Volume 108

Click on the above image and use code sxst3gkbkn to hear the audio version.

I visited Ones Technology in Turkey two weeks ago and met with teams from Apple, Meta, Verkada, and many others in San Francisco this past week. I’ll land in Australia soon and then shortly head to New Zealand.

These trips are short but packed with insight. There’s far too much to capture here, but I’ll keep telling the story through Briefs and others like ACS, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

I have shared some thoughts on Turkey and Ones Technology in Member Slack and LinkedIn. If you’re not in Slack, consider joining (here). Now is a good time to re-engage if you’re in it but haven’t been active.

For context, Ones Technology is an Ankara, Turkey cyber-physical security company designing integrated hardware and software platforms. It blends credential-based and biometric technologies into unified solutions. Its flagship, BioAffix, spans access control and cybersecurity. In 2024, it partnered with RealSense to launch a 3D facial biometric solution for global use. You will them at the airport and many government and commercial facilities. The scale and complexity is wild.

The word I took away from the visit is mosaic.

Like the art form, their strategy combines different shapes (hardware), sizes (software), and colors (business practices) into something beautiful. What stood out is that they did not start with this mosaic. It emerged. Out of necessity, both geographically and from customer demand, they built early products in-house to meet specific regional needs. But over time, they recognized what it would take to go deeper in their home market and broader across the globe.

That mosaic mindset reflects how software works…especially enterprise software. The team at Ones Technology is living out what we mean when we all talk about convergence. They blend legacy access control DNA with modern IT-native thinking. Honeywell roots. Silicon Valley speed. Turkey grit. Their build methods, organizational detail, market approach, and partnerships reflect what many talk about but few execute. I’m telling you, it’s different and you should take the time to see it. For me and others I’ve spoken with, Ones Technology represents what the future of this industry looks like. Not as a theory or because they brought me there. As a living, scaled reality.

This is also why I have no patience for ASIS, GSX, or ISJ. These are not places where today forward ideas thrive. They are stages where those ideas often go to die or history is cast in stone and carted out yearly. Their formats are built to preserve what already exists. Their narratives are shaped by those invested in keeping change incremental or the same. Ones Technology, and companies like them, have stepped outside that model. They have unbundled the traditional security stack and are now rebundling it to reflect what progressive markets demand.

I flew from Turkey to San Francisco for four days, and I had nonstop meetings. The list includes Apple, Box, Swiftlane, Envoy, Ambient.ai, Axis Communications, Meta, Nvidia, Disney, Bytedance, Salesforce, Smarthub.ai, Google, Verkada, Seam, Commend, Hirsch, Rhombus, Oloid, Keri Systems, and more.

Each meeting had its own story. But a common thread was clear.

Like I saw in Turkey, unbundling and rebundling.

I know the concept is not new, and others have used the terms before (Steve Van Till has in the past), but what’s different now is time and scale. Now, at this moment in our industry, it’s more relevant and prevalent than ever before.

Unbundling breaks apart an integrated product or stack into separate, focused components. These components evolve into standalone offerings, or even entire companies. It usually begins when a single provider offers an end-to-end solution, but inefficiencies or innovations reveal opportunities. Think lock companies, PACs (physical access control systems), and existing channels. As these layers (and the layers of layers) are separated and improved independently, new ecosystems emerge. Eventually, some of those components are recombined into more flexible, modern platforms. See what’s happening right now with credentials, identity, locking hardware, and integrations.

This shift also changes how products enter the market. Traditional vertical integration gets replaced by horizontal collaboration. Instead of one vendor doing everything (the way PACs brought solutions to market), we now see products built by one company, integrated by another, and distributed through several, often tech-enabled, channels. Middleware, APIs, and connectors are now central. Channel partners, System Integrators) in this model are rebundling pieces into solutions that outperform legacy end-to-end systems.

This is not coming. It is already here. These unbundled services are in operation. They are working with your customers. They are entering your end users. Some are even part of your partner programs, although they may not fit the traditional mold. Companies like SwiftConnect(creating a network), Seam (single API for all locks and hardware), and Oloid (passwordless authentication for front line workers) are examples of this shift. Careful to discount them based on historical interactions or your sales teams feedback. “I don’t run into them in the market.” Ah, yeah. That’s the point.

Now, some of these companies are starting to rebundle. They are creating full-service offerings that resemble the legacy providers, but with very different motivations. Examples here are Sharry, NineID, Ambient.ai, Any2Any, ColorID, and others. They might give away hardware. They might focus on identity. They might sell direct. They might call themselves a workplace application. The shape may look familiar. The strategy and incentives are not.

Rebundling is when previously separated services are recombined into new integrated platforms. Companies package identity, access, hardware, analytics, and other layers into bundled offerings that are easier to adopt and quicker to deploy. Some are vertical-specific, some are white-labeled, but all are designed to move faster than the systems they replace.

You see it in Ones Technology. Brivo. In Verkada. Rhombus. You are about to see it from video companies. Even what Salto is attempting through Wecosystem is an example. Possibly in dormakaba, depending on how they integrate Legic and other acquisitions. HID and their push with biometrics. Acre security’s new life as a platform. ZKTECO USA.

These companies are not just reacting. They are planning for a market that expects flexibility, identity-centricity, and composability.

Side note, this concept is different than my story about the need for a kaleidoscope, but it is related. The kaleidoscope is how we view the market. The $10B high security versus the $100B security utility+ industry. The unbundling and rebundling is what’s happening in the market. Where these new companies like Envoy’s are growing. Where the incumbents are exercising their abilities to grow.

We’ve seen this outside our industry for years: Stripe unbundled payments, Twilio did communications, Okta and identity, Plaid to banking, and Canva for marketing and design. The rebundling came in the form of Shopify, Zoom, and Square.

So, why not access control?

Here are two questions I want to leave you with.

First, in a world where banking, fintech, media, retail, and healthcare…everyone… has all been transformed, what makes us think access control will be the exception?

Second, so what about you? What part of your business is being unbundled? What part should you unbundle yourself? What opportunity exists to rebundle it better? (I suggest you doing this as a white board session internally).

And here is one more for the industry at large.

Why are we still letting those who benefit most from preserving the status quo define the narrative? If their argument is to slow down, make them explain why not. Why not build better? Why not go faster? Why not start from where the market already is? Why not stop going to old and new shows that just rinse and repeat?

I’ll keep exploring these questions from the other side of the world from home. More to come from Australia and New Zealand.

If you're a marketer in security or proptech, you already know: most industry events aren't really built for you.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬.

Hilary and I have talked about this since day one.

We wanted to create an event for marketers. We've both felt the gap, not just in content, but in community, and we believed we could help fill it, because we’ve lived it.

So we teamed up with the crew at Bloxspring (Adam Malik PJ Appleton) to make it happen.

The first event is this fall in NYC. The next one will be on Bloxspring’s home court in London.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡
Thursday, October 16
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
New York City

𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧. Register here and select the member discount. 

If you’re a marketer in this space, we made this for you. Hope to see you there.

We’re not stopping at just recordings. As mentioned often by attendees in the surveys, we heard your feedback: there’s a strong desire to dive deeper, ask more questions, and keep the conversations going.

Introducing: After ACS25

This is a new series of 1-hour live webinars exclusively for Access Control Executive Brief members. These interactive sessions will extend the conversations from ACS25, with:

• In-depth discussions led by me

• Live Q&A opportunities

• The ability to submit questions in advance or during the event

Each webinar will be recorded and uploaded alongside the session videos.

First Up: Kyle Gordon, EVP, AMAG Technology 🗓 When: July 30, 2025 🕛 Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) 🔗 Register: Click here to sign up

After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email with access details.

Have a question for Kyle? Submit it ahead of time via this form or ask live during the session. I’ll be moderating the conversation.

Let’s keep the momentum going.