Professional monitoring operators leverage their strengths by being always-on and available to communicate with their user to demonstrate the value they add beyond traditional monitoring solutions. Connected devices in the home add new capabilities, particularly around monitoring services.
Consumers continue to embrace connected devices and services in their homes, opening up new opportunities across different verticals:
Energy Management
Smart thermostats, along with additional smart energy devices like smart meters, smart light bulbs, and various distributed energy resources, provide high-value insights to consumers about their energy usage. These devices provide consumers with energy usage insights and can be integrated into a monitoring or automation service to create additional efficiencies and peace of mind for consumers and business owners. Energy usage can be monitored and managed through smart schedules for energy devices, and consumers can see exactly how much energy their devices use and when they are used most.
Independent Living
The emergence of connected health products and monitoring services opens a new opportunity to serve consumers at home. The industry is undergoing a shift as seniors who have become accustomed to using new technologies expect to use them as part of their health routines in their homes. Service providers, professional security monitoring, and PERS (Personal Emergency Response Systems) monitoring companies are exploring their potential role in consumer wellness, remote patient monitoring, and aging with independence. Providing solutions for aging consumers and their caregivers is a natural first step.
In the same way that security providers offer home monitoring services in case of intrusion, there is an opportunity to leverage this same technology to provide monitoring services for individuals in the home in case of medical-related emergencies.
78% of caregivers who are interested in a professionally installed sensor-based independent living solution for an aging loved one would be willing to pay $40/month for the service; 94% would pay $10/month.
Safety and security are the core values for home services and are key drivers for security and connected health solutions alike. Security providers can diversify their consumer base by providing security-related packages with connected health and independent living solutions designed for protecting loved ones.
Vehicle Monitoring
Car security is the next leading concern after protection of the physical home and safety of loved ones. 69% of home security system owners are interested in vehicle monitoring as an add-on for home security systems, up from 39% in 2018. The most desired capabilities are tracking a stolen vehicle and receiving alerts for possible break-ins. In addition, a major concern for households with children is teen safety, especially among new drivers.
Vehicle monitoring increases peace of mind for parents by monitoring the car itself with vehicle diagnostic alerts, as well as their children's driving behavior—alerting them in case of speeding, sudden acceleration, hard braking, or a collision.
There is a valuable opportunity here for security providers to integrate vehicle monitoring services with the rest of their smart security offerings. For example, outdoor cameras with video analytics can monitor specific drivers, such as teenagers or the elderly, and alert users when they leave and return home. Some systems can use vehicles as geo-location devices to trigger convenient automations, like turning on lights or HVAC, when a car enters a designated area. As residential security companies look to extend protection beyond the home, vehicle monitoring services provide a new opportunity to build upon their core capabilities and create capture additional revenue.
Protecting Personal Property
Standard homeowner insurance policies provide limited coverage amounts for high-value personal property. Consumers note that the most important high-value personal property they want to monitor is electronics, followed by firearms, art collections (antiques and collectibles), and sporting equipment. Rising consumer interest in smart tracking devices opens a new opportunity for residential security providers to serve consumers and build new revenue streams.
51% of self-monitoring security system owners are interested in adding a smart tag tracking solution to their system, up from just 38% in 2020.
Extending to the Perimeter of the Property
Parks Associates research finds that 23% of home security system owners want to extend their system to protect their yard and outdoor items. While consumers are most interested in preventing home intrusion, trespassing, or vehicle damage, protecting the outside of a home (as well as the yard, extended property, outbuildings, and equipment) is a natural extension of a security system. Outdoor security can also achieve what smart tags cannot: providing awareness and insight throughout the entire property and allowing consumers to take immediate action.
Outdoor cameras and video doorbells have generated significant consumer interest in addressing these exterior conditions. Security system-equipped households are the most likely to have networked cameras and smart video doorbells, the first step to deterrence. An additional step is the proactive use of smart outdoor cameras that deliver LED and audio warnings when their analytics detect unwanted activity. To further build on outdoor security protection, battery-powered LTE contact sensors integrate with the home security system—expanding awareness, insight, and action to access points and assets on the entire property.
Security providers have a strong opportunity to offer add-on services and devices, such as video analytics, AI capabilities, smart lighting, smart sensors, and smart sirens. Adding analytics also keeps consumers connected to their home security system; findings from an Alarm.com study reveal that video analytics rules increased engagement with the system by 29% within five days after setting a new rule. When folded into a security package, the addition of some outside security can be a differentiator in a market where those are difficult to discover.
Monitoring Vacation or Rental Property
Protecting second homes properties is important for those that own or plan to acquire a security system. Parks Associates research reveals that almost a third of broadband households that own another property report increased interest in solutions that monitor a vacation home or rental property.
This is an excerpt from a white paper published in partnership with Alarm.com. The whitepaper addresses the expansion of professional services beyond home security—driven by the growth of connected devices, new technology, and unified offerings from professional service providers and DIY solutions. Download to read
Parks Associates surveys 10,000 internet households each quarter about the adoption and use of all technology products and services. For more information about our research, visit www.parksassociates.com.
We will be addressing the future of the connected home next week at Parks Associates 26th annual CONNECTIONS Conference. For more information visit: www.connectionsus.com
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