Good news for manufacturers

There was a sign this week that the overall U.S. economy may be seeing the start of a turn-around. The manufacturing sector posted job gains of 11,000 positions in January 2010, the first time the sector had seen gains in three years, and the largest gain since April 2006 (yes, it's been that long). In our industry, we saw a number of job losses among top security product manufacturers as they were faced with over-production during the economic recession of the last two years. Many security products distributors were simply over-stocked and cut back on new orders for product from manufacturers. Similarly, manufacturers that tend to sell through the channel directly, rather than through distributors (which then sell to the channel VARs), scaled back on production as their channel's product order pipeline shrunk.

While the Labor Department numbers by no means specifically focus on the physical security industry, let's hope that our industry patterns the overall manufacturing sector with a regain of jobs.

Panetta: Al Qaida attack likely
CIA director says methodology changing and that threats loom

CIA Director Leon Panetta has warned the U.S. Congress that there is high probability that Al Qaida will attempt an attack on U.S. soil within the next three to six months. Panetta also warned that Al Qaida (a.k.a. Al Qaeda) is adapting its methodology, and that the group may be inspiring homegrown extremists to conduct attacks that are not affiliated with the Al Qaida network.

Alarm industry responds to end of POTS
AICC wants an orderly transition

A week ago, AT&T indicated that it is losing interest in the plain old telephone system (POTS) and is eager to move into alternative communication protocols such as IP and broadband. That news woke up the alarm industry, which has traditionally relied on phone lines to communicate alarm signals for both burglar alarms and fire alarms. Some dealers told SIW they were ready to get away from POTS (also called the public switched telephone network, PTSN), and certainly technology is available to communicate alarm signals over IP connections. However, for many homeowners who are your customers, this is going to be a significant change.

In response to this potential technology change, the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, which reflects the interests of the ESA, CSAA and SIA, has requested the FCC ensure an "orderly transition." AICC's Lou Fiore wrote: "The wholesale conversion of the PSTN to packet-based voice services provided by broadband providers must be 'managed' so that compatibility can be maintained, thus assuring that life-safety systems are not rendered useless."