For many businesses, security is a grudge purchase.Money gets thrown at solving a security issue, only to later discover holes that can only be plugged with more money.
Before committing to any security solution, therefore, companies need to carefully consider, from the outset, what the strengths and weaknesses are of the available solutions, and choose those solutions that are most complementary. A very good example of complementary security solutions is onsite guarding paired with offsite, independent monitoring.
Many companies employ guards to watch over their assets. A guard can be an excellent deterrent, but being human, a guard is subject to issues such as self-preservation, self-interest, boredom and tiredness, with the result that most guards will generally do as little as is required to keep their job. For this reason, most guards cannot be left unsupervised for long periods.
But placing a second guard on-site to supervise the first doesn’t solve the problem, as the supervisor will be subjected to exactly the same temptations as the first. In an attempt to plug this security hole, tagging systems are installed, which act as an independent supervisor that ensures the guards perform the patrol they are contracted to perform. However, a tagging system does nothing to inform on what happens between patrols.
To solve this issue, many guarding companies now offer supervisory visits to their guarded sites. But this is generally limited to one visit per site, which often occurs around the same time each day or night and therefore becomes relatively predictable. Just like the criminal that waits for the guard to pass by before entering a premises, the guards themselves time their activities around the times they know a supervisor is due to visit.
Remote monitoring solution
A far more effective, and cost-effective, method of supervising guards is to do it via remotely monitored IP Cmeras. Most companies using on-site guards also utilise a surveillance system for managerial purposes, which opens the opportunity up for monitoring of guards without any significant additional hardware spend on the part of the company. So there’s no upfront cost.
Also, the guarding company will no longer need to send a supervisor to all their sites each night. So there’s a potential reduction in the guarding fee.
An off-site monitoring station can schedule video check-ups on the guarding station at a frequency desired by the client at a very low incremental cost. So suddenly, hourly supervisory visits are possible, but more importantly, they are done stealthily: the guards do not know when they are being monitored. However, just as guards require supervisors, the off-site monitoring company also requires systems in place to ensure its duties are carried out effectively.
The GV-Control Center software is an integrated security management system that provides a handy tool to maintain central monitoring station operation. GV-Control Center introduces a comprehensive solution that provides center operators with time efficiency to control networked GV-Systems and I/O devices. With GV-Control Center, multiple GV-Systems and I/O devices within a DVR server farm can be managed and maintained efficiently to enhance their monitoring performance and ensure smooth operation.
Virtual guarding checks
Firstly, the site checks cannot be left to the discretion of the operator in the control room. Each and every supervisory visit must be scheduled in the monitoring station’s software to automatically present the required actions to the operator.
Secondly, the system must force that operator to carry out those actions without fail. Once an operator has begun processing a site check, they must be prevented from closing out the event before the correct cameras have been viewed for the correct amount of time – which has been predetermined and agreed to by the client.
Thirdly, to prove that the correct actions have been undertaken at the correct times, the monitoring station must also be able to produce a comprehensive audit trail that details each and every action the operator has taken, along with a time stamp for each action.
An optimal security package is therefore one that combines the two complementary services of on-site guarding and professional, independent off-site monitoring.
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