World Corporate Security (Physical and Logical Access Control) Smart Cards Market

Research Overview

The Frost & Sullivan research service titled World Corporate Security (Physical and Logical) Smart Cards Market provides an in depth analysis of the global smart card trends, technology and forecasts for the access control market in corporate security application. It provides and overview of corporate security revenues and unit shipment of smart cards in this application, along with an analysis of key market drivers, restraints, and trends that are impacting the access control market for smart cards. Quantitative data is broken down into physical, logical and dual access control.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

By Application:

• Physical Access Control
• Logical Access Control
• Dual Access Control

Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• Physical Access Control: This refers to door access to buildings or other restricted areas within the confines of a private organization, be it a business or educational institution.
• Logical Access Control: This refers to PC and network access in an organization.
• Dual Access Control: A combination of both logical and physical access control is referred to as dual access control in this study.

Market Overview

Spillover from Government to Corporate Security Drives Market Growth

High profile security breaches featured in the media and increasing awareness of access control products are driving the uptake of smart card based access control products among major corporations the world over. Also contributing to their increased uptake is the successful implementation of smart card based security projects for door and/or logical access control to secure sensitive information by Government agencies across the world. Their success in the Government sector has established the potential benefits of using these smart cards, leading to a spill over effect on the corporate sector. Further so, small and medium sized organizations in the Americas are now undertaking smart card based corporate security projects, clearly indicating enormous promise for the industry as the market for these products continue to expand.

Nevertheless, alternatives to logical access control devices in developed markets continue to stunt growth levels for smart cards. Before smart cards became popular in logical access control, developed markets like America and UK were using other cheaper forms of network and PC access control like passwords, and in more sophisticated set-ups, one time password (OTP) generators were added. "For this to evolve into smart card based logical access control, the IT infrastructure has to be sufficiently developed to justify the costs," notes the analyst of this research service. "Until then, these alternatives may continue to remain a significant restraint to implementation of smart card based logical access control methods."

Growing use among Educational Institutions and Expanding Mobile Workforce Driving Demand

In the last few years, there has been a notable increase in the use of smart cards as a multi-application card in student ID. These cards are used to control student entry to restricted areas of campuses and also double up as an e-payment option for purchasing items in the vicinity of the campus/institution. Even in less developed countries like Philippines, several implementations have been rolled out over the past few years, highlighting the growing application of smart cards in the educational sector. Besides this, the increase in mobile work force is also a crucial factor in the growing case for secure smart card solutions. While wireless devices allow employees to log on to company networks more conveniently, this means that logical access control need to be tightened This increases the business case for sophisticated access control systems like smart card based technology which allows the integration of biometrics, two factor authentication and other more secure methods of identification.

"Overall, revenues in the world corporate security (physical and logical) smart card market are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8 percent during the forecast period 2005-2011," says the analyst." With more than 50 percent of the world's unit shipments of cards, EMEA currently has the highest proportion of unit shipments followed by the APAC region with around 20 percent of the global unit shipments."