Supporting TDSi Customers and Partners in the Middle East

Normally the TDSi office would be buzzing this time of year, not only for the forthcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations but also with the preparations for our next appearance at Intersec in Dubai in January. Sadly Intersec is but the latest casualty of the worldwide pandemic restrictions which has left us all disappointed, not least for the chance for the TDSi team to escape the cold weather and lack of daylight for some much-needed winter sunshine!

Despite this disappointment, TDSi is nonetheless well geared up for 2021 and we will be demonstrating our commitment to the Middle East, just as much as we would have done had we been enjoying the company of our customers and partners in person in Dubai.

Plans for 2021

Our now sadly delayed plans for Intersec 2021 stand testament to our commitment to the Middle East market and beyond. We had a larger stand booked to accommodate a shared platform with our VITAPROTECH Group sibling company, SORHEA – specifically to demonstrate the powerful combination of combining TDSi’s Access Control and SORHEA’s perimeter intrusion detection systems to provide a fully integrated security solution.

More specifically on the TDSi side of things, we were going to physically unveil the latest software-controlled and Enterprise versions of our GARDiS Controller (having launched the web-controlled version at Intersec 2020). It was also going to be a prime opportunity for visitors to the 2021 event to see version 2.0 of our GARDiS software in action (following the launch in October 2020) – which is particularly relevant at the moment as it includes a lot of COVID-19 and New Normal features, including Occupancy Management, Track and Trace, integration to TDSi Biometric readers, lift control, and an expanded REST API for integration into third-party systems.

On top of that, we were going to be showcasing TDSi’s new Bluetooth Low Energy Readers and Long-Range UHF Readers – which are also perfect for dealing with social distancing and combatting potential cross-infection. Other infection-battling solutions highlights would have been the VITAPROTECH Viewpass facial detection and thermal measurement reader, along with TDSi’s integration with Hikvision, Dahua, Uniview, and Idemia facial and thermal readers.

Of course, full details, photography, and insights into all our products are available online – but there is a tangible benefit to seeing these systems ‘in the flesh’, and being able to discuss applications face to face with the expert team that develops and builds them.

The Middle East Market

It has been an interesting few years in the Middle East security market, with various political and economic factors slowing down sales. However, the end of 2019 showed encouraging signs of growth and 2020 was set to see a noticeable upturn. Obviously, the global pandemic took hold a few months into the new year, but we have seen activity starting to return since the peak of international lockdowns, with a growing pipeline of new projects which look very promising for the start of 2021.

TDSi has made considerable efforts to support our customers in the region, including the appointment of Dubai-based regional distributor and product support company ACTS (Advanced Creative Technical Solutions) in January 2020, which is in place to service customers throughout the Middle East. In the past six months, we have also added partners such as AMPS Technologies in Bahrain and Kuwait Secure, to ensure we have local experts on the ground and ready to support our customers with any products, technical or knowledge needs they may have for their security projects.

Despite the global disruptions, there has been a lot going on for TDSi in the Middle East. For example, whilst Saudi Arabia has been a slow market, and a lot of projects have been put on hold due to circumstances, there are clear signs this is starting to pick up now. The first quarter of 2021 and the end of 2020 look to be a busy time in the region!

Taking lemons and making lemonade

Whilst 2020 has been one of the most globally disruptive in living memory, it has given us the perfect opportunity to up the ante in terms of product development, which benefits our customers worldwide.

This has been particularly evident with the ongoing development of TDSi’s GARDiS software, which is developed and written in a highly agile environment. In fact, operating remotely the Development Team has been working even faster than usual, adding new modules and capabilities to meet the latest demands and rapidly changing situations. With our previous EXgarde software, for example, we expected to release one upgrade a year, whereas with GARDiS it is two or three!

What the events of 2020 have done is give TDSi the fantastic opportunity to prove our expertise and technical agility in dealing with the most unexpected of issues (our rapidly developed and launched free Track and Trace module being a great example).

We are sad that even Intersec 2021 is another casualty of COVID-19, but the world has had to adapt to social distancing and we are confident that TDSi is here to offer all the support that our customers and partners need, global pandemic or not, throughout the Middle East and in every other market worldwide too.

John Davies, Managing Director of TDSi