Security Sales & Integration May 2021 - 61

On the RISE

In Partnership With

Olivia Peralta Preaches Access
Control's Future

Olivia Peralta, Northeast
and Great Lakes Account
Executive at Allegion.

On the RISE is a
bi-monthly column by
the Security Industry
Association (SIA) in
partnership with Security
Sales & Integration profiling
the next generation of
security industry leaders.
This column is part of
SIA's RISE initiative, a
community that fosters
the careers of young
professionals in the security
through networking and
career growth events,
education and professional
development offerings and
scholarship opportunities.

securitysales.com

SS2105 pp60-61 Products-On the Rise.indd 61

▶ What has your career path been?
After college I didn't know exactly what direction
to head, and although I was thankful for opportunity, I was eager to start my career. In 2017,
hard work and luck struck, and I found a fastpaced startup in Boulder, Colo. that wanted to
grow, succeed and see its employees do the same.
ISONAS was my first taste of access control and
software as a service [SaaS], and I was hooked. I
quickly moved from customer service to account
executive, and I have hopes of product management as my understanding of the market and
what customers want has grown, along with my
empathy and desire to solve problems.
▶ What do you enjoy most about being at
your company - and in the security
industry?
I proudly stand with Allegion's core values, and I
love working for a company that puts employees
first. I've met so many talented people within our
organization - it seems every day I'm making a
new connection with gifted individuals. The security industry in general is thrilling for me, as
it's constantly evolving, and new products enter
the marketplace often. Also, there are many facets of security, and I know that if I ever wanted to
learn more about cyber/IT, physical, etc., I don't
have to go far to do so.
▶ How does the SIA RISE community
help foster the careers of young people
in the industry? What does the program
offer that is most important to you/your
company?
I'm thankful for SIA's platform. Community
within a field is very important for networking,
growth and meeting others who share common
interests. SIA RISE wants to see young professionals excel; they're greatly helping already with
the events the hold, the scholarship opportunities they offer and the people they bring together.
▶ How have the shifts to SaaS and
recurring revenue models impacted
your work, and what do these changes

mean for the industry?
Access control on a customer's network has literally opened doors for many small- and medium-sized businesses especially. I started off my
career selling SaaS/subscription-based software
and saw the benefits immediately. Customers
no longer need to monitor and maintain servers
and keep their software up to date and can access
their software remotely to unlock/lock doors,
etc. We have also seen more managed service
providers [MSPs] grow their portfolios by adding access control to their offerings. MSPs build
networks and are now deploying access control
more regularly, as network-oriented products
reside on available infrastructure they designed.

▶ Where do you think access control
and the physical security industry are
headed the next five to 10 years?
In terms of physical security, where a panel-based analog solution has run the marketplace for decades, we are seeing drastic changes
and a shift to hosted SaaS opportunities. For
many end users, we're trending away from
on-premises software that ages, on a machine
that ages, unless you pay for software upgrade
plans, manually downloading new releases,
updating operating systems, and heading toward a hosted marketplace. Recurring revenue
is gold, and subscription-based software is the
future. Also, with the COVID-19 curveball of
2020, I believe end user needs have drastically
changed. I think we will also see software integrations grow. Access control software will fully
integrate with things like building automation,
contact tracing for COVID, memberships and
travel software. Open web API options that give
end users and integrators the tools to write their
own integrations will continue to rise due to
these requests as well, so having a team that can
develop a sandbox environment and web API
to allow for these kinds of integrations gives the
product a step-up against competitors. My access control software, along with my business, is
a living and growing script where new features
can be pushed out remotely overnight.
MAY 2021 Security Sales & Integration

4/16/21 4:01 PM

http://www.securitysales.com

Security Sales & Integration May 2021

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