Overcoming the Common Pain Points Security Directors Experience

After decades of experience working with Security Directors from mid-size all the way up to Fortune 500 Companies, we are very familiar with the pain points associated with delivering a successful security program. Understanding these common themes up front will best equip businesses to avoid hurdles, eliminate any wasted spend and boost overall productivity. From our experience, here are the top five challenges to overcome in order to create a rock-solid program.

The Top Five Pain Points for Security Directors and How to Overcome Them with the Right Partner:

1. Securing and partnering with the right Security Integrator is imperative. After years of experience working with Security Directors across many industries, one pain point has remained constant. It’s that you select a provider that does what they say they will do. You lean on a Security Integrator as an extension of your team and need guaranteed follow through.  Without it, additional problems arise and frustrations skyrocket. Do your research and even ask for recommendations from their customers. Selecting a reliable partner up front will pave the way for success.
2. A security partner who reviews a solid plan for Service and Reliability for response times. A clear understanding of your security program is vital. Setting clear expectations on both the customer and provider side will create a long lasting, harmonious working relationship which then solidifies a strong security program.
3. Technology/IT client collaboration is essential for successful implementations. Physical security and IT have converged, and it should be a requirement that security partners collaborate in advance of creating a security plan so all the knowns are understood for upcoming installations and technology integrations. A clear path and full understanding of each role in an implementation will allow for seamless execution.  It doesn’t stop after the implementation is completed. Ongoing management of the system is critical. Having a Security Integrator provide managed services for these systems takes the load off the plate for the Security Director and can also be done more cost-effectively than if managed internally. Managed services allow you to maximize your systems and have increased visibility. Without it, the internal workload can become unmanageable and may not be completed properly. In return, you increase your risk for vulnerabilities, significant downtime and financial implications.
4. Ongoing Capital/Expenditure Review. These reviews are critical to ensuring cost containment, vendor/product solutions, and asset management. It allows for costs to be clear and budgets aligned appropriately for operational costs and maintenance of your security systems. A Security Integrator should also work with you on equipment upgrades that will be needed. You can see what is required from this previous article on How to Determine Operational Budgets.  Overall, when determining a Security Integrator partner, you should make sure it’s one that will not only work with you on the short-term plan, but also long term as well.
5. Making sure you have the right equipment and platform to assist in internal and external investigative security issues. From our experience, the majority of investigations leveraged technology via access control, video monitoring, and video surveillance. Investigative tools are imperative to have in place to back up issues that unfold.  For example, catching theft on video surveillance or using video and access control data to back up employees claims for HR. If an employee makes a claim about another employee, video surveillance could determine the whereabouts on a specific date and time. This makes it important to take into consideration the needs of various departments when implementing a security program.

Taking the Right Next Step.

At Star Asset Security, our extensive experience and understanding of what is needed for a successful security program allows us to ensure our customers never experience these pain points. As a managed services provider, we work with businesses to ease their workload and provide full endpoint security solutions. Visit www.securethinking.com to learn more today.