In this Q&A, we feature Henry Olivares, President of APL Access & Security, who brings decades of experience supporting municipal, state, and corporate security initiatives. Henry discusses how customer priorities are shifting back toward access control while organizations cautiously navigate the emerging use of AI and smart video technologies. He also shares insights into how budget-ready customers are balancing innovation with liability concerns, especially in highly regulated environments.
How are your customers’ security priorities evolving, and what challenges are they most focused on solving today?
What we are seeing today is a shift back toward access control after several years of heavy focus on video. Customers are looking to secure more doors and gates and expand the use of card access systems. Earlier in the industry, access control and intrusion detection were the foundation, but after 9/11, video surveillance became the dominant priority. While video remains important, especially in commercial environments, many organizations are cautious about fully adopting AI-driven detection until clear company policies are in place.
This hesitation is particularly evident with municipalities and unionized environments, where liability and privacy concerns are a major challenge. On the access control side, customers tend to be more confident because they know exactly what they want to secure. The biggest challenge today is navigating how to implement smart video and AI responsibly. Budgets are often available across municipal, state, and corporate sectors, but organizations are working to balance innovation with risk management and liability reduction.
When evaluating new security technologies, what factors do you consider most important to ensure they deliver long-term value for your clients?
When we implement a new technology, we focus on whether the system can support our customers for the next five to ten years. It must be expandable and upgradeable. In the past, systems could run for ten years with minimal change, but today customers often need hardware and software upgrades much sooner. They want to understand how long their investment will truly last.
Clients are also evaluating whether their security solutions should remain on-premises or move to cloud-based systems. Over the past three years, we’ve seen a significant increase in trust in cloud environments. Customers are more open to these models than ever before, and that shift is influencing how long-term security strategies are built.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to organizations planning a major security technology upgrade?
One of the biggest considerations we discuss with customers, especially municipalities, is not just how they will upgrade their system, but how they will maintain it. Organizations need to decide whether maintenance will be handled in-house, through warranties, or via a formal service agreement with an integrator.
In the past, maintenance agreements were often the default, but today many organizations have technically skilled staff who want to manage their own systems. We advise customers on all available options and, in some cases, train and certify their teams so they can maintain and troubleshoot systems internally. It’s not about avoiding maintenance agreements, rather it’s about ensuring the right knowledge and resources are in place so the system is properly supported over time.