Apex Insight client reviews shows high satisfaction with report quality and value-for-money

At Apex Insight, we enjoy speaking to clients who use our reports. Anyone who buys from us is entitled to have a conference call to discuss the report and ask any questions they have arising from, or as a result of, it. We also carry out regular customer satisfaction research to see what clients think of our work, how we can improve it and what new areas they would like us to cover.

In our most recent exercise we approached all clients who had purchased a report from us in the last year for their input. We managed to speak to 30 and asked them a range of questions including how they scored our reports, from 1-5, for quality and value for money. The charts show the scores we received with the overwhelming majority scoring us either 4 or 5 out of 5 on both measures.

Apex Insight client feedback

While we are very pleased that these scores remained high, as they have been in previous years, we were also grateful for the input from those clients who identified areas where our reports can improve further. We are now working on incorporating these suggestions into our forthcoming reports.

We realise that it can be difficult for new clients to buy from a research provider for the first time. To give a degree of comfort, several clients have given us testimonials that they are happy for us to reproduce on our website. To provide more detail, here is a wider selection of client comments answering, in their own words, two questions: ‘How useful was the report to you?’ and ‘How does the Apex Insight report compare to those from other research providers?’

Names, companies and report titles have been witheld to preserve confidentiality.

‘How useful was the report to you?’

“It was invaluable because we came to the UK and wanted something to teach us how this market works here. And we needed to raise funding. Our investors needed a credible analysis of the market. Using your report we were able to get our funding: £2m” – New market entrant

“I feel Apex Insight reports are written by someone who is familiar with the market, that people in the marketplace are comfortable with what Apex writes, and the banks trust the numbers. I was comfortable presenting the information to our Board” – Corporate

“This is one of our strategic markets and we have many years of experience of it. We found the Apex Insight report very useful. All the areas we wanted were covered well, in particular the analysis of what is a complex value chain. It was more complete in this regard than other sources” – Corporate

“It is comprehensive and does what it says on the tin! A lot of it is based on publicly available information, but it would take me ages to put together if I did it. I think it is comprehensive” – Corporate

“We have been using the Apex Insight reports a lot over the last few months… comprehensive and provide key information, covering the market from different angles: the macro- economic view, market drivers, operating models and so on. There was information on how the numbers were calculated which gives confidence. Our new CEO came from outside this industry and he found the report useful” – Corporate

“It is really useful. The methodology is good: the logical path it takes you through from volume to value and product type. The graphs are good visuals, good comparisons of service offering, and the market trend part was also good” – Corporate

“It’s been useful. It’s the main report I use. I look at it 2-3 times a year. It gives us a bigger-picture view which we then can add to with the more detailed view we have of the market” – Corporate

“The report was very useful and gave good insights and was a good introduction to the sector. It was clear and easy to use. The forecasts were sensible and the industry experts quotes throughout were also good” – Strategy consulting firm

‘How does the Apex Insight report compare to those from other research providers?’

“It was the best report I read on this market… nobody questioned your figures” – Government

“As a company we buy a lot of different research. Overall, I think this Apex Insight one is the best I have seen. It is UK-specific, which is relevant for me, and it delivered everything I was looking for: sensible market figures and insights into competitors, their performance and their current contracts” – Corporate

“We commissioned someone to go out and see what is available on the market and were told that this report by Apex Insight was the best one.” – Public service body

“I have bought 3 or 4 reports from Apex Insight, and once I read them I knew this was the place to go and I don’t need to look elsewhere” – Investor

“It was the first time I had seen firm-ish statistics on our market as there isn’t a great deal out there. I have looked at quite a lot of other reports but they are not at this level. The Apex Insight one is ‘on the money’, it has granularity … I intend to buy the 2017 edition when it comes out.” – Corporate

“We have bought Apex Insight and another report because they cover different things…I would not say that one was better than the other. The Apex one is more of a market insight and the other one is more of a consumer insight” – Corporate

“It was well thought out, accurate and thorough. In the past we have used other sources, but the Apex Insight one is better” – Investor

“It gives a comprehensive overview of the market with good primary data, country-specific stats and breakdowns and detail on the leading players. The Apex Insight report gives recent data, ie figures from 2016, while many other reports give old stats from previous years. Also the Apex Insight one is a bit more granular and has more colour. It is all good, we are still using it” – Investment bank

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Faster growth likely in the security market

By Frank Proud

Security Market Growth

The outsourced security guarding services market is approaching £5bn in size, having grown in recent years despite a hesitant economic recovery.

The industry is being affected by series of important trends, some of which are important across business services markets with others with an even more fundamental impact on the overall economy. These include the growth of integrated facilities management contracts, the application of new technology and consequent reengineering of services, government spending cuts and outsourcing of services with the aim of achieving savings, the increase in levels of security in airports and other sensitive locations and the growth of internet retailing.

Retail, airports and government security contracts are the main growth segments in the market.

Retail locations have seen the deployment of security guards increase. This has largely resulted from the changes in the sector: smaller, independent stores and high street locations – which are less likely to have guards – decrease in share while larger outlets of national chains and shopping centre locations – more likely to have guards – increase. However, this has been partly offset by the growth of internet shopping, which has had a negative influence on the security requirements of the sector.

Airport security has continued to grow in the post-9/11 world with increased spending on both technology, such as body scanners, and the labour required to operate them. The security requirement is driven in part by the number of passengers passing through UK airports. But there has also been a significant increase in the intensity of airport security in recent years, in response to higher perceived risks of attacks on planes, with more people required to operate x-ray scanners and carry out increased passenger and baggage checks. With pressure to reduce queuing times at airports, security areas have been expanded and equipped with new passport scanners, metal detectors and conveyer-belt-like baggage control areas. These developments have increased security spend per passenger and the need for more security staff.

Prisons is also a key segment given the long-term growth that has occurred in prison populations combined with government desire to use outsourcing to achieve cost savings. The growth of prison outsourcing has faltered in the last couple of years, largely as a consequence of the service failures and overcharging scandals associated with G4S and Serco. However, it has recently received fresh impetus from a wave of probation service contracts announced at the end of 2014. In total 21 criminal probation service contracts worth a total of around £450-£500m per year (depending on success in areas such as reducing the rate of re-offending) were outsourced to Sodexo, Interserve and GEOAmey and other smaller suppliers in consortia, and are due to start in April 2015.



While crime rates have fallen (see chart above), public perception and fear of crime have not. As a result, demands for tougher sentences are widespread and prison populations have increased, with the UK locking up a higher proportion of its population than in most other European countries, but only one fifth of the level seen in the US (see chart below).



Across the market, technology, such as CCTV and remote monitoring, continues to be deployed extensively, both as a complement to, and in some cases, a substitute for, human guards. In most other segments, such as offices, public buildings, factories and warehouses, we believe it is likely that this trend has led to a reduction in overall market revenues – although the margin impact may well be positive given the lower costs associated with newer technologies.

Competitive landscape

The industry accreditation body, the Security Industry Association, has close to 800 members. But while the market remains relatively fragmented, it is consolidating.

In our 2015 UK security industry report, we analysed the performance of 15 leading UK security service providers, which account for over 75% of the market between them. This set of leading operators has grown faster than the market as a whole. A key reason for this is that they have greater exposure to the growth segments in the market, and are more likely to win government outsourcing contracts, than smaller providers.

Convergence between security and facilities management is also continuing. Several of the leading players, such as G4S, MITIE, Vision/Compass, Serco and Sodexo provide security as part of a much broader range of services with some having made acquisitions to enter the segment. However, some leading providers, such as Securitas – which has led a campaigned to its customers to ‘keep security separate’ – and Corps, continue to emphasise the benefits of providing security as a standalone specialist service.

Industry margins have increased slightly, with the average of the group of leading players having risen above 5% in the last couple of years. Price increases have been achieved despite the relatively weak economy and wage inflation has been modest. While most companies have seen margins increase, it appears that the most profitable companies have had the greatest exposure to government contracts and the retail segment.

Future prospects for the security market

We forecast growth to be faster than historical rates. The key reasons for this are the resumption of prison and probation services outsourcing which is due to start in April 2015, and the positive impact of a recovering economy on the other two key segments: retail and airports, with increased prosperity likely to feed through to both growth in high-street retail sales and in numbers of air passengers.

Increased market consolidation is also likely with a small number of very large companies becoming increasingly dominant. The nature of market growth, with many of the more attractive opportunities arising in areas where there are large contracts, supports this view.

The market is not without risk. The most obvious is the potential for a change in government policy towards the outsourcing of prison and probation services. In the retail sector, if changes in store formats, such as the decline of the large supermarkets, were to occur more quickly than expected, the overall requirement for security could be lower. However, we note that there is also potential upside for the security industry. If the outsourcing of a range of policing activities, which now appears to be on hold, was to return to the agenda, we believe it could increase market revenues by up to 30%.






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