STid: Growth in the Middle East

GIT SECURITY: How does STid’s growth in the ­Middle East ­compare to the rest of the world?

Bastien Castets: STid is active worldwide and has over 700 clients and partners in 55 countries around the world. In the Middle East, STid’s local team has shown tremendous growth: our turnover has increased fivefold in five years, resulting in a CAGR of 40 % since 2017. This regional success has led us to open a brand new office in Dubai. This new office enables us to provide the best possible sales and technical support to existing and new customers in the region. We are equipped with a training and demonstration area, centered around our high security solutions for vehicle and people identification.
We are now able to welcome our clients, provide the best possible local training and demonstrate great levels of responsiveness and a proactive attitude to supporting their projects. We have always tried to carefully adapt to the needs and the requirements of our clients throughout the Middle East region. This has already resulted in great installations being deployed.

How do you explain this great international success?

Bastien Castets: Current trends in society are beneficial to the security industry. Companies all over the world and across all industries are faced with increased security threats. STid has been able to establish a solid market position by combining two seemingly contradictory needs: the requirement for flawless security from security departments and the necessity for a seamless user experience by removing identification restraints. With STid, access control becomes instinctive and ensures proper data protection. Our access control solutions are future-proof and can be easily adapted to changing customer needs. In total freedom.

What does “in total freedom” mean?

Bastien Castets: STid promotes open technology and is opposed to so-called “vendor lock-ins”. The access control market is anticipating the end of outdated, proprietary solutions. Since the inception of STid, we made the explicit decision not to ever lock our customers into their own security solutions. This is another strong differentiator for STid in this access control market. When you install a new lock at home, you don’t hand over a duplicate key to your lock-installer. This should be exactly the same in corporate security. You must be able to operate your security systems autonomous and independent from suppliers, so that you are in total control of your security strategy and have ultimate freedom in choosing the technology and solutions that suit your needs best.