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‘The standard cannot
stand still’
Interview with Mrs Myriam Bevillon, Gunnebo
AB, and Vice Chairperson of ESSA.
Gunnebo AB is an international
company with the headquarter in
Gothenburg. About 5700 employees
in 33 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia und America work for the
company with sales amounting to
E610m.
Gunnebo AB focuses on Bank Security &
Cash Handling, Secure Storage, Entrance
Control und Service.
At Gunnebo, Myriam Bevillon works as a
R&D Market Support Director. In 2013 she
joined the Executive Committee of ESSA
and acts as a Vice Chairperson.
Mrs. Bevillon, what are you
working on these days?
I am in charge of research and
development for Physical Security and
Cash Handling Systems at the Gunnebo
Security Group. Right now we have a lot
of projects in the development pipeline,
for example, we are mainly working on
renewing ranges of safes and vault doors
and also on strengthening our offering
within solutions for cash handling. This
is hot topic within the retail, CIT and
banking segments I have to make sure
projects are developed on time, at cost,
and that the outcome meets our markets’
expectations.
You have relied on the ECB•S
certification for several years
now. What is the feedback you get?
ECB•S is regarded as a very serious and
strong certification. To start with, it took
some time to be recognized on some
markets, but now we have made a lot of
progress even if we are still faced with
some challenges. Outside of Europe, for
example, we still have some work to do.
This is probably the next move, if ESSA
wants to take another dimension .
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THE NOV/DEC 2014 ISSUE
SPONSORED BY DAVENPORT BURGESS
The product cycles of safes are
sometimes very long. Which
technical trends dominate
the market right now?
For quite some time now, we have
been seeing a downward trend for safes
(in terms of levels bought) and physical
security in general, so it is obvious
that we cannot rely purely on physical
security anymore. Today, securing an
area requires a combination of solutions.
It includes physical solutions like safes,
possibly combined with entrance
security and other electronic solutions
like alarms and access control. We
are moving into more intelligent and
software-based solutions which create
more value for our customers.
Is the ECB•S certification
prepared for that?
Partially, but it has to catch up in
certain areas. These things have to
be integrated into the certification
processes. Right now, it is a little bit
difficult. We have some solutions
we cannot use, because they are not
integrated in the standard or evaluation
process yet. Therefore they are not a
part of the certification. The standards
need to keep pace with the evolution of
technology.
Gunnebo is a company with a
long tradition. Which fields will
you focus on in the future?
At Gunnebo, the turnaround from pure
physical solutions to more integrated
solutions already started 15 years
ago.So we will continue in this vein,
which is why we are now focusing in
developing solutions for Cash Handling.
Conventional solutions will still be
there in the years to come, but they
will be more complex, and they will
have to be “connected” We also have to
.
take into consideration the increasing
sophistication of fraud and burglary
methods.
What are your expectations when it
comes to international competitors?
Competition is growing for sure. It is
not necessarily that more competitors are
entering the market, it is more the fact that
the companies themselves are expanding
into new regional markets. They are
now getting outside their borders. We
see competitors from many different
countries offering products everywhere.
But it is going both ways. Just as there
are companies from China, India and
Russia entering into the European market,
European players are also developing their
businesses in those countries.
‘We have to make sure the
standard is sticking to reality’
Which role do markets like China
and Russia play? How can ESSA
make an impact for its members?
There are two aspects to this: firstly,
China, India and Russia are big markets
and companies would like to get in. But
they are markets with their own standards
and their own certifications. ECB•S is still
in development to be accepted in China
and India, but ESSA is now starting to
develop relationships with certification
bodies to exchange information and to
work more closely together.
A big advantage of the European
Standards is their flexibility when it
comes to new methods of burglary.
Right now the new tool catalogue of
the EN 1143-1 is a point of discussion
in the standardizations committee.
Are they on the right track?
Yes, definitely. The standard cannot
stand still. We have to make sure the
standard is sticking to reality. The standard
is a dynamic tool, it is not a dead body.
And as I mentioned above, “methods of
burglary are always developing” so the
,
standards need to be one step ahead!
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