Uncategorized

When you are running a business, one of the most pressing concerns is always security. After all, you want to protect your property as much as possible. In order to prevent, deter, and help bring criminals who target your business to justice, you definitely need advanced security systems in place. 

With so many options available, it can be hard trying to decide which is best for you. In order to protect your staff, property, and any assets that are found in your place of business, a reliable local service company and reliable security system provider is your best bet.

To help you decide which provider to pick, here are some important questions to ask yourself before committing:

How to Choose a Reliable Security Systems Provider

Guarantees

It is absolutely important to understand what is being covered and what is not. While a security system is there to protect your business, there are times when it can fail. In such instances, you must be clear how you can salvage the situation with your provider.

Failures

Speaking of failures, it is essential to just how your security system is set up to perform, especially when the situation calls for it. In the case of burglary or a break-in, your security system must be configured in a way where the right people are notified and a response is made. 

It should also stand up to potential attacks, and that your data and sensitive information are always protected and backed up. In case of failures, knowing how long before things get up and running again can be a key factor.

Visibility

For any modern security system, around-the-clock monitoring is a basic must. You must be able to keep tabs on things no matter where you are. This is something that you should expect from any of your security partners, so you can be sure that threats are dealt with as soon as they are detected. 

Added Value

In a sense, you can also find out just what other benefits there are for going with any particular security systems provider. This can be in the form of certain features that can enhance the security of your business. Surveillance cameras are a must, as they are effective deterrents and can help with any investigations. However, they are also extremely visible and can have blind spots.

Hidden cameras and other potential hidden security features can add more value to any proposed security system. They are definitely worth considering.

The Importance of Choosing a Provider That is Local

Perhaps one of the biggest factors when it comes to selecting a security systems provider is location. Sure, you could go with a company that offers better rates out of state, but this will impact you in more serious ways. 

A local company is likely to be more knowledgeable about potential threats and the innovations needed to combat them. Should an emergency arise, they will also be in a better position to respond and help secure your business.

In this case, local expertise can often be the difference between successful security intervention and a potential disaster waiting to happen. You can always count on the bigger players in the industry, but more so if they just so happen to have a local office.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, a reliable and professional security system provider goes a long way in giving you a peace of mind when it comes to running a business. For any business big or small, having a team of professionals with extensive local and international knowledge can make a huge difference. 

When you have a local provider as your chosen partner, you can be sure that they will have the first-hand knowledge to deal with any of your concerns. More importantly, you can rest easier knowing they are always close by to solve your problems for you.

Now more than ever, knowing who has access to your building and your data is critical. Whether it is your online records, or your physical records, knowing who can view them is what is going to keep you and your business safe. For physical locations, you need to have a commercial security system for controlling access as a significant line of defense.

Importance of Access Control to Provide Security and Safety for Your Team

Having an open- door policy is not always a good thing. To help protect your business, your team, and your data, you need to have access control to your building. To get started with your access control plan, there are some steps you need to take.

Assess Your Current Threat Level

To start, you will need to consider what your current threat level is. This is not what you are currently doing to protect your property, but how likely you will be to experience crime or otherwise troublesome behavior. This involves asking questions like “what is valuable inside my business”, or “how is the crime activity in my area”. Once you have assessed your risk level, you can then see how much security you will need.

Determine Baseline Access

You need to also figure out the different levels of access in the building, including baseline access. Baseline access is your lowest form of access, used to describe visitors and those just come in and out of a basic area. For example, if you own a grocery store, those who come in to shop have baseline access. They cannot enter any back rooms or storage areas, but can enter without any need to verify their identity.

Create A Plan

You need to create a plan that will set up what you want your security staff to do when people enter the building. If there are areas excluded to other employees, you will also need to figure out who has access and how they will open the doors to get into those areas. The more thorough the plan, the better off you will be. Remember, you can also change things later, but try to cover all your bases as much as possible.  

Establish Security Culture

It is important to make sure you do not just throw this new policy at your employees and then cross your fingers. You need to establish a familiarity with your employees when it comes to security to better incorporate it into your team’s culture. 

This can be done through meetings, emails, and drills to make sure everyone is on the same page. There is also professional trailing that can be done if need be to better help your employees to grasp the changes that are occurring in the business.

Hand Out ID Cards 

ID cards are perhaps the best way to verify someone’s identity and whether or not they are allowed into the building or a certain area. You can have a basic picture ID, or you can use more high- tech cards which can be scanned to allow you to unlock doors and gain access to an area. Consider how big your location is and what other security measures you have in place when deciding what you need for a card. If you have very sensitive materials inside, you will want more high tech cards.

Monitor Your Equipment 

It isn’t just people you need to be paying attention to. You also need to watch your equipment and make sure nothing is being taken out that shouldn’t leave the building. If anything does, it should be documented and checked out, with a time for it to be back. This will allow you to also document who has the items, so you know who is responsible if something isn’t returned.

Do A Security Audit

Once everything has been implemented, you will need to do an audit to see how things are going. You should do the first one about a month after the new security plan has been in use. Make adjustments when necessary to better your access control plan and don’t be afraid to add to it. You should then do an audit one month after new plans have been implemented, and every six months after that.

Conclusion

By making it clear who is coming in, and why, there is less risk of someone coming in to do harm to your business or your team. Make sure you have a set rule of how to do things, and don’t skimp on having security at the front door.  

Security is an incredibly important factor – especially for companies and business. While this can apply to people visiting a building, this also applies to the personnel working in a building or site. To cover all their bases and for accountability, Orlando security system installers advise companies to utilize numerous security features. One security feature in particular is called “access control.”

What is Access Control?

Access control is a system that regulates and monitors where people are allowed to go. Large companies utilize access control as a way to make sure that only people with the proper authorization can access certain sites or premises. 

There are several ways companies can utilize access control.

Key Fob/Access Card

A key fob or an access card is one of the simplest forms of access control. This is a relatively effective form of access control as it is easy to implement. 

While some companies provide an entirely different key fob or access card, some companies integrate access cards into the employees’ IDs. With a little piece of tech that can hold information such as an RFID chip, companies can easily give and take away access to certain individuals while having the ability to monitor their usage. 

Pin Code 

A pin code is another form of access control that is easy to implement. The utilization of a pin code is essentially the same as a door and key – with the key simply replaced with a keypad. Some keypads can have one access code, while some keypads can accept pin codes that are unique to each employee. 

Having unique codes to each employee is another easy way to regulate and monitor access as the security system will be able to know when these specific pin codes were used. 

Pin codes and keypads have some advantages. The main advantage of this type of access control is that it doesn’t rely on any physical object. This means that people don’t have to carry anything with them that they might accidentally forget. 

Biometric Device

Instead of unique information such as an individualized pin code, some companies use another form of access control that uses an individual’s unique physical traits – biometrics. Biometric devices scan certain parts of the body that are relatively unique to be able to identify an individual, thus deciding whether they are given access or not. 

The most common biometric access control is through a fingerprint scan but biometric devices can also scan for face recognition, palm veins, and irises. 

Biometrics are costly setups but are different from other types of access control as it does not rely on what an individual has or knows, but what they are. 

Why It Can Benefit Your Business

Access control is one one of the many security features a business can utilize and yet it can provide your business with several benefits. 

Restrict Access

One of the most important things access control does is restrict access to authorized personnel. This is especially important for rooms and floors that hold valuable assets such as valuables or information. Access restriction is especially important for large companies with too many floors and rooms to actively monitor. 

Access restriction also makes sure that people are located where they should be. This makes it easier to spot suspicious activity from people with possible malicious intent. 

Monitor Access

Another good reason to utilize a form of access control is for monitoring purposes. This is especially advantageous for accountability because if anything happens in a certain room or location, access control logs can be read to see which people were there when a scenario occurred. 

Access monitoring is also an easy way to check employee attendance at the main entrance. 

Increased Security

If the entire purpose of access control can be summarized, it can be said to increase security. With an access control system in place, the security of a building has significantly increased because access control provides restrictions and additional data. 

A door equipped with a keypad is more secure than a regular door. Just by having access control, a room is essentially more secure. 

Conclusion

Access control is an important facet for the security of an organization such as a business. Many systems have been developed for access control, and companies can benefit greatly from these systems in place. 

`You can’t be at your business to keep an eye on everything all the time, nor can you always make sure that your staff is actually working. Of course, you don’t need to monitor everything that your workers are doing, but you can institute ways to improve productivity through remote monitoring, and can monitor your business itself for security purposes as well. There are a lot of benefits to remote monitoring security systems that make sure everything runs smoothly when you’re not around.

Remote Monitoring and Its Benefits

Peace of Mind

You can keep an eye on your workplace to check that everything is safe and protected. This provides you with the flexibility to monitor your location in real time from anywhere, so you can just check from even your phone or tablet when you’re not around.

Not only will this ensure that you have full control over your business, but this will provide you with peace of mind. You no longer need to worry about what’s going on when you’re not there, since you can even get notifications about activity on cameras.

Free Up Your IT Staff

If you’re a smaller or a mid-sized business, you’ll want some good technology to back you up. You might not have the staff to always be watching cameras though, which is where some remote monitoring can come in a lot of handy.

Instead of dealing with unresolved problems and ignoring possible security issues, it’s now possible to check your system remotely, and to free up your IT staff to concentrate on more serious issues.

Liability

It’s possible to protect your business not only from a lack of productivity, but from any possible liability issues as well. You can avoid he-said-she-said scenarios, and can actually know what’s going on when you have video footage to back up people’s claims. You can check on claims of injury or harassment much more easily when you have video evidence of anything.

Worker Productivity

It’s not that your workers won’t be doing anything unless you watch them, but it is true that with some remote monitoring, you can check up on them throughout the day.

You can do this with cameras, which can watch employees at a physical location to see how they’re doing, how much time they waste, and in the worst case, if anyone is stealing anything. You can also use these cameras to help institute rewards for good work. If you see someone doing something great, reward them. Turn your cameras into something morale boosting rather than as a negative security measure.

Protection

Not only are you protecting your physical business with remote monitoring, but you’re also protecting your privacy. Keep watch on your critical data and find ways to protect your employees too.

Of course, you’ll also be able to protect yourself as well. If you have employees working from the road or from remote locations, you can protect yourself from loss of time—and from paying your employees from work that they might not be doing.

Conclusion

Remote monitoring isn’t only about security, but security is a big benefit to it. You can keep an eye on everything that’s going on, and can additionally make sure that employees are working, keeping your IT systems up and running, and prevent any liability issues in the long run. Use remote monitoring to help your business grow even further without struggling with a lack of staff or technology.