Good security management depends on the good management of technological tools.
By Luis González Nogales*
In the private security sector, companies in this new era of connectivity and artificial intelligence have been gradually opting for what they call the digitization of their operations, and for this they opt for the acquisition of a large number of computers, servers, laptops, tablets and, sometimes, they presume that all officials, salespeople, supervisors and other personnel were equipped with state-of-the-art Smartphone, as well as the acquisition of sophisticated accounting software, customer service, etc.
Based on my experience, remembering that in this column we usually comment on the topics based on the research and experiences we develop, is that despite this investment in equipment, what companies achieve is to be more computerized than digitized. Next, we will expose the concepts of differentiation of the same.
The computerized enterprise
It is one that has a large number of teams and is usually one of the first qualities they show visitors, customers and prospects. The amount of equipment that your staff has, which from the receptionist has a computer and each desk has its corresponding equipment, an area where the servers are, and are extended as contracts, documents and other stationery is properly scanned and stored in the cloud to have greater security in the event of an incident on the premises.
All of the above is fine and important, but when the client asks, for example, "And with all this technology, where can I check when the supervisor arrives at my business, or what is the level of turnover I've had in the last six months? and I've found it to see a lot of new faces in the company."
This is the time when one can define whether the company is computerized or digitized; if it is computerized, the person who is performing the demonstration of the technological level of the company will respond with a "in the afternoon he sent that information to his mail, do not worry", he will look for how to change the subject knowing that he will not comply and will need some time to process such information, or worse, he will wait for the client to forget the comment and not insist later.
The digitized company
It is the one that has all the equipment already described above, and that at the moment in which the client asks the same questions already mentioned, the person who is attending it takes your phone or tablet and consults said data, giving the client the answer immediately, and most importantly, indicating the link where you can consult them.
The above would indicate that the company is indeed digitized, since all the equipment is in function of collecting the information of the different tasks and activities carried out by each user of the equipment, and all of them feed the different interconnected databases that will process them, resulting in having the information online and above all, get the most important indicators for the security client, of which we can mention a few below.
Operation and service indicators
The selection to know which indicators may be important and relevant for the clients of each company is an activity of the sector; the idiosyncrasy, the level of global perception of citizen security and others that only the company can identify, and therefore can develop it for their work, however, some indicators that generally worry customers more are the following:
Rotation: the rotation of physical surveillance personnel is one of the concerns most felt by customers and that affect the image for the company. This is usually generated when the head of security, management or other employees continually see different and new faces. This can be generated by different causes ranging from the lack of personnel to cover all services to a period of generalized illness, such as a flu epidemic.
Incidents in the service: the incidents that occur in the company and are identified by the security system, are another of the issues that most concern the contractors of the service, and in this aspect, sometimes those that do not constitute crimes are memorized, such as theft, theft, etc. These are the ones that are framed in what are considered disciplinary infractions, such as trying to enter without identification or access card, violations of fire safety or industrial safety regulations, which, without a doubt, are important for the different managers of the company.
Supervision and compliance of rounds: the frequency, the time of the same and the quality of the supervision, without a doubt, is an important indicator, as well as the fulfillment of the rounds where they are established.
The digitized company is characterized by several aspects: the first is that all its devices are connected to databases that record all the activity and these are accessible from different platforms, for example when a position or position is covered by a person was not assigned, but that is registered on your phone, tablet by the supervisor or desktop computer by the control center; this data is already able to be consulted, either by the operations manager or by the client himself, if he has access to his service data, and is even available to generate an alert or a message to those already mentioned; Parallel to this, the change will affect the rotation indicator of the position, place or client and this indicator will also be in real time for consultation of the interested parties.
The second aspect is that there is no redundant activity or information; for example, when the supervisor visits a position or position and raises the report, it does not do it on paper and then passes it to the computer when he arrives at the office, but records directly on his phone the data of the supervision connected to the company and at the end of the supervision also records the frequency indicators, registered incidents, missing equipment detected, etc., which will be available to interested parties, and the most important thing is that they can send alerts to replace missing equipment, perform preventive or corrective maintenance or notify the sales department of new business opportunities, if it detects business expansions or new risks due to the modification of the infrastructure or work processes.
Conclusion
We can say that the big difference between the computerized and the digitized company is that for the first the important thing is the amount of equipment they have and for the second is the use they make of the data they capture with the equipment to improve the service, what we call added value or the identification of new business opportunities.
Talking about the use we can make of artificial intelligence is another aspect that we will address later, but without digitalization it will not be possible to move towards it.
Greetings.
* Luis González Nogales is the Executive President of INCASPRI. If you want to contact him write to the email: [email protected]
