GCC security distancing itself from regional MEP

Security system providers are distancing themselves from MEP contractors in order to provide clients exactly what they want (Getty Images)

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Security system providers in the GCC are distancing themselves from MEP contractors and working with clients directly, the regional director of Siemens’ Fire Safety Security for the Lower Gulf, said on Wednesday.

While traditional construction related activities (also known as the crane market) will always have their basic security systems installed by their MEP contractor, larger and more established clients are relieving their MEP contractors of their security system responsibilities.

They are now handing them over to specialist companies like Siemens Security, Nadim Abdulrahim said during an interview with MEP Middle East.

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“It is about moving away from the MEP and coming closer to the client. At Siemens, this has been our strategy basically. We go straight to the end users and we don’t work with MEP in general.

What the market has realised over the years is that MEP contractors try to get the cheapest (products, suppliers, etc), as long as they’re sort of compliant and they can get whatever they want,” Abdulrahim said.

“For them, it is just the bottom line that matters, whereas security is very personal to clients, and that is why the market has changed,” he added.

Over the last five to ten years, there has been an increase in general business; Abdulrahim said, this was because of corporate requirements and overall security clients increasing.

As a result, particular facets of the industry have begun receiving far more attention and development than others.

“I would say that CCTV has been quite prominent over the last few years, whereas access controls is now picking up more and more now in all establishments.”

“Hardware is always moving ahead, but I would say that there’s a bit of a split between the main manufacturers, a lot of the main (players) are becoming commodity manufacturers."

"For example, Samsung is becoming very powerful in camera manufacturers, they have a big market share, and probably in a few years, I’d say they’ll be leading the market,” he explained.

“What everybody is doing is making software, which is more open. So I think solution providers like us provide open head-end software that can talk to multiple equipment manufacturer providers, both at the head-end and commodities out in the field, and incorporate and integrate with them,” Abdulrahim added.