What a Full-Circle Security Career Reveals About Real-World Needs—and Why One-Size-Fits-All Solutions Fail

I have spent my career in nearly every corner of the security industry, which gives me a unique perspective that is both uncommon and necessary today. I have been an end user in law enforcement, healthcare, and education. I have worked on both the manufacturing and software sides. Now I serve as an integrator. I have seen the gaps, the frustrations, and the opportunities for real change. Here is what I have learned.

From End User to Integrator: Why the Front Lines Matter Most

When you are the end user responsible for security at a school, hospital, campus, or city, nothing is theoretical. The stakes are real, and the pressure never stops. It is not about the flashiest feature. It is about whether the system protects, responds fast, and fits the messy realities of daily operations.

What matters is uptime. What matters is a workflow that does not slow people down. What matters is support that actually shows up when it is needed.

That experience stays with you. It convinced me that real success begins and ends with the people who live with these systems every day. The people watching the cameras at two in the morning. People chase alerts across a large campus. The people responding to a forced door in the middle of an event. These voices should guide product design, influence future features, and drive innovation.

Later, when I moved to the manufacturer and software side, I saw the other half of the challenge. Dozens of feature requests. Compliance work. Patch cycles. Competing market demands. Price targets. It is a nonstop process.

Companies that sell globally feel this even more. In the United States, people want fast upgrades, polished user interfaces, and deep integrations. In Europe, many buyers want stronger privacy controls, data residency, and strict compliance. These priorities rarely line up. This often leads to different branding, messaging, or even products tailored to specific regions.

Security is not an industry that readily embraces regional customization, which creates its own problems.

Why Most Security Feels Vanilla, and What KitKat Has to Do With It

Think about KitKat for a moment. Around the world, you can find flavors like apple vinegar, butter, green tea, and wasabi. They fit the market they serve.

Security does not operate that way. Most manufacturers push the same platform everywhere because supporting multiple versions is expensive and complicated. Regulatory hurdles. Legacy software. Language support. Testing. Logistics. All of it adds up.

In theory, this helps with efficiency. In reality, it creates products that feel generic and disconnected from how people actually work.

End users who understand what is needed often feel stuck between choosing something close enough and whatever is available. That is a missed opportunity. The industry needs systems that accurately reflect real working conditions, real policies, and real cultures, as well as the way people actually interact with technology.

Other industries figured this out long ago. Security needs to catch up.

UI and UX Are Not Superficial

The user interface matters. The user experience matters. Operators compare your software to the apps they use every day, not the other VMS platforms in the market. If your interface feels slow, cluttered, or outdated, you have already lost half the battle.

A powerful tool that is difficult to use will not be used effectively. A camera with great specs but poor design will likely be overlooked. Form affects function more than most manufacturers want to admit.

People want systems that feel modern. Not just in appearance, but also in how they guide a workflow. They want less training time. They want clarity. They want something that does not fight them while they are trying to do their job.

Integration: Why I Came Back to My Roots

Through all of this, one thing became clear to me. My best work has always come from being close to the people who use the systems. As an end user, I lived it. As a manufacturer, I watched when the vision collapsed in the handoff to an unprepared integrator. And I realized that the most important place to be, if you want to influence outcomes, is right next to the customer on the integration side.

At Premise One, I get to close the loop. I get to stay with the client from planning to deployment to ongoing support. I ensure that the original ideas are not lost. I ensure the system delivers on its promises. When someone gives you their trust and their budget, you owe them real results.

That is the work that matters.

The Part No One Wants to Talk About: Day Two

Most integrators want the big project. The large device count. The kickoff meeting. The closeout package. What many do not want is what happens after the installation is finished.

Day Two is where the truth shows up.

• A camera drops offline.

• A badge stops syncing.

• An operator forgets how to export video during a real incident.

• A firmware update breaks analytics.

• A door contact fails on a weekend.

None of this appears in an RFP. It is not flashy. It is not a high margin. But these moments define the real experience the customer has with the system. This is where trust is earned or destroyed.

On the manufacturer's side, I watched great projects fall apart because no one stayed long enough to ensure the customer could live with the technology they bought. That is one of the reasons Premise One stood out to me before I ever joined. We show up on Day Two. We stay engaged. We view support as an integral part of the work, not a burden.

That matters. Because for the customer, the real work begins the moment the project ends.

Final Thoughts

We are in a moment where security needs more than features, certifications, and polished demos. It needs ownership. It needs partners who stay engaged long after the installation is finished, because the real world does not operate on Day One. It operates every day after.

My path through this industry, from end user to manufacturer to integrator, has shown me the gaps we repeatedly overlook and the opportunities we continually miss. It also showed me something simple. Systems do not succeed just because they are powerful. They succeed because they are understood, supported, and built around the realities of the people who rely on them.

That is why I am at Premise One. We take Day Two as seriously as Day One. We stay invested. We stay accountable. We view ongoing support as an integral part of the job, not an afterthought. And that aligns with my view of how this industry should operate.

I am not here only to design systems or move projects forward. I am here to stand with the users who depend on them long after the project file is closed. That is the part of this work that matters the most to me, and it is the work we show up for every day at Premise One.

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About the Author

Mark Johnson is a Key Account Manager at Premise One, supporting national clients and strategic partners across the U.S. Mark brings decades of client-side security operations experience to his role in National Sales. His operator-informed approach helps organizations navigate complexity with clarity, align technology to real-world operational needs, and build security programs rooted in trust and practicality. He is based in Arizona.