“Traditional guarding hasn’t shifted to offer more convenience like the rest of our lives have,” said Andrew Dunn, Head of Growth at RSPNDR. “In our on-demand world, why shouldn’t that be the case for security?”
This point started the discussion during the webinar “How to Transform Traditional Guarding Infrastructure for Modern Security Teams,” featuring Dunn, along with HiveWatch Co-Founder & CEO Ryan Schonfeld and Sujan Sivanantham, Senior Manager, Customer Strategy and Operations for Bell Canada. The panelists talked about some of the challenges that traditional guarding has, the way security has changed throughout the years, how technology is impacting guarding, and what might be on the horizon.
Challenges with traditional guarding are well documented, including managing third-party guarding companies (sometimes multiple companies), hard-to-find workers, lack of transparency, ongoing management, missing data, and much more. And while Schonfeld said there’s always going to need to be a balance between people and technology, he also explained there is a significant shift happening that highlights how technology is contributing more to the conversation around effective guarding practices.
Here are three main takeaways from the discussion (and how it might impact you):
"Throw a guard at it" doesn't work anymore.
Dunn brought up a valuable point that many security teams are experiencing: Gone are the days where security leaders can allocate an additional guarding resource and “call it good.” For one thing, guards are harder to come by (the turnover rates for some organizations are 100%, bringing even more issues to the forefront).
As resources become constrained, it’s not as easy to find the help that organizations need. It’s also not as cost-effective. Staffing a guard (or a whole team of these resources) is costly – and organizations are largely starting to see budgets constrict or be cut altogether, making it harder to justify the cost.
There’s also a larger conversation to be had: about how guards and local law enforcement are impacted by increasing numbers of incidents. The inability for the public sector to answer all of the alarms triggered, coupled with the lack of guarding resources available, has meant that these challenges are reaching critical mass.
Data is missing or unused.
Panelists agreed that data is the key to shifting from reactive security to proactive methods. But sometimes the data isn’t being used properly – or collected at all.
“When I was a guard, and now as I manage guards, there isn’t enough data available to help drive change,” Sivanantham said. Dunn added that as organizations demand more information about the efficacy of their guarding programs, security leaders will need to get to a more predictive state. This includes looking at historical data around incident counts, types of incidents, frequency, time to respond/resolve, location of incidents, and more in an effort to make better decisions about implementing guarding resources.
"There's power in getting to that predictive state by using data that's collected and analyzed by technology – and working together to solve that problem." Andrew Dunn, RSPNDR
Technology is central to the changing landscape.
Sivanantham said that from his experience, the security industry lags behind with the technology available to effectively manage guarding resources and provide security to the end user – and this can be a problem in his company.
“What I’ve spent my career doing is changing the standard of what normal looks like in the guarding world,” Dunn said. “We can do it more passively, and cost-effectively, than ever before.”
Technology can address some of the biggest challenges for managing guards and third-party relationships, by addressing “antiquated communications,” according to Schonfeld. Couple that with having to manage multiple providers and measuring data becomes a real challenge for corporations. Introducing technology that not only works across providers, but allows for communication bi-directionally, integrates with local emergency services, reduces time-to-respond and time-to-resolve, and compiles all of the relevant metrics to give security leaders a peek at their operations, brings security to another level.
As security looks for ways to streamline the use of resources, amplify the necessity of security programs, and leverage technology to create more accountability for guarding resources, it’s time to take a deeper look at how your guards are being used.
To learn more about implementing a platform to help, click here.
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