By: Chris Fasoli, Director Solutions Innovation, Securitas Security Services USA, Inc.
I once greeted a salesperson at my door offering me a home security system. Given my security background, I pressed them on the presented offer. The package included a type of camera that I knew couldn’t cover the far distances around my property. Yet, when I inquired about other options, the salesperson had none and couldn’t customize a solution. While I wanted to protect my home, the one-size-fits-all approach proved to be an obstacle we couldn’t overcome. The salesperson left without closing a deal.
Security projects face hurdles like this throughout design and implementation. Amid high excitement for new or upgraded system components, clients and integrators can skip vital steps to capturing real security needs and developing the right, customized approach. A purpose-driven approach to security design and implementation must include proactively addressing hurdles to realize a smooth process and a fully integrated security program.
Great security partners can anticipate and plan for several common early hurdles, helping you develop the right security program and serving as a true partner. If you’re exploring a relationship with a security integrator, here’s how to collaborate to resolve those hurdles.
Establish a solid foundation of trust
Trust matters in business: PwC notes that 92% of business executives agree that organizations are responsible for building and maintaining trust. This is especially true in the security industry, where companies work with sensitive information and help protect valuable people and assets.
Security program designs can get complicated quickly, and implementation can encounter myriad challenges. Trust helps resolve those hurdles and underpins a successful, long-term relationship between clients and integrators.
For their part, integrators can build trust through comprehensive client discovery meetings. When we conduct these meetings, we unpack a client’s needs and underlying challenges. With that information, we nurture trust by aligning everybody with clear expectations and continually educating clients as projects progress through design and implementation.
Clarify your security needs through a collaborative approach
In the rush to integrate new, exciting systems and components, clients and integrators sometimes fail to define which needs matter the most and customize solutions to match.
Typical integration design includes primary and secondary security needs. Primary needs are what keep you up at night. They’re the mission-critical concerns that would hurt the most if they went unaddressed. Secondary needs are nice-to-have features or components that don’t address your most important vulnerabilities or risks. If the latest camera technology or integrated capabilities truly help you, we’ll recommend them. Otherwise, we stick to your essential priorities.
Designing this way requires a collaborative approach. Every key internal stakeholder should be involved to keep expectations aligned. As we collaborate, we ask thoughtful questions of everyone to help ensure all valuable data or intelligence is included in your security program’s design.
What’s mission-critical today may not be tomorrow; a good integrator’s design should account for both current and future security issues. Integrators should anticipate future security threats and challenges and clarify how your security program will scale and evolve as needs change.
Craft an operations plan
The best security measures are effective only if you use them actively and consistently. We help clients build good habits by co-developing clear plans for interacting with their security programs. Plans should outline responsibilities during a security event and include exercises to train your staff members on readiness.
Your operations plan should also incorporate long-term lifecycle management of your security program: staff training, support structures, and regular maintenance and upgrade schedules. Programs should stay updated to grow with your primary security needs.
Develop a comprehensive security program mindset
Beyond daily operational needs, your security partner should help you see security not as a collection of system components but as a holistic program that lives throughout your organization. This is what we mean when we call it a “security program.” It includes installed systems but extends into training, processes, procedures, and data-driven insights.
True security comes from these elements operating together. For instance, bolting in a camera doesn’t make a business safer. It also requires:
- Training team members on using cameras
- Teaching teams how to react when incidents occur
- Collecting and analyzing valuable video data from incidents and regular recording
- Developing automated capabilities to support its function
- Generating insights from data to support improvements in other company operations (e.g., the layout in a grocery store or customer interactions in a bank)
A holistic approach merges physical and electronic security to understand, enforce, and evolve security as a function of your business. Your integrator should design and implement a security program reflecting that larger goal to help better protect your people and assets.
Be upfront about your budget
The budget conversation will inevitably come up. You might not start with a clear budget or understand a program’s full costs. Different internal stakeholders and departments also often have different budget expectations. An unclear budget can lead to speed bumps down the road.
A trusted integrator should feel comfortable broaching this subject and helping align your budgetary needs and cost projections. They may suggest starting this conversation with quantitative data reflecting a project’s expected ROI or estimated costs of security breaches. For instance, a client may share that they have $100,000 of equipment stolen yearly, which gives integrators a figure to anchor future budget discussions.
Remember that trust is vital to this relationship. To reinforce that trust, your integrator should offer honest assessments of your security needs and budget. Nothing eliminates trust faster than overselling; good integrators know and respect that.
A purpose-driven approach to security needs leadership
Integrators leading with a purpose-driven security approach know the value of addressing these hurdles at the outset. Clients and providers avoid numerous headaches, frayed relationships, and scuttled deals through honest, open, and collaborative dialogue.
As you work with an integrator, they should help you by:
- Aligning your security program with your goals to ensure protective measures enhance business priorities
- Painting a picture of the qualitative and quantitative risks you face
- Demonstrating how your program effectively addresses critical vulnerabilities
- Designing a program that addresses todays and tomorrow’s challenges
Close collaboration lets you customize the best program while augmenting your core security strategy with effective new physical and electronic components. This process differentiates the one-size-fits-all option that gets shown the door from the customized programs a trusted integrator can offer.
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About the Author
Chris Fasoli is Director Solutions Innovation at Securitas Security Services USA, Inc. He applies over a decade of experience in the security industry to his clients’ needs and challenges throughout the security solution design and implementation process. He currently lives in North Carolina.
