So when I go to a website, one of the first things I check for is when was the last time this site was updated. Stale sites mean that maybe the business has gone under or at minimum is not staying relevant. So imagine my horror when I noticed that my last blog post was over a year ago!
We are happy and blessed to say that the reason for the slip was due to an abundance of work with some great clients over the past year 🙂
The lock down has been hell for many and as much as would like to say that the fact we are still standing is due to pure business acumen, the truth is it is almost completely attributed to luck. Many of my brothers and sisters have had to adapt … drastically.
I am spending some time evaluating video and access control systems that clients have in place and it seems that they are only being used to a fraction of their capacity. Folks are dropping big coin on cameras capable of AI, analytics, License Plate Reading ….. and still using the camera the way it was 20 years ago which is wait until something bad happens and then review the footage to see if there is evidence.
I am spending a bit of time with clients who have guard contracts. My observation is that it they are clocking steps from checkpoint to checkpoint the way they were doing 20 years ago.
Almost every camera has some sort of line cross detection. Lets get those set up with proper schedules and build in redundancies to minimize false alerts. Then lets take the real alerts and pass them to our central station monitoring the alarm system and actually get a response going before the crime.
Lets get those guards to do more than walk from place to place (which is still VERY effective but can be better). The guard of the future will be able to operate local visual surveillance systems, arm and disarm partitions during patrols, operate a drone, produce and understand intelligence reports relevant to their site. This will result in less guards being deployed however the guards that are deployed will have skills that warrant a premium salary.
The point being that perhaps the single most effective advancement that most clients can achieve is to utilize their existing technology more effectively!