“Improvise, adapt, and overcome” could also be generally related to the U.S. Marine Corps., however the slogan might simply as simply apply to this yr’s crop of prime 100 techniques integrators. These safety corporations weathered some severe obstacles — from main know-how modifications, to inflation and rising rates of interest, an election yr, ongoing labor challenges and the rising menace of tariffs — but collectively introduced within the highest North American techniques integration revenues in a decade, $18.4 billion!
That represents an 18 share level improve over the earlier yr’s numbers. What’s extra, for the second yr in a row, greater than 60 p.c of the highest integrators reported a rise in earnings — rising on common 8 p.c over 2023.
“The market in 2024 was very robust,” wrote Brent Edmunds, president of Stone Safety, ranked No. 18. “The demand for our services appeared to leap to new ranges in comparison with 2023. Stone completed 2024 with extra momentum than any of our crew can recall for a few years. Information facilities, healthcare and distribution/logistics sectors had been significantly sizzling, however all sectors confirmed promise for future growth and want for our providers. We didn’t really feel any vital affect from the destructive macro-economic components pestering the nation.”
No. 31, TRL Techniques Inc., wrote that 2024 was “the very best safety gross sales in our firm historical past.”
Imaginative and prescient Safety Applied sciences, No. 32, expressed related experiences, writing, “Imaginative and prescient discovered the 2024 marketplace for safety techniques gross sales and built-in techniques initiatives to be stronger than 2023. … We had been lucky in that we didn’t expertise vital destructive affect from components similar to rates of interest, inflation, and so on.
“The demand for built-in safety options is rising as organizations search extra cohesive, clever and environment friendly methods to guard belongings, knowledge and other people,” Imaginative and prescient Safety wrote.
No. 40, A+ Know-how & Safety, had a unique tackle what it known as a “vital improve” over 2023, whereas additionally noting, “Now we have adjusted to elevated rates of interest, inflation and different points in 2024, accordingly, and are devoted to providing our purchasers honest costs and optimum system perform, regardless of modifications exterior of our management.”
Others credited extra recurring income — hosted and managed providers — with serving to them not solely climate however overcome these pressures.
The demand for our services appeared to leap to new ranges in comparison with 2023. Stone completed 2024 with extra momentum than any of our crew can recall for a few years.
“The market was robust,” famous No. 71, Haig Service Corp. “Rates of interest had no vital affect on income or efficiency. Wage inflation and materials inflation additionally had little to no vital affect, as we had deliberate prudently for wage and profession development for our workers. Materials inflation was for essentially the most half absorbed via efficiencies and development in gross sales to recurring income prospects.”
Regardless of the acknowledged purpose, 2024 proved to be a fantastic yr for integrators, as they rolled out new enterprise fashions, new service choices, and new applied sciences. And they’re simply getting began, with a wholesome and optimistic outlook for what’s forward.
2024 Insights
One theme that appeared to carry true for a lot of integrators within the feedback this yr was the growing significance of managed providers — or an OpEx vs CapEx choice. People who had these choices had been in a position to climate ups and downs extra simply.
“Funding for safety initiatives was typically higher in 2024 in comparison with 2023,” wrote No. 8, Safety 101, reporting for the primary time on the TSI. “Many finish customers returned to extra proactive budgeting methods after a interval of delayed investments. … As safety threats turned extra complicated and extremely publicized, organizations acknowledged the necessity to modernize growing old infrastructure, combine techniques and spend money on applied sciences that present each bodily and operational advantages. Moreover, the provision of versatile financing choices and the shift towards options that align with OpEx budgets (like cloud-based platforms and managed providers) made it simpler for purchasers to decide to bigger, extra strategic initiatives.”
No. 35, Sound Inc., famous: “The marketplace for safety remained comparatively flat whereas choice makers shifted and extra shopping for got here from IT. Sound has pivoted and centered on leveraging hosted/cloud options that assist the normal bodily safety gross sales in anticipation of this pattern growing.”
Whereas many actually felt the pressures of an election yr and financial uncertainties, they responded with creativity and met the second for his or her prospects.
“As No. 28, Prosegur Safety Integration, put it, “The marketplace for safety techniques gross sales and built-in techniques initiatives in 2024 skilled a combined however largely resilient efficiency in comparison with 2023. … Whereas the demand for safety options remained robust, financial components similar to rates of interest and inflation influenced funding selections throughout varied sectors. … Prosegur navigated these challenges by persevering with to leverage its hybrid safety mannequin, integrating know-how with manned guarding to supply cost-effective and scalable options. The corporate’s give attention to value-engineering safety packages helped purchasers mitigate value challenges whereas enhancing safety effectivity. Regardless of the financial headwinds, Prosegur remained adaptive and client-focused, making certain sturdy service supply throughout key verticals.”
No. 14, Limitless Know-how Inc., wrote: “In 2024, the safety techniques market offered a tougher setting in comparison with 2023, prompting corporations to pivot and discover new alternatives to maintain development. Whereas AI-powered options and superior entry management techniques continued to steer, conventional sectors skilled slower development, and older built-in techniques struggled to maintain tempo with speedy technological developments. Regardless of these challenges, Limitless Know-how was in a position to navigate the financial pressures — similar to rising rates of interest and inflation — by strategically diversifying our strategy. Though our total income remained flat from 2023 to 2024, we noticed a major improve in profitability. Our working margin and EBITDA surged considerably, reflecting the success of our give attention to higher-margin initiatives and extra environment friendly operations. This development in revenue was pushed by a cautious shift in our enterprise mannequin, emphasizing subscription-based providers like our SHIELD managed providers program, and pursuing extra worthwhile contracts in rising sectors. Whereas federal authorities spending noticed a discount in 2024, we efficiently offset this by increasing our footprint inside native and municipal authorities work. Moreover, we pursued smaller, high-value contracts with massive enterprises throughout various sectors, together with utilities, knowledge facilities, chemical compounds, prescription drugs, healthcare, and manufacturing. … Workforce shortages remained a problem, however our investments in technical coaching and expertise retention ensured we had the expert personnel essential to ship complicated built-in techniques initiatives. Regardless of the hurdles, our means to adapt to market situations, emphasize high-margin work, and give attention to operational effectivity led to a major improve in profitability, positioning us for continued success within the years forward.”
The supply of versatile financing choices and the shift towards options that alight with OpEx budgets (like cloud-based platforms and managed providers) made it simpler for purchasers to decide to bigger, extra strategic initiatives.
No. 22, Cook dinner Options Group, leaned in on its service strengths, writing, “2024 was a median to robust marketplace for CSG. We proceed to realize market share based mostly on our superior service and powerful popularity in each the FI and business safety segments. Even in occasions of upper rates of interest and inflation, CSG tends to carry out nicely on our service facet of the enterprise. Whereas inflation and rates of interest affect our gross sales numbers, now we have been in a position to adapt our charges and work with our prospects accordingly. We take a look at the safety market as a by no means ending alternative — which means, finish customers or prospects are at all times on the lookout for a trusted accomplice and once they discover CSG they discover that accomplice. We not often lose a buyer having solely misplaced 5 whole in our 22 yr existence.”
High Verticals & Applied sciences
For most of the prime 100 safety integrators, the vertical markets they’re most concerned with mattered in 2024. A number of highlighted key vertical excessive factors, whereas others centered on explicit know-how choices.
“We’re seeing development in lots of key areas the place we envision a ton of alternative for Everon and the trade as a complete,” wrote Mike McWilliams, president and chief working officer, Everon, ranked No. 3. “For one, the info middle market is persistently displaying double-digit development, and we don’t see that slowing down anytime quickly. It’s the same story within the video area as prospects are satisfied of the wide-ranging worth that video can convey to their safety packages and companies, reaching far past surveillance. There’s additionally main alternative within the hearth market — we’re seeing higher code enforcement and new applied sciences which are driving finish customers to a extra proactive hearth and life security strategy. We consider we’ll see the impacts of all of that in 2025 and past.”
No. 17, ORR Safety, famous related findings, significantly within the hearth area, writing, “The demand for superior hearth suppression, detection, and monitoring options continued to rise as industries prioritized security, compliance, and asset safety. The push for extra clever hearth safety techniques — integrating IoT-enabled sensors, cloud-based monitoring, and early-detection applied sciences — gained momentum, significantly in mission-critical environments. The business and industrial sectors demonstrated sturdy development, pushed by evolving hearth codes, insurance coverage necessities, and heightened consciousness of fireplace dangers. Information facilities remained robust on account of stringent regulatory compliance, power considerations, elevated demand on account of AI, and the crucial want to forestall downtime.”
Different key verticals talked about steadily included healthcare, each native and federal authorities, and schooling, with No. 46, EMC Safety, noting, “Business prospects, particularly colleges, had must spend federal allotted sources earlier than they expired. Current high-profile occasions in colleges and workplaces spurred curiosity in video and entry management providers.”
Not surprisingly, essentially the most steadily cited know-how shift driving gross sales was the emergence of AI and its affect throughout a variety of choices, from proactive video monitoring to enterprise intelligence choices and past.
“The healthcare sector was a optimistic and we additionally noticed extra corporations allocating funding for safety infrastructure.” wrote Kevin Santelli, vice chairman business, Guardian Safety, ranked No. 43. “Our business video surveillance enterprise additionally continued to develop and we count on this to proceed based mostly on favorable developments in AI.”
In 2025, AI is the most popular know-how pattern, and it’s right here to remain. Industries starting from Ok-12 to healthcare might want to embrace AI, but it surely’s necessary for everybody to learn to use it safely.
For extra on the know-how and vertical market traits safety integrators see for the approaching yr, see the sidebar, “3 Key Alternatives for 2025.”
Trying Forward
Whereas AI was touched on in reflections on 2024, it actually got here to the forefront when integrators had been requested in regards to the prime traits they anticipate for the rest of 2025 and past.
No. 50, D/A Central Inc., wrote, “AI can be impacting the engineering of techniques. AI brokers can be deployed within the main platforms in 2025. The speedy adoption of AI instruments will decide an organization’s competitiveness sooner or later.”
And No. 21, Zeus Fireplace and Safety, wrote of AI: “Clients proceed to hunt assist in operational and value administration challenges. We stay dedicated to investing on this know-how and anticipate it will likely be a rising income stream for years to return.”
This can be a pattern that many are simply beginning to get a strong grip on and some urged warning of their strategy to AI. For instance, Most popular Applied sciences LLC, No. 23, wrote: “In 2025, AI is the most popular know-how pattern, and it’s right here to remain. Industries starting from Ok-12 to healthcare might want to embrace AI, but it surely’s necessary for everybody to learn to use it safely. With so many new AI software program startups making huge guarantees, it’s important to differentiate these that may stand the take a look at of time, particularly within the safety know-how trade.”
Limitless Know-how additionally urged warning, writing: “As AI’s capabilities evolve, there may be rising dialogue in regards to the path towards synthetic basic intelligence (AGI) and, in the end, the technological singularity — a degree the place AI might surpass human intelligence in decision-making and adaptableness. Whereas this stays speculative, its implications for safety can’t be ignored. The extra autonomous and complex AI turns into, the better the necessity for clear moral frameworks, cybersecurity protections, and human oversight to make sure that automated techniques stay aligned with human intent.”
There have been different notes of warning as nicely, significantly round tariffs and different challenges.
No. 66, Area 6 Techniques Integration, put succinctly what many others additionally talked about: “Tariffs might trigger us huge issues.”
SDM’s 2024 Techniques Integrator of the Yr, Chimera Integrations, ranked No. 53, added extra context, writing, “The brand new tariffs being put in place in 2025 might make issues dearer for safety corporations like ours. … If producers increase costs or provide chains get slowed down, it might make initiatives dearer or take longer to finish.”
Others talked about the continued labor scarcity that has been felt keenly within the safety trade for the previous a number of years.
No. 82, Tempo Safety, wrote, “The best affect on our enterprise in 2025 is the power to proceed to seek out nice those who match our firm tradition. So long as we proceed constructing key items to our workers our development will stay limitless.”
This outlook is attribute of most of the prime integrators’ strategy to challenges in addition to alternatives: Whereas tariffs and different considerations are undoubtedly on the horizon, for essentially the most half they’ve confidence of their means to climate them by leveraging extra SaaS choices, AI, relationships, and their very own means to pivot and thrive.
Limitless Know-how wrote: “Tariffs might play a job in shaping the market, significantly if commerce insurance policies have an effect on the price of imported safety gear and elements. Whereas these modifications can result in value fluctuations, in addition they emphasize the significance of working with producers and suppliers that may adapt to evolving commerce landscapes. By sustaining robust partnerships with a various vary of distributors, we will mitigate potential disruptions and proceed delivering value-driven options to our prospects. By embracing rising applied sciences, strengthening cybersecurity measures, navigating potential tariff impacts, and providing versatile service fashions, we will navigate the shifting panorama whereas delivering the dependable, high-quality options our purchasers count on.”
Rob Oldham, vice chairman of gross sales at Stone Safety, pointed to the significance of SaaS fashions in addition to AI, writing: “Whereas we’ve traditionally centered on promoting and sustaining bodily gear like cameras and entry management techniques, SaaS introduces a mannequin centered on versatile, scalable software program platforms. This transition brings alternatives for recurring income streams but in addition challenges us to adapt our enterprise mannequin and information purchasers via the complexities of SaaS pricing, cloud storage, and long-term prices. In tandem, AI-driven automation is revolutionizing how safety techniques function. AI permits real-time menace detection, predictive upkeep, and clever surveillance with minimal human oversight. These developments not solely enhance safety effectivity but in addition problem us to redefine our function from {hardware} installers to strategic advisors. To remain forward, we have to provide managed providers, system optimization, and AI coaching. Integrators who embrace these — adapting to SaaS fashions and leveraging AI applied sciences — can be well-positioned to thrive on this new panorama, delivering clever, future-ready safety options that meet the evolving wants of our purchasers.”
Safety 101 summed it up properly this fashion: “In brief, 2025 will reward safety integrators that keep forward of tech evolution, spend money on safe and good system design, and ship readability and confidence to purchasers navigating a fancy menace panorama.”
3 Key Alternatives for 2025
The 2025 prime techniques integrators had loads to say on rising applied sciences and alternatives. Listed here are a couple of of their prime alternatives they’re anticipating this yr and past:
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AI/Enterprise Intelligence
Safety 101, No. 8, wrote: “Synthetic intelligence and automation will possible be essentially the most transformative, particularly as finish customers start to count on extra clever, proactive options — similar to automated alerts, menace detection, and data-driven reporting.”Rob Oldham, vice chairman of gross sales, Stone Safety, No. 18, wrote: “The rising convergence of bodily safety and enterprise intelligence (BI) is about to have a profound affect on our enterprise in 2025. Video surveillance techniques are evolving past their conventional function of securing services to turning into important instruments for data-driven decision-making. Trendy IP cameras, enhanced with AI-powered analytics, can monitor buyer conduct, monitor operational effectivity, and supply real-time insights into enterprise operations. … This twin performance is pushing organizations to spend money on built-in safety and BI platforms, the place video knowledge serves a number of roles past security. For us as integrators, this shift means designing techniques that tackle each bodily safety and enterprise optimization, making certain seamless integration with BI instruments. It opens new income streams, from offering superior analytics to providing customized reporting options tailor-made to purchasers’ operational objectives. … By positioning video surveillance as each a safety and enterprise asset, we will ship options that provide purchasers a holistic view of their environments, enhancing each safety and efficiency.”
A+ Know-how & Safety Options Inc., No. 40 wrote: “We predict the rise in synthetic intelligence know-how to have a major optimistic affect on our enterprise in 2025. Synthetic Intelligence (AI) is reworking the safety market by enhancing surveillance, cybersecurity, entry management, danger administration, and emergency response. AI-powered cameras and facial recognition techniques enhance menace detection by analyzing video feeds in actual time and figuring out suspicious conduct, whereas filtering out false alarms to cut back response occasions. In cybersecurity, AI detects and prevents malware, phishing assaults, and fraud by analyzing community conduct and transaction patterns. … AI-driven predictive safety instruments analyze historic knowledge to anticipate threats, enabling proactive danger administration. … By making safety extra environment friendly, proactive, and responsive, AI helps people, companies, and governments keep forward of evolving threats.”
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Proactive Video Monitoring
Mike McWilliams, president & chief working officer, Everon, No. 3, wrote: “We consider that the continued evolution and growth of purposes within the video area will end in a seismic shift within the trade. From video monitoring to video analytics and past, our prospects are more and more turning to us with enterprise wants past surveillance that video can remedy. That features utilizing video for license plate recognition, monitoring folks motion, heatmapping throughout services, automobile counting — the checklist goes on. Particularly as the value level for video options comes down and use instances proceed to develop, video is bound to change into essentially the most useful software in any business safety program.”Safety Alarm Company, No. 69, wrote: “We see the massive pattern in 2025 being video alarm monitoring. Our present answer to this new know-how is the Chekt and Camect applied sciences. We’re persevering with to push the know-how as we undoubtedly see this as the best way of the longer term. Our aim in 2025 is to put in one video alarm monitoring System per week.”
Allstate Safety, No. 95, wrote: “The continued improve of video monitoring — I really feel like prospects belief the service greater than ever, and the service yields outcomes.”
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Drones/Anti-Drones
MCA, No. 13 wrote: “MCA focuses on massive campus kind options that are inclined to have a strong safety framework. As such, the factor that stands out as the most important black swan danger should be drones. We’ve seen a rise in drone threats because the proliferation of drone know-how grows. Most threats originate from unintended or uninformed makes use of of drones that current a menace to safety packages — take into consideration the drone that struck a firefighting airplane within the January wildfires in California. You then begin trying on the malicious actors who’re utilizing this know-how as a part of their very own surveillance, smuggling, and kinetic types of injury to infrastructure. Based mostly on present legal guidelines, we as a safety professionals are restricted to what we will do to mitigate these dangers and shield the folks and belongings underneath our cost. Which means we have to do extra to seize details about what’s in our airspace and begin to glean intelligence about associates and foes to assist us deter, delay, and deny those that want to do us hurt. We’ll need to evolve this mannequin to extra of a public-private partnership to share info with others in our areas and verticals.”
