Effects of recession on security industry

[intelliGEORGE]

Sorry to hear mate, never a good thing being laid off. I know a multinational that just laid off a few workers, one being the Service Manager?? Go figure. They lost a large contract and heads rolled.

[SafetyDancer]

Yeah from what I can tell, the companies that are laying people off are the ones who's losing contracts, or their install work is drying up. I shouldn't feel so bad about it, not like I ####ed up to make myself lose the job. Just the way the cookie crumbled really.

I already have a few interviews this week too, so hopefully I'll have a reason to have a nice big (responsible) one once Saturday night clubbing strikes!

[No Brainer]

Have a read of this..it would seem that a certain CMS may be facing a few problems

[bss904]

is just me or does it seem that SCSI seem to spend most of its time in court these days

[IPAlarms]

is just me or does it seem that SCSI seem to spend most of its time in court these days

It's just you.

[No Brainer]

is just me or does it seem that SCSI seem to spend most of its time in court these days

Couple of answers to your question. Firstly no they dont spend most of their time in court, but with all the BS that floats around this wonderful industry of ours they are certainly a company that will act accordingly if they feel aggrieved.

Secondly, I am not sure if you read the news item correctly. There was an amount of 39k owed and as time went by it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would ever be paid.

As with any commercial arrangement a notice of disconection was issued and then rather than address it's commercial obligations the company went to the Supreme Court and in the absence of attendance by SCSI obtained a 24 hour injuction to stop the disconnection process.
I think they were expecting a 30 day injuction which would have given them ample time to run around and replace everything (but thats another story).

24 hours later SCSI attended the Supreme Court of NSW and put forward the facts. Based on the arguement presented on day one and the facts presented on day two, the judge disolved the injuction and ordered that the 39k be paid by 07/08/09 and whats more SCSI's costs for the day was 18k and the judge awarded costs too...so if you do the maths it became a very expensive exercise.

SCSI did not force the issue to court but responded accordingly...

By the way the money did not turn up as ordered by the court....im told that failing to abide by a court order is actually contempt of court..so i guess we will see what happens next.

[bss904]

Secondly, I am not sure if you read the news item correctly. There was an amount of 39k owed and as time went by it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would ever be paid.

Yes i did read it correctly.
My comment did not say on what side of the bench you have been sitting, but rather you appear to be spending a lot of time there. Perhaps the choice of word "most" was a bad choice of word.

By the way the money did not turn up as ordered by the court....im told that failing to abide by a court order is actually contempt of court..so i guess we will see what happens next.

[/QUOTE]

Did you really think that it would turn up? It will proberbly get milked untill the last second possible before it is paid.

[bss904]

It's just you.

Correct me if i am wrong, but arn't you aligned with the mob that SCSI are in court with at present.

[IPAlarms]

Correct me if i am wrong, but arn't you aligned with the mob that SCSI are in court with at present.

Securenet were the first CMS in Australia to install our IP Solution but did not connect any clients.

Since the "Hervey Bay Kid" attempt at hacking our solution and with all the other nasty stuff that goes on in the Aussie security industry, we decided that with the exception of some trusted ADSW/Webquery control rooms, we will no longer install our software into CMS's in Australia. All signals have to go through our data centre and then into the relevant CMS.

[intelliGEORGE]

we will no longer install our software into CMS's in Australia. All signals have to go through our data centre and then into the relevant CMS.

Problem there is a lot of larger control rooms will no adopt a solution which is not Point-to-Point. Some of Australias largest CMS's are not using Emizon for the sole reason that signals are bounced off a server in the UK.

[bss904]

Securenet were the first CMS in Australia to install our IP Solution but did not connect any clients.

Since the "Hervey Bay Kid" attempt at hacking our solution and with all the other nasty stuff that goes on in the Aussie security industry, we decided that with the exception of some trusted ADSW/Webquery control rooms, we will no longer install our software into CMS's in Australia. All signals have to go through our data centre and then into the relevant CMS.

But you still have the info up on your web site.

[IPAlarms]

Problem there is a lot of larger control rooms will no adopt a solution which is not Point-to-Point. Some of Australias largest CMS's are not using Emizon for the sole reason that signals are bounced off a server in the UK.

I understand their concerns and we will address each case on an individual basis. What you have to remember is that our solution is aimed at class 1-3 Contact ID dialler upgrades - not class 4-5 dualpath systems.

There is currently no demand in Australia for our solutions and we don't expect any for another two years at least. Hopefully by that time, CMS's will have learned a lot more about IP based solutions and will better understand the value of what we offer.

On a technical note, and addressing the concern of bouncing signals off servers overseas, the round trip to the UK should not be more than 200ms with the US coming in slightly less. A Contact ID panel will wait 1.25 seconds for a kiss-off, so we could comfortably bounce a signal off a UK server, send it over to the US, through a server in Singapore and back to a device in Australia with plenty of time to spare. With the whole process of dialling a number and sending a Contact ID signal taking around 10 seconds, a couple of hundred milliseconds here and there is not going to make much difference.

For CMS's using our data centre as the primary server, we provide them with a custom provisioned Linksys device that allows them to receive signals over IP direct through a line card on their existing FE100, Surgard or any other standard PSTN alarm receiver. That way, if the North Koreans blow our US data centre off the face of the earth, signals will go direct to the CMS.

When demand dictates, we will obviously setup a server located within Australia. This would benefit the video capture side of our solution where 200ms is actually quite a long time. Again, we don't expect Australia to jump on the IP Camera band wagon for another 3-4 years, so there's no rush.

[IPAlarms]

But you still have the info up on your web site.

Well spotted. We missed a page. The whole site needs an update, so we'll get to it eventually.

[IPAlarms]

Sorry for digging this dinasaur up, but it appears to me that you bloody Aussies are just too damn tight to have a decent recession !

I thought you lot liked to feel part of the rest of the world? You missed a great opportunity there with your little wanna-be recession.

My thoughts are that John Howard did a pretty good job of setting the country up with a really solid economy that has proven it can ride out even the most serious downturn without really breaking into a sweat. The new guy has continued to do a good job too.

Now, if only they'd chop up that Telstra monster and throw the scraps to the dogs - that would be real progress.

[watchdog]

Now, if only they'd chop up that Telstra monster and throw the scraps to the dogs - that would be real progress.

You think? Most people I talk to think things were better before the privatisation/competition was introduced. It used to be that the buck stopped with Telecom (Telstra) but now everybody has been provided with someone to point the finger at to take the blame.

[SCT]

Now, if only they'd chop up that Telstra monster and throw the scraps to the dogs - that would be real progress.

This process is under way.
Telstra is being forced to split up its retail and wholesale arms.