Historically, many commentators would suggest that seriously in-depth studies undertaken of the security guarding sector have been somewhat conspicuous by their absence.
In Sweden, though, there happens to be an individual who has spent more than a decade doing just that: religiously studying the guarding world.
For 15 years, Peter Andreasson had worked assiduously as a security officer before he decided to ‘retreat’ to the celebrated Gothenburg University and begin studying for his Masters in Computer Science.
“Given my background as a security officer, it seemed only natural to use this opportunity as a way of examining my former profession,” Andreasson told SMT Online.
“Obviously, from a computer science perspective the logical question to ask was this… ‘To what extent can security guarding become more automated and optimised thanks to the use of mobile information technology?'”
Andreasson’s thesis work was undertaken in co-operation with managers of the security function at the Port of Gothenburg. Field studies and interviews with key players there resulted in a number of prototype software applications being developed and evaluated by officers on site, and then subjected to subsequent improvements. More of that anon…
Applied research within public safety organisations
The initial studies realised a follow-up ‘investigation’ when the Gothenburg-based Viktoria Institute for applied IT offered Andreasson a place within its Public Safety Faculty.
This institution, you see, was already focusing on applied research within public safety organisations (including the police and fire rescue services).
The Institute desperately wanted to extend its competence and experience to encompass the security guarding sector, the main objective being to unearth new and innovative IT-based applications that would support the daily work of professionals in this arena.
Between 2002 and 2004, thorough follow-up studies were duly performed. Funding was received from the City of Gothenburg’s own insurance company, not to mention the Swedish Government.
The global Top 2 security companies participated in the new research, as did the Swedish Number 3 company.
The City of Gothenburg is a major purchaser of security services, spending GB pound 6 million in this space on an annual basis. The principal security manager wasn’t satisfied with the services provided by established security companies, and the goal was to move on from reactive to pro-active risk management.
The first desired improvement was to have automated and auditable incident and action reporting made available.
For almost three years, Andreasson shadowed and interviewed many security officers. This included involvement with day and night shifts in many different environments, and an assessment of all kinds of services (among them patrolling, static guarding and response services).
Andreasson also spent time with the operational management team to obtain full insights into the practical elements of the administrative, planning and supervisory processes in place.
Major clients, of course, were also interviewed at length.
What did the studies discover?
Andreasson’s study suggested that the security guarding sector is characterised by intense competition and very low margins. Nothing new in that revelation, then.
Core production costs for the services offered are equal for all players based on regulation and minimum wages, transport costs and all other common service elements.
The industry as a whole is very conservative and bound by tradition, while regulation of the industry is still perceived to be insufficient.
Andreasson also suggested that a service like security guarding can become a commodity, with clients perceiving that, when taken together, service providers offer very little value differentiation for the end user.
The perceived ‘top’ security guarding companies publicly argue that they offer major value differentiation to clients since they are “serious, quality aware and well established” (dismissing all other players as ‘cowboy’ firms).
Even if the studies did show there was some truth in the rumour that a number of minor players were potentially being ‘less serious’ about how they conducted themselves, two facts remained:
cases of ‘underperformance’ are also part of the delivery of the so-called ‘top players’
these players are not always able to explain their own value differentiators among each other (or, at the very least, their clients don’t appear to recognise and understand the differences mentioned)
Security officers: what’s their ‘lot’ in life?
The first major finding in the studies regarding the officers themselves was the commonly felt insecurity in the performance of their duties.
They are performing tasks where a lot of information and many facts are to be grasped for every surveilled object, individual or premises while little time for training is offered.
Officers expressed a general feeling of performing their role without hardly ever receiving any positive feedback, itself a result of clients not being aware which array of actions were performed (during the night) and company bosses under constant financial pressure to eke out positive results.
A major outcome was that if all the small actions actually performed by security officers were reported, this would beget a positive spiral: clients seeing new and added values, managers being able to sell or defend the ‘right pricing’ for the job and officers increasing their pro-active activities (and, in so doing, improving their job satisfaction).
The actions mentioned were often seen as activities with limited ‘value-add’ and, as such, there was no perceived need to jot them down with all the necessities like dates, times, place and description, etc.
When IT support made all that easy, the accumulated reporting of such small incidents and accidents did add up and triggered the positive spiral already mentioned.
With customers seeing a report as a by-product, the broad factual content made all the difference.
Findings for operational management
On top of huge improvements in the standard quality of service provision the prototypes of IT automation could offer, there were three clear and visible financial gains determined by Andreasson’s studies:
In addition, there were many other advantages: the possibility to easily send officers to site who were unfamiliar with the given location, the ability to provide with last-minute instructions and reschedule patrols ‘on the fly’, etc.
The first saving mentioned easily satisfied any CFO or end user. This accrued time advantage allowed for a direct cost saving or for taking on more contracts with the same patrol car/shift.
The second saving is recognised by all who are occupied with sending reports to customers. The study showed that, in 95% of cases, this was still done by manually (re)typing information into e-mails: a behaviour that would raise eyebrows in many other modern day industries.
Outcome for security company clients
Most obvious of all lessons learned was the fact that clients actually see the report produced as ‘the purchased product’.
A written report in the client’s hands telling them all about an attempted burglary on site is, for many, recognised as good value for money.
Enhancing the reporting to include daily (small) incidents and the actions taken (ie fire door unlocked – locked, main lights on – off) immediately altered the clients’ perceptions about the security services received.
With full Internet-based reporting across all objects and over time, clients suddenly find themselves ‘owning’ full data mining possibilities. This turned traditional security guarding provision costing cold, hard cash into modern, IT-supported security management and pro-active risk management.
All of a sudden – and not surprisingly – payment for such services was no longer a burning issue!
What conclusions can be drawn from the study?
For the last two decades or so, it’s fair to say there have not been that many significant changes in the security guarding business.
However, in the Scandinavian market – and, most notably, in Sweden – a number of ‘early adopters’ began 2005 by modernising their businesses. Put simply, they allowed for different operational IT support systems to roll-out and support their work.
Consequently, the improved service offerings to clients during the ensuing years have led to a shift in the content of major public tenders. Requirements from clients now include process automation, clear daily reports, advanced data mining web portals and full insight into all activities performed.
Importantly, guarding companies not offering these services are starting to lose out when it comes to the major, multimillion pound contracts.
Instead, those contract are taken on by new players in the market who dare to invoke – and continually enhance -innovative technology that will challenge the more ‘conservative’ forces.
One can only wonder if this scenario will play out in the UK, too?
What happened next?
In the autumn of 2004, Peter Andreasson and Rickard Farby started up a company by the name of Blue Mobile Systems: a spin-out from the Viktoria Research Institute.
Their stated mission? To transform the research results into a dedicated software product for the guarding sector.
First and foremost the crucial issues of competiveness, efficiency and quality had to be addressed.
The resulting product is GuardTools. It consists of three software applications: one for security officers in the field (GuardTools Mobile), one for office-based operational personnel (GuardTools Office) and one for security companies’ clients (GuardTools Web).
After many years of continued product development, GuardTools is indeed increasing service providers’ profitability by delivering functionality that leads to increased effectiveness and quality, while simultaneously increasing the attractiveness of security as a service to clients.
Those security companies using GuardTools have now won many contracts (even when in competition with the largest players in the market).
The GuardTools users will also attest to considerable savings through the process automations now being realised.
GuardTools is now well known and established in the Scandinavian market, the solution serving clients of all sizes. Last year witnessed the larger international launch of GuardTools.
Together with fresh capital courtesy of a major private investor, a Dutch international managing director – Leo de Meere – was then recruited to drive the company towards international expansion.
Expansion begins at IFSEC 2010
IFSEC 2010 at the NEC in Birmingham, in fact, provided the backdrop for the start of this expansion and the response from the international guarding sector was beyond all expectations.
Statements like: “Finally, a tailor-made product for the guarding sector! It’s supporting the whole workflow, from the officers in the field to office duties and on to our clients” and: “Now we can finally compete with the big guys” have convinced Blue Mobile Systems that GuardTools will indeed be a success across the international market as well as in the UK.
Indeed, several security guarding companies in the UK are now transforming their business into “modern and digital security firms of the future” with the help of the GuardTools solution.
Blue Mobile Systems UK will present the newest releases of GuardTools at this year’s IFSEC, which runs from 16-19 May at Birmingham’s NEC.
“There will be many surprised faces at the show this year when we reveal the product’s latest innovative features for the guarding sector”…
That’s the bold promise being made by Leo de Meere.
Make sure you visit Stand 3/E55 in Hall 3a at the show if you want to find out more. For registration details click the link on the right hand panel of this page
