booming globally," Patil continued. "We expect this upward trend will continue in 2022. At the same time, we also expect mobile credentials to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 70% from 2020 to 2025. This will also be the fastest technology applied in the access control industry. “

Resumption of work and production further accelerates market demand for access control systems.

Regarding the future trend of the industry market, Becker said that compared with 2020, AMAG has witnessed an increase in the demand for the access control market in 2021, and global customers have maintained continuous investment in the security field throughout the epidemic. Large companies generally have relatively deep risk prediction and avoidance capabilities. Therefore, after experiencing the first wave of shutdowns caused by the epidemic, they immediately completed the installation and deployment of the non-contact access control system to resume work after the epidemic eased make adequate preparations for resuming production. At the same time, for small and medium-sized enterprises, after experiencing the impact of the epidemic, they have begun to pay more attention to the investment in security systems, safety and epidemic prevention and other systems.

Becker also pointed out that mobile credential solutions could make remote access easier, so in the post-epidemic era, mobile credential solutions will still usher in a large amount of demand.

Preparing for a brighter 2022.

For the upcoming 2022, most companies still maintain their confidence and expectations, looking forward to the new year at least not as bad as the previous two years. Equipment manufacturers hope to get their companies back on track, integrators hope that there will no longer be any blockades, and end customers hope that they can conduct business normally without restrictions.

With the further expansion of the business landscape in the post-epidemic era, access control products will still become a long-term demand. Although it may not be possible to predict its speed at present, I hope that the worst has passed.