Are Paperless Control Rooms the Future of Security?

When did you last review your standard operating procedures document file?

It’s probably gathering dust on a shelf in your control room – and when policies and procedures are left on the shelf, so does your ability to respond to incidents effectively.

Paper-based documents almost become obsolete as soon as they’re printed and filed on-site, making it difficult to update several versions and maintain any sort of quality control and consistency across the portfolio.

Sadly, team members aren’t even always sure of where policies and procedures are held, which leads to incidents not being properly recorded.

So how do you ensure a security team is using the correct, most up-to-date operational documents?

Streamlined

As with most efficiency and effectiveness improvements the answer lies with going digital; online or e-documents are flexible and immediate updates can be made instantaneously, just once for every site.

This type of central hub and information repository creates a paperless environment in the control room, streamlining the operation.

It also means the security team across your portfolio know exactly where everything is stored and use the same processes and procedures, resulting in consistent incident management and reporting.

Embrace a paperless environment and you can take it one step further: why stop at procedural documents when there is no reason not to operate with a digital daily occurrence book? Thus you can manage tasks and record incidents occurring anywhere across your portfolio in one place, online.

Information can also be shared in real time with key stakeholders in the business at the push of a button, removing any time lapse and improving accuracy in delivering relevant data to the right people at the right time.

This is critical for incidents which could significantly disrupt operations – for example, bomb threats or protests, where response speed can minimise impact.

An online DOB system, which is fully auditable, adds an additional layer of security to the process. Such a system could transform traditional security management for the better.

Online process and incident management has a major beneficial by-product: data.

This information can be analysed to generate trend intelligence that contributes to the overall security strategy and how resource is deployed to mitigate risk.

Ultimately, transitioning to a paperless control room, with the attendant benefits of digital documents and process, is the future of effective, efficient security and incident management.