Among the featured presenters on Tuesday was Elizabeth Parks, president of Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates. Her presentation, titled “Value of Monitoring: Expanding Beyond the Traditional Use Cases,” centered on new opportunities that are emerging for professional monitoring services to deliver new benefits to today’s connected consumers.

One area Parks discussed briefly was the rise in asset tracking, including the use of tiles for real-time identification and location of goods paired with professional monitoring. This corresponds with the upcoming release of the Apple AirTag, a small circular tag that allows users to track items within Apple’s “Find My” app on iOS.

Parks also referenced ADT, which is expanding into the enterprise market with this type of technology.
“When you see that happening in the enterprise or commercial market, it won’t be too far off that it will trickle down to the consumer space,” Parks said. As RFID costs continue on a downward trend, “I think we’re going to continue seeing monitoring services that are tied to smart tags as a real opportunity.”

Another burgeoning service the research firm is following closely in the connected home space is indoor air quality and the role for professional monitoring solutions. Prior to COVID-19, a lot of consumers may not have given the topic much thought. However, Parks Associates has recently queried consumers about health conditions that concern them and found that 30% of all broadband households have experienced allergies. Almost half report some kind of indoor air quality health-related condition.

“This is 30 million households that show that they have some kind of allergy and potentially have an interest in air quality services,” she said.

Parks cited a specific data point: 43% of security system owners with professional monitoring are very likely to subscribe to services that analyze air quality and recommend an action for $2.99 a month. “That may be a small amount of money per month, but is adding to that larger service offering,” she said.

From the article "TMA Mid-Year Meeting Examines Monitoring Beyond Usual Use Cases" by Rodney Bosch.