Business Security Basics: 3 Systems to Consider

When it comes to busi­ness secu­ri­ty, there’s a seem­ing­ly end­less num­ber of tech­nolo­gies and tools avail­able to today’s busi­ness­es. And while each solu­tion is designed to fill a spe­cif­ic secu­ri­ty gap, it’s under­stand­able that some busi­ness own­ers become over­whelmed by all the dif­fer­ent tech­nolo­gies, espe­cial­ly if they’re unfa­mil­iar with their options.

In this post, we start with the basics to help you get acquaint­ed with the most com­mon types of busi­ness secu­ri­ty sys­tems. This list is by no means exhaus­tive. Instead, it focus­es on three solu­tions that pro­vide the fun­da­men­tal lay­ers of pro­tec­tion that many com­pa­nies require, across a wide array of indus­tries. We explain in clear terms what each sys­tem does and why it’s impor­tant.

1) Commercial alarm system

At its most basic, a com­mer­cial alarm sys­tem pro­vides pro­tec­tion against break-ins, intrud­ers and/or unau­tho­rized access to the secure areas of your busi­ness. It serves as a watch­ful eye over your busi­ness, alert­ing you (and mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter dis­patch­ers) if some­one attempts to gain entry into your busi­ness while the sys­tem is alarmed.

Alarms can be acti­vat­ed by dif­fer­ent types of sen­sors, depend­ing on the need. For exam­ple, small door and win­dow con­tacts can be installed to trig­ger the alarm if a door is opened or a win­dow is bro­ken while the busi­ness is closed. Alarms can also be trig­gered by motion, cam­eras and envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors, such as the pres­ence of smoke, water or extreme tem­per­a­tures.

Addi­tion­al­ly, with 24-hour alarm mon­i­tor­ing, author­i­ties can be dis­patched by trained spe­cial­ists when your alarm is trig­gered. This is anoth­er cru­cial lay­er of pro­tec­tion, because it ensures that police will be sent if a break-in or bur­glary is in progress.

2) Business security cameras

Secu­ri­ty cam­eras pro­vide a clear­er pic­ture of what’s hap­pen­ing at your busi­ness. The pres­ence of cam­eras alone can help to deter crim­i­nal activ­i­ty (includ­ing inter­nal theft). But also, the footage will allow you to see every­thing that’s hap­pen­ing at your prop­er­ty, 24 hours a day.

Select sys­tems allow you to view live footage on your mobile phone or oth­er Inter­net-con­nect­ed devices. If a crime is com­mit­ted, you can review the footage to see what hap­pened. Plus, you can pro­vide it to author­i­ties and your insur­ance com­pa­ny, when applic­a­ble.

Secu­ri­ty cam­eras can be seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed with your busi­ness alarm sys­tem, allow­ing you to man­age every­thing from the same devices. Addi­tion­al­ly, for busi­ness­es that need deep­er insight into activ­i­ty at their loca­tions, the secu­ri­ty cam­eras can be equipped to pro­vide:

• Heat map­ping
• Occu­pan­cy track­ing
• Crowd gath­er­ing
• Peo­ple count­ing
• Queue mon­i­tor­ing

Of course, not all busi­ness­es will require these capa­bil­i­ties. Your cam­eras and secu­ri­ty sys­tem can be cus­tomized to meet the spe­cif­ic needs of the busi­ness.

3) Access control systems

Access con­trol sys­tems are essen­tial for any busi­ness that needs to pro­vide secure access to their build­ings. This can include offices, retail stores, ware­hous­es, indus­tri­al facil­i­ties and near­ly any oth­er type of busi­ness envi­ron­ment.

Access con­trol sys­tems elim­i­nate the need for key man­age­ment, which can be cum­ber­some, time-con­sum­ing and high­ly unse­cure.

Access con­trol sys­tems allow you to per­mit entry to your autho­rized per­son­nel, on any sched­ule, with the use of key­less devices, such as key fobs, cards or employee’s per­son­al smart­phones. When employ­ees are ter­mi­nat­ed or resign, there’s no need to col­lect keys or change any locks – you sim­ply deac­ti­vate their access. Addi­tion­al­ly, the sys­tem can keep record of all activ­i­ty, allow­ing you to mon­i­tor who’s enter­ing your busi­ness and when.

Additional solutions to consider

The three solu­tions above pro­vide essen­tial lay­ers of secu­ri­ty for many types of busi­ness. But again, every com­pa­ny has unique secu­ri­ty needs. For some types of busi­ness­es, there may be oth­er high-pri­or­i­ty equip­ment to con­sid­er, such as secu­ri­ty bars, win­dow film and com­mer­cial-grade locks.

Con­tact PROTECTION PLUS for a com­pre­hen­sive secu­ri­ty audit, and our experts will help you iden­ti­fy the right solu­tions for your needs.