If you were asked by your peers to offer them recommendations on how to run their operation, what would you tell them?
Would you know which software is most useful in running a security services operation to its fullest potential?
Are you not sure?
Keep reading; we’ve got you covered.
Two software solutions are critical for security services to implement: a proactive incident management system and a streamlined guard tour system.
Unfortunately, we find too many organizations that are either using less than par incident management and guard tour systems or nothing at all.
Incident management and guard tour systems are two must-know software solutions implemented by world-class organizations.
These companies want to increase their competitive advantage.
So, how do you measure up?
Ask yourself this simple question, “Is my security team completing their tours as scheduled, on time, and with accountability?”
After talking to operations like yours, we’ve identified the weaknesses in most security operations and how to resolve them with software solutions that optimize efficiency.
For guard tours, one weakness was immediately recognized - accountability.
The first solution top security operations rave about is guard tour systems that use barcode technology to give them the accountability they need.
Staff can conduct tours and simultaneously include all the details with attached pictures, video, and even audio, using next-generation guard tour software
Imagine your security staff completing their assigned tours according to schedule and coming across a potential hazard such as a suspicious package.
This item might have been missed in your previous operation.
How would your staff handle this with your modern system?
Using your new software, they can record the date and time of the location, take a picture of the suspicious package, record the details as an incident via the systems mobile handheld device, and notify all need-to-know people using your incident management system (IMS).
We’ll get to your IMS in a few.
But, how’s that for efficiency?
With a system like this, you’ll now have proof of guard tour inspections.
Losing the ambiguity associated with legacy systems will ensure your security team is fully accountable – for all of their inspections.
Your new system will also provide you with historical data for all tours conducted at each property under your watch.
All information for a tour is recorded and reported in real-time.
With real-time data, there’s no question of accountability.
Agree?
Having accurate details and documentation for each inspection also gives you a way to identify areas for improvement through a comprehensive yet straightforward analysis.
All your data will be precise and can be used to move your security operation to the next level.
Analyze your findings for better ways to run your operation.
Here’s an example:
Randomize your staff’s tour schedule, making it difficult – if not impossible – for a security breach to occur on your team’s watch.
Give your team the tools to be professional.
Reduce your stress.
Create the most efficient and effective security operation ever known!
The next weakness is – fragmentation.
Information is not precise because it’s all over the place.
Legacy systems have poor reporting capabilities and an inherent inability to document all of the information, so the full picture is never realized.
Supplement your high-performing guard tour system with an incident management system that makes legacy systems obsolete.
Make sure that these two systems can talk to each other.
You need only to implement and use them together to eliminate fragmentation!
A well-thought-out implementation of an IMS with your guard tour system will afford you the ability to produce a proactive operation.
A proactive operation includes smart analytics, accurate documentation, full awareness, and enhanced communication.
Utilize an IMS – a real-time software solution – through which any number of users, at any number of locations, can be simultaneously creating, tracking, and entering incident details.
Automatically notify individuals or groups with specific details of what is occurring.
You can schedule an alert to one or more staff when a specific incident, trend, or location is reported.
Detailed and accurate digital records can then be stored for liability defense and ongoing analysis.
Your pictures, videos, statements, and additional documentation can be attached as part of an incident record.
Access the information three years from now or three minutes from now and lose the burden of maintaining, organizing, tracking, and storing all of that paper.
With the essential elements of who, what, where, and when on all incidents, your team can actively anticipate what may occur in the future and role-play all possible outcomes.
A significant benefit to security operations is the ability to set up protocols to display by incident type in your dispatch queue, so your team knows what to do when specific incident types occur.
This function eliminates the need to refer to the book of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to see how to handle certain situations.
Color-coding systems within your platform give insight into each incident as they have a different color for status and are time-stamped for their respective disposition.
For example:
Once an incident is completed and closed out, the incident is changed to gray and moved off the dispatch screen.
Color coding incidents identify when incidents are sitting in a particular status for a lengthy time, indicating the need for attention.
Another advantage of using an IMS is it provides your security operation with effective resource allocation.
The number and details of incidents assigned to personnel can be quickly viewed to determine who can promptly respond to an occurrence for the best results.
Quickly communicating operational needs to your staff ensures the most desirable delivery of professional security to your customers.
As an added feature, these systems allow for the use of mobile devices to quickly communicate and retrieve on-scene details of an incident as it is occurring – at the speed of type!
Implement an IMS, and your proactive operation will show itself.
How would you measure your security operation after reading this article?
We want to see you achieve Proactive Operations.
Use this article as the motivating factor to move your security operation in the direction it needs to be.
We’re always here to help – so let’s get the ball rolling.
Click here to download our free eBook on the evolution of guard tour systems.
Click here to download our free eBook on the evolution of incident management systems.
They’ll help you understand why these two software solutions are so crucial to the success of your security services operation.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.