Biometric applications driving EACS market

SINGAPORE: Heightened concerns over security along with liberalization and strong economic growth has been driving the Asia Pacific region toward more high-end electronic access control systems in recent years.

The sheer size of the market combined with low penetration levels make for huge market potential, and the advent of IP-based surveillance systems, the development of property sector in Asia Pacific, and fewer biometrics regulatory issues in Asia Pacific as compared to other markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom are all expected to contribute to the future growth of electronic access control systems (EACS) in the region.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Electronic Access Control Systems Market in Selected APAC Countries, reveals that revenues in this market totaled $0.50 billion in 2006, and are likely to reach $1.34 billion in 2013.

"EACS have been growing in importance since the last ten years and the primary reasons for this are the sophistication and increased security offered by them and also the flexibility in their deployment that provides numerous reconfiguring options to customers," observe Frost & Sullivan Analysts Parul Oswal and Navin Rajendra. "Additionally, the overriding need to reduce fraud across government and commercial settings is boosting the demand for EACS. Both governments and corporate are deploying access control technology for applications ranging from time and attendance to physical access."

Among EACS product types, keypads presently account for the highest revenue percent share in the EACS markets of countries examined in this study. However, this is likely to change by 2013, with some countries expected to leapfrog keypads and go to card-based or biometrics-based technologies that provide higher security.

"On the other hand access cards, comprising proximity and contactless, are likely to experience increased adoption rates, and their share is expected to increase from 32.6 percent in 2008 to almost 60.0 percent by 2013," notes Oswal. "Demand for biometrics is also likely to increase due to technology advancement, increasing concerns over security and the growing urgency to catch up with the western markets."

Notwithstanding these positives, high investment and the cost of integration of the technology with the existing backend system are likely to be key restraints for the markets growth. Moreover, as there are no local integrators in the Asia Pacific region, there is a dearth of quality integration services, leading to poor market penetration for many technologies.

"Employee ID projects in private organizations do not enjoy the same economies of scale as government projects, due to the lower rate of card shipments, leading to an increased cost of deployment," says Oswal. "Hence, the resultant ROI for medium-sized companies with a few tens of thousands of employees is relatively low."

Overall, market growth is expected to be driven primarily by cards-based systems and biometric applications. Offering competitive prices to end users is likely to be a key success factor due to increasing competition from lower cost providers, especially those from China and Taiwan.