IT Management Assignment: A Security Alarm System with Face Recognition

Question

Task: Your task is to prepare a report on IT management assignment examining the new product introduced by the Australian Security Systems. Discuss how the product will help to gain a competitive edge.

Answer

Introduction
As evident in this IT management assignment, the internet and globalization have brought various advancements in the functionalities of every sector. The functionalities of traditional stores, shops, and enterprises are also not untouched with the advancements in technology, from using a computer to make bills to using security systems to restrict the unauthorized entry in the store; technology has covered all the facets of the stores and shops. This report will also highlight an innovation in the technology that will help the stores, companies, and every other entity that is struggling with its security issues. Australian Security Systems has planned to introduce a security alarm system with face recognition. This product will fulfill the need of the hour by blocking the unauthorized access in the companies as well as stores because this can lead them towards huge losses in terms of monetary as well as goodwill.

A security alarm system with face recognition will strengthen the overall security system of the enterprises and it can only be disabled by the person whose face is recorded in the system. This security alarm is safe even from hackers; they will not be able to decode this system which will help its users to take a deep and stress-free breath. In this report, a few screening will be done with regards to its success in the market. The first section of the report will discuss the competitive information and environmental screening for the product followed by the next section, where the product’s demand will be forecasted along with specifying its segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

Competitive Information
The security installation and monitoring industry has seen huge growth in past five years. The demand for security systems from households, businesses and other sectors has increased. The reason behind is the rapidly increasing crime rates. Average size of the security systems industry is approximately AUS$2 billion and there are more than 2000 firms operating in this industry. The top players of this industry are UTC Investments Australia, Wilson Parking Australia, Jim’s Security and ADT Security. The top three companies enjoy almost 30% market share of the whole industry and therefore, it will be bit tough for the Australian Security Systems to gain competitive edge. However, the product launched by the organization is completely unique as well as advanced from the available products in the market, and thus, if all actions will be done well, the organization will be able to accomplish its desired goals and gain a competitive edge over the existing big and dominant players of the industry (IBISWorld, 2019).

Environmental Scanning (PESTEL Analysis)

Political
Political factors like sudden changes in the policies of the government with regards to the operations of security systems can affect the performance of Australian Security Systems. Government may impose certain restrictions on the usage of such security systems because if a small glitch will be found in the security alarms with face recognition, the whole system will be collapsed (Anderson, et. al., 2017).

Economic
Factors like changes in the inflation rate, the interest rate, the foreign exchange rate and the current stage of the economic cycle can affect the organizational vision. Hence, economic factors have the ability to make a company highly profitable or likely to incur a loss. Social Social factors like how customers’ belief, their lifestyle, level of education and more can affect the performance of an organization. In this case, Australian Security Systems have planned to introduce an advanced security alarm system and the people don’t have much knowledge about this product, its functionalities, features and other aspects. Hence, there is a possibility that due to lack of awareness amongst the people regarding this product, the plan may fail.

Technology
Technology has the potential to dismantle the competitive landscape of an industry and that too in a very short span of time. Australian Security Systems has planned to introduce a security alarm system with face recognition which is the latest amongst the all available options and has the potential to grab the attention of a large segment of the target audience, however, if any other company will come up with a more advanced idea, the demand of this product will fall uncertainly (Prenzler& Milroy, 2012).

Environmental
The impact of environmental factors on the organization as well as on the new product is very low because neither the manufacturing of the product will create much pollution, nor its installation will affect any aspect of the environment.

Legal
The organization should take all the patent rights and intellectual property names so that none of the competitor can copy your product or can claim that your product idea is copied. This will help the enterprise to stay safe from such unethical practices and can enjoy the benefit of the unique idea (Salman, Khalaf&Abdulsahib, 2019).

Demand Forecasted
There no scientifically proven or specific method to forecast the demand of a product. However, there are several techniques through which it could be predated – like survey of buyer’s choice, collective opinion method, barometric method, market experiment method, expert opinion method, statistical methods, and many more (Suganthi& Samuel, 2012). In order to predict the demand for the security alarm system with face recognition, survey of buyer’s choice will be used. In this technique, potential buyers will be interviewed directly. This technique is also helpful to forecast the demand in the short run. The survey will include all the primary features of the product so that they will get to know about the product and how it will bring the ease in their lives. All the positive responses means the demand will be high, whereas negative responses will be counted as product is not feasible according to the potential customer’s requirements. According to the responses, below is the detail of the demand forecasted for the product:

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Segmentation
The security alarm system with face recognition will be beneficial for all industries as well as households due to the rapidly increasing crime rates. Regardless of the type of the enterprise, security system is much needed and because the available products are not much effective, every segment of the target market will be approached.

Households, enterprises, traditional stores, factories, financial institutions, and moneylenders will be the primary target audience for the product. Apart from this, all segments will be approached using an integrated approach, including traditional as well as contemporary marketing mediums.

Targeting
In order to target all these customer segments, internet mediums and the traditional marketing mediums will be used. Television, radio and newspaper will be the major mediums which will be used in the traditional mediums and social media, digital marketing techniques, and email marketing will be the major channels used among the modern marketing techniques (Camilleri, 2018). The results obtained from the demand forecasting technique will be utilized to target the leads and convert them into opportunities. Thereafter, the promotional techniques will be used to spread awareness amongst the primary and secondary customer segments. Moreover, illustration videos of the product will be marketed along with the testimonials of the users to attract the attention of the target and potential customer segments. This will help in generating demand for the product, increasing sales and eventually, all this will result in making the organization a leader of the industry.

Positioning
The product introduced by the Australian Security Systems is considered as the need of the hour because the high crime rates can be controlled. The security alarm system with face recognition will only be accessed by the person whose face is being recorded while installing the system. At a time, two faces can be recorded in the system with the footage backup of more than 48 hours. After 48 hours, the recording will be shifted in the hard drive attached with the system.

Therefore, the product will be positioned in the target market as the product which is the most necessity according to the current market conditions. This product will increase the security, and will help the people to take a stress-free breath. The positioning statement for the product will be used as “the system that cares for you”. This positioning statement will be aggressively marketed through all promotional channels so that whenever a person thinks of installing a security system or replacing its old one, the security system with face recognition would be his first choice.

The newly product introduced by the Australian Security Systems will help to gain a competitive edge along with marking it’s distinguish position in the target market. Slowly and gradually, the organization will be able to increase its market share in the industry and relationship with the potential customers.

References
Anderson, C., Low-Choy, S., Whittle, P., Taylor, S., Gambley, C., Smith, L., Gillespie, P., Löcker, H., Davis, R. and Dominiak, B., 2017. Australian plant biosecurity surveillance systems. Crop Protection, 100, pp.8-20.
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. In Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham.
IBISWorld. 2019. Security System Installation and Monitoring in Australia - Market Research Report [online]. Available at: [Accessed on 4th May 2020].
Prenzler, T. and Milroy, A., 2012. Recent inquiries into the private security industry in Australia: Implications for regulation.IT management assignmentSecurity journal, 25(4), pp.342-355.

Salman, A.D., Khalaf, O.I. and Abdulsahib, G.M., 2019. An adaptive intelligent alarm system for wireless sensor network. Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 15(1), pp.142-147.
Suganthi, L. and Samuel, A.A., 2012. Energy models for demand forecasting—A review. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 16(2), pp.1223-1240.