First class security management skills. Astute manned guarding. Product and systems innovation. Developments in the field of security training. Best installation practice. Expertise in partnering and consultancy…
For the third year running, the Security Excellence Awards – the only awards designed to recognise expertise throughout the whole of our industry – have recognised and duly rewarded the very best companies and individuals in the UK’s forward-thinking security sector.
Last November, nearly 300 industry specialists and invited guests gathered in the opulent Ballroom of London’s revered Grosvenor House Hotel to honour the security sector’s highest achievers. The movers and shakers. The innovators who are setting the standards others must follow in what is an increasingly competitive and rapidly-expanding marketplace.
Organised by Security Management Today and sister Builder Group publication Security Installer, there were ten categories in the year 2001 Security Excellence Awards (an event sponsored once again by leading remote monitoring services provider Southern Monitoring Services along with new sponsors the id technology group, Prima Corporate Wear, ADE and Third Millennium).
The evening was expertly hosted by renowned comedian and television personality Dominic Holland – famed for his appearances on BBC2’s ever-popular ‘Have I Got News For You?’). Post-event comments suggested that Holland was indeed the perfect compere for the evening, ably mixing his own classic witticisms and observations on everyday life with a more serious agenda – namely recognising the splendid efforts of all the 2001 entrants in raising the public profile of the security industry.
Much deliberation on the part of the Judging Panel had whittled down a substantially increased number of entries on the 2000 event, enabling the assembled throng to raise a glass or two to the Best Security Manager, the Best Guarding Company, the Best Training Initiative, the Best Security Manufacturer, the winners of the Best Customer Care Initiative and the Best IT Initiative. Also honoured were the winners of the Best Partnership Initiative, the Best Security Consultant, the Best Security Innovation and Best Security Installer.
This year’s Judging Panel covered a broad spectrum of the industry, all of the individuals concerned rightly seen as experts in their field. Sitting on the Panel for 2001 were: Mike Welply (chief executive of the Joint Security Industry Council), Richard Flenley (group security manager for the Canary Wharf Group), Geoff Whitfield (security manager at GlaxoSmithKline), George Hodge (director of the Security Systems and Alarms Inspection Board), Richard Norburn (director of standards and certification at the National Security Inspectorate), Geoff Rendall (technical manager of the fire and security section at the Electrical Contractors’ Association) and Peter French (SSR Personnel’s managing director).
As always, the Panel was completed by Security Management Today’s Editor Brian Sims and Alan Hyder (Editor of Security Installer).
Presenting this year’s awards alongside the Editors were Steve Kimber of Southern Monitoring Services, Dave Solomon and Mark Hodgens (from ADE), Pete Jones of Third Millennium, Ray Higgs and Brian Dunn (id technology group) and Prima Corporate Wear’s Nick Atkinson and Michael Johnson.
Management and guarding in focus
As was the case with each category, the Best Security Manager and Best Guarding Company awards really taxed the minds of this year’s Judging Panel.
Deservedly, Paul Fullicks (national security manager at Securitas UK) scooped the Best Security Manager Award. Paul – who has been with the company since 1997, and also acts as security manager for its Cash Handling Business Unit – has been instrumental in devising a motorcycle surveillance scheme to combat crime at Securitas branches throughout east London. Having developed an overall security policy for the company, this dedicated professional has also been instrumental in reducing both internal and external losses (raid losses have fallen from GB pound 7.6 million in 1997 to just GB pound 1.3 million by the end of 2001).
SMT also congratulates the runners-up in this category, namely Meirion Thomas (security manager for charitable concern Safer Merthyr Tydfil), John Rosul of Lockhart Security Services (who heads up the firm’s Special Investigations Department) and Peter Vorberg, the head of security at Selfridges & Co.
The Best Guarding Company Award was again hotly contested this year, with more entrants than ever before. Shortlisted were The Shield Guarding Company, Securiplan, Whitehall Security Services, Noble Security Services (the Widnes-based contractor involved with the Trafford Guardsafe scheme) and integrated security specialist Galago.
Galago won out in the end, the Judges commenting that this OCS Group company represents “everything the end user would want from a manned guarding contractor”.
Operating from its Croydon base and various regional offices, Galago has increased its turnover since 1997 from GB pound 26.8 million to GB pound 34.4 million. Thanks to the forward-looking philosophy of managing director Bill Philps, the company – an amalgamation of Centuryan Security and City Security Systems – is now providing a truly integrated security solution that successfully combines guards and electronic security in one bespoke package.
Spotlight on consultancy and training
The Best Security Consultant Award is presented to an individual or consultancy practice that has demonstrated excellence in the field when it comes to leadership and participation in the wider security community. According to the Judges, TPS Consult took the honours here due to the sheer scope of its high-profile contracts combined with a wider contribution to security initiatives.
In the past year alone, TPS has been responsible for the design of no less than GB pound 22 million worth of security systems, while its Security and Counter-Terrorism Group has been involved with landmark projects including Portcullis House (the New Parliamentary Building), Heathrow Terminal 5 and the new buildings for GCHQ in Cheltenham. A worthy winner of the Best Security Consultant Award.
Runners-up in this category (all of whom impressed the Judging Panel no end) were the Buckinghamshire Consultancy (headed up by Maurice Parsons and Laurie Doust), Gordon Wilson Associates (proprietor Chris Gordon Wilson having completed several schemes in the Middle East, as well as a full CCTV survey at Entebbe Airport in Uganda) and The Paul Elliott Consultancy – an independent concern specialising in the analysis of security systems and procedural failure.
At a time when SITO is considering it’s next move in relation to becoming a Sector Skills Council (see page 37 of this month’s issue for further details), the quality of training in the security sector has perhaps never been under such an intense spotlight as it is at present. It’s a constantly evolving discipline. With this in mind, the Judges were eager to see award entries that demonstrated the active promotion of good working practices thanks to effective training programmes.
Thankfully, they weren’t to be disappointed – with the training teams at The Oracle (a 22-acre shopping and leisure centre in Reading), Group 4 Total Security and Gardiner Technology (an outfit that has successfully introduced CCTV installation courses taken up by no less than 1,000 installation companies since 1998) all showing up strongly in the entry for the Best Training Initiative.
Alas, there could be only one winner, and it was… Tavcom Training. “Tavcom has set new standards with BTEC training that the industry would do well to follow. The combination of theory, practical examples and delegate participation works extremely well”. So said one member of this year’s Judging Panel.
In the past year, Tavcom director Mike Tennent took it upon himself to meet up with EdExcel in response to demands from students for standardised qualifications in the systems sector. Scrutiny of its operations by EdExcel has allowed Tavcom to offer such courses to no less than 175 students – be they installers, operators or security managers. An impressive outcome indeed.
Rewarding manufacturer innovations
As well as recognising work well done, we hope the Security Excellence Awards are a great motivator for companies to drive standards upwards. Nowhere is this more important than in the areas of product development and innovation. After all, without the right products and security systems to hand everyday life for the security manager would be fraught with potential risks.
It’s good to know, then, that a whole host of UK-based concerns are rising to the challenges laid down by the Best Manufacturer and Best Security Innovation categories. No less than six companies – Cooper Security, Gardiner Technology, ADE, Guardall, Texecom and Pyronix – were shortlisted in the Best Security Manufacturer category, with Pyronix taking top prize for its Veritec P2 combined PIR and atmospheric pressure change detector.
Crucially, this is a product developed to comply with the ACPO ‘Security Systems Policy 2000’ – the main reason why Pyronix scooped the most votes from SMT and Installer readers.
Indeed, Pyronix also featured in the Best Security Innovation Award – this time as a runner-up alongside aSeCo and the West Midlands Police Force (of whom more anon).
Whichever company wins this category must have developed a groundbreaking product, one that meets head-on customer needs. This time around the winner was Cambridge Neurodynamics, the company having developed Tridentity – a three-dimensional facial recognition system which greatly improves accuracy over and above conventional 2D programs.
Rather than estimating the distance between facial features, Tridentity involves building an entire 3D ‘mask’ of the face, and then matching according to the similarity between masks.
IT, partnerships and customer care
Included for the first time in the 2001 Security Excellence Awards, the Best IT Initiative Award recognises the individual or company that has made the most positive use of Information Technology in the security sector.
Promoting “an excellent interaction and openness between client and guarding contractor”, manned services concern Securiplan is the inaugural winner for its construction of a GB pound 2 million multi-platform monitoring system. The system has been built to collect and store information relating to specific guarding contracts which can be accessed by authorised users via the company’s Extranet. An excellent idea.
A strong runner-up this year was the West Midlands Police Force, whose Business Security Mini CD-Rom has been developed to help retailers combat crime in the region. No less than 20,000 copies of the CD have been distributed in what is the first initiative of its kind in the UK. Other runners-up were Farsight (a pioneer in the field of ‘e-surveillance’) and Shell Real Estate Services.
The British Transport Police came top in the hotly-contested Best Partnership Initiative, pipping id technology group and Security Support Services to the post due to the sheer breadth and scope of its Operation Hawkeye CCTV scheme.
The scheme pulls together a number of disparate concerns including integrated systems developer Tyco and British Telecom under one banner to improve security in London Undergound’s 57 car parks spread right across the capital. CCTV monitoring of 550 cameras from three central stations is combined with manned guarding to offer station staff and customers alike a much safer day and night-time environment.
They must be doing something special at Reliance High-Tech, as the company ran away with not one but two awards this year – for Best Customer Care Initiative and Best Security Installer. In the former category, the company came top thanks to the efforts of services manager Steve Dolan, who has instigated an intensive customer care-related training programme for staff. A survey among clients has shown dramatic improvements in their levels of project satisfaction.
In the Best Security Installer category – where Universal Security Systems, ADT Fire and Security, id technology group and Pearl Fire and Security were all strong contenders – Reliance won the award for “an impressive overall range of projects with outstanding client references”. The projects that impressed the Judging Panel included a sophisticated alarm monitoring and CCTV installation for British American Tobacco’s bespoke disaster recovery facility in central London.
Both SMT and Security Installer magazines convey their sincere congratulations to all of this year’s winners and runners-up.
Indeed, we’re already looking ahead to the 2002 Security Excellence Awards. Details on how to submit entries for each category will appear in forthcoming editions of both titles. And remember… Next time it could be YOU or YOUR COMPANY being honoured. You need to be in it to win it, so take some time out to fill in those forms when they arrive!
