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Monday 08:30 - 05:00 Tuesday 08:30 - 05:00 Wednesday 08:30 - 05:00 Thursday 08:30 - 05:00 Friday 08:30 - 05:00

PJH Technologies, Durbanville (2026)

18/06/2026

💡 Fun Fact: The phrase "it should only take 5 minutes" is often where the real work begins.

What seems like a small change can quickly reveal hidden challenges, unexpected knock-on effects, and processes that are more connected than anyone realized.

Whether it's technology, business operations, or everyday problem-solving, the smallest request can sometimes have the biggest impact.

That's why the best solutions come from taking the time to understand the bigger picture rather than rushing to a quick fix.

Because behind every "simple" change, there's usually more going on than meets the eye.

15/06/2026

💡 Did you know reducing the number of screens in your security room can actually improve control and clarity?

More dashboards don’t always mean more visibility.

It’s not about having less information, it’s about having better-connected information in one place.

When systems are integrated, teams spend less time switching between screens, comparing data, and chasing context.

A unified view often outperforms multiple specialist dashboards because it helps users act faster, with greater confidence.

Sometimes clarity doesn’t come from adding more screens.
It comes from removing friction.

👉 Would you trust one integrated view more than multiple specialist dashboards?

05/06/2026

Trends in Security Integrations

PJH has been working in security and safety system software for several years now. Here’s some of the trends we’ve been noticing.

More Integrations, More Features

We’ve noticed* that there is an increasing demand for integrations. It seems like every time a useful new integration exists on paper, clients eventually want that integration, plus any additional features that can come from that integration.

Access control systems, fire safety systems, camera maintenance systems, compliance monitoring systems, intrusion alarm systems, perimeter defense systems, workflow automation systems. Once a client understands the power in centralizing and automating control to such systems, they often try to get absolutely every system they need into a central integrated system.

Proactive (Even Predictive) Maintenance

Multiple clients have stated their desire for ways to manage the maintenance schedules and status of their various integrated hardware products. Large buildings can have thousands of fire sensors, hundreds of motion sensors, hundreds of cameras, dozens of electric fences, and multiple other connected devices, wires and accessories. All of these need maintenance, which can easily become a massive workload if you have hundreds of sites.

With software integrations it can become a lot easier to plan that maintenance, especially since most devices and batteries have a known lifespan. Current integrations at PJH already show devices that need maintenance immediately, so future integrations at PJH will allow users to manage their maintenance schedules and get alerts if devices are likely to need maintenance or replacement soon.

Automated Data Capture and Reporting

The role of a security team is not just the safety and security of the site, but also the reporting of its status on a regular basis. These reports become increasingly onerous and difficult the larger a site becomes. With software integrations, these can be simplified and automated.

We see more and more clients asking for ways to automate reporting of their various systems into one centralized system. PJH already has a reporting plugin for Milestone XProtect, but every client wants additional features to expand its reporting capabilities. We expect the requirements for reporting to expand over time.

Dashboards

Dashboards are a powerful way to see the status of your system at a glance. They help you see issues immediately, and gives you assurance that everything in the system is working correctly. There are a variety of dashboards that exist, but we see an increasing trend towards expanding dashboards with more features, access to more systems, and we see a growing demand for predictive trend analysis in dashboards. Clients want to know if things are headed to a disaster well before the disaster strikes.

The Power of Unified Platforms

All of these above trends form part of the larger trend we’ve noticed. Clients with security and safety needs want everything centralized into one powerful platform that can do everything.

Right now, no such platform exists (that we know of). However, with the power of open APIs and standard protocols, plug-in products and custom software development can fill the gaps. A system like Milestone XProtect VMS, coupled with the right plug-ins, can manage most of the security, safety and reporting needs of any site.

If the right plug-in doesn’t exist yet, companies like PJH Technologies can build them for you.

*We at PJH have a limited window into the safety and security industry. These points are based on our personal observations working with clients, distributors, business partners, security services and tender applications.

02/06/2026

💡 Fun Fact: The “rubber duck debugging” method is real — and surprisingly effective.

Sometimes the best debugging tool isn’t software… it’s a rubber duck.

Explaining your code out loud (even to an inanimate object) forces your brain to slow down and notice what it skipped over the first time.

By breaking the problem into simple steps, hidden assumptions and logic gaps often become obvious.

Half the time, the solution appears before the duck even responds.

It’s a great reminder that debugging isn’t always about writing more code — sometimes it’s about thinking more clearly.

🦆 Have you ever tried it?

29/05/2026

A big thank you to Milestone for a fantastic event at the V&A Waterfront yesterday.

Great conversations, valuable insights, and an excellent opportunity to connect with others in the industry. It was also great to showcase our integration with Ajax Systems within the Milestone ecosystem and discuss the value it brings to modern security solutions.

We appreciate the invite and look forward to the next one!

26/05/2026

🔧 Tip Tuesday: Reliability is designed in from the start

Reliable systems don’t happen by accident.

Stability and resilience can’t simply be added after deployment, but they come from deliberate architectural decisions made early in the design process, including:

• Redundancy
• Modularity
• Clear system boundaries
• Failover and recovery planning
• Simplicity where it matters

Too often, teams prioritise features first and resilience later. But when systems face real-world failures, it’s the underlying design decisions that determine whether they recover gracefully or experience major disruption.

Designing for reliability upfront helps improve uptime, maintainability, and long-term scalability.

👉 Is reliability part of your architecture from day one?

21/05/2026

The Cloud is Addictive and Expensive

Over the past two decades, everything has moved to the cloud. However this trend has gone beyond its usefulness and is now hurting consumers and businesses.

Why did we move to the cloud?

The cloud provided many benefits, particularly to companies that did not have the expertise to set up their own systems.

- No IT management needed
- No downtime
- Low cost
- Easy to setup, use, maintain

All you really needed was a reliable internet connection and it seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, it was a trap. Big companies were often running at a loss, burning billions in capital just to get you to sign up and become reliant on their services.

Why was the cloud a bad move?

Now that you are reliant, cloud-based services can increase prices, reduce features, reduce support, reduce uptime, and more. This is because they know they can reduce their operating expenses and increase their profits without losing too many users.

You end up paying more, and getting less out of it. And I bet you recently got an email from a SaaS app telling you that prices are going up again.

That’s why we sell our software licenses using a pay-once model. You pay once, and the software is yours. You only need to pay us again if you need additional support, additional updates, or if there are ongoing server costs we need to maintain.

What’s the alternative to cloud?

Remember when you bought software for your PC, and that was it? You pay once, and it keeps working on that machine? That can still happen, if you have access to IT experts that can maintain Free and Open Source Self-Hosted solutions. At PJH, we use such solutions to keep a better uptime than GitHub, at a lower price than Teams.

We even keep a little spreadsheet that showcases how we save money by using FOSS instead of paying for SaaS.

What does it cost to maintain your own systems?

We still have some expenses and risks that other users don’t have.

1) Server costs, bought or rented. That adds up to a few thousand a month, depending on how you count it.

2) IT Maintenance. That can only be done by IT experts, which we happen to have at hand since we are an IT company. For others they would have to appoint a dedicated team or outsource it to a company like PJH Technologies. So the answer varies from “free-ish” to “a full salary”. However as the company grows larger, the monthly costs of cloud goes up so much it becomes extremely sensible to use in-house systems. A company of 50 people would pay hundreds of thousands every month for these above services.

3) Risk of downtime. We have better uptime of our systems than for example GitHub currently has. However if something goes wrong, there is a risk of multiple systems going down simultaneously. This means our standards have to be higher than many current SaaS providers.

4) Security and Access Management. A benefit of the cloud is that you don’t have to worry much about security, or employee access to your software. When using Self Hosted FOSS software, you have to manage more of that yourself.

When is it better to use the cloud?

Some features in some software aren’t available in alternates. You might have requirements that force you to use the cloud for some software.

However we have found that in the majority of cases, you and your team can make do with the free software, and using paid software only in the small gaps left over.

What do I need to set this up at my company?

PJH Technologies has been running systems like this for years now. So if you want to gain digital sovereignty and more self reliance, speak to us. We love to help local companies escape from overseas tech company reliance.

19/05/2026

How Long-Term Support (LTS) improves stability in security software

If you’re building security software, stability isn’t optional, it’s critical!

Frequent updates can break integrations with cameras, access control systems, sensors, analytics platforms, and monitoring tools. And in security environments, failures aren’t just inconvenient, they create operational risk.

That’s where Long-Term Support (LTS) matters. It gives you:

• Stable, predictable releases
• No loss of compatibility with devices and protocols
• Ongoing security patches without constant rework
• Less disruption to live security environments

Axis Communications highlights that Long-Term Support (LTS) releases focus on bug fixes and security patches to address vulnerabilities while maintaining compatibility with third-party systems.

For security software, it’s simple:
You don’t need constant change.

You need software that just works every time.

Source:
https://newsroom.axis.com/en-za/article/software-support-video-surveillance

11/05/2026

💡 Fun Fact: The famous “it works on my machine” line is basically a rite of passage in tech.

It’s not sarcasm, it’s often a genuine moment where environments, versions, or dependencies quietly disagree with reality. What works perfectly on a developer’s laptop can behave completely differently in production.

Why?

Different configs, missing dependencies, OS differences, network rules, hidden assumptions. Sometimes it feels like two parallel universes pretending to be the same system. That’s why strong engineering teams value reproducible environments, testing, and deployment consistency. Because in tech, success isn’t that it works on your machine. It’s that it works everywhere.

07/05/2026

Open Platforms Are Better for Security Systems

As safety and security systems evolve, only Open Platforms can protect you from obsolescence.

What is an Open Platform?

A lot of paid software is closed platform. You buy the software, it does what you want it to, but you can’t modify it, or interact with it as a developer.

An Open Platform allows you to programmatically interface with the program. You can use an API, or a standard protocol, to connect to the platform.

Nowadays, most big consumer-facing software projects have an API, and are often partially Open Source. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and many more companies follow this standard.

How does it help security?

Modern security systems are increasingly advanced, with new features and requirements coming in as the industry evolves. On top of that, each site often has its own unique needs.

Someone might need:

1) Facial recognition by a local (POPIA compliant) system, 2) Access Control from a Chinese Vendor, 3) Fire Safety from an American Manufacturer, 4) and a VMS from European manufacturer

No one platform in the world can do it all.

So what often ends up happening is that clients find the best solution for each particular problem, but lack a centralized system to control it all.

Open Platforms allows developers to make plug-ins and integrations so multiple systems can work together. As long as one platform, like Milestone XProtect VMS, is strong enough to handle multiple systems, you can pick and choose whatever systems you like, and make them work together with plug-ins or custom software development.

With a single centralized platform, your system is easier to run and easier to audit, which increases the power of your security and reduces workload on your security staff.

Do Open Platforms Introduce Risk?

Yes, there is one major risk when developing for Open Platforms.

APIs and protocols allow for much more powerful control over the platform. For example, normally you can’t press a Panic Alarm button 1000 times a second, however with an API you can trigger a Panic Alarm thousands of times in a second.

You can easily damage the integrity and stability of a system with a poor integration.

It is very important that integrations be done by competent and experienced developers. Especially in the world of Safety and Security, where simple mistakes can lead to real world harm.

Open Platforms Are A Lot of Work

It’s important that we don’t take Open Platforms for granted.

It takes a lot of work to not just produce code, but produce it for public consumption. On top of that, Open Platforms need to publish documentation and stable interfaces that keep working years after release.

Source: https://https://www.milestonesys.com/resources/content/articles/open-platform/

PJH Technologies

18/06/2026

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05/06/2026

02/06/2026

29/05/2026

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Monday	08:30 - 05:00
Tuesday	08:30 - 05:00
Wednesday	08:30 - 05:00
Thursday	08:30 - 05:00
Friday	08:30 - 05:00