A Guide to Security Guard Company Operations by Courtney W. Sparkman - HTML preview

Do You Really Need Security Guard Management Software?

If you are a security guard company with more than five security officers, the answer is an unequivocal “yes!”

But before I talk about why you need it, let me take a moment to define exactly what security guard management software is. Security guard management software is a suite of software products that allow security guard companies to better manage their officers and overall operations. That suite should at a minimum provide electronic reporting software, security guard tour tracking software, and time and attendance software. The software should provide just about everything that you need to effectively operate a security guard company.

If you are a manager or supervisor for a security guard company, you know how much time it takes to manage officer reports, ensure officers are doing their patrols, get payroll and billing done, and accomplish myriad other tasks on a daily basis. Security guard management software is designed to help automate many of those processes. Through that automation, ultimately you are able to provide a higher quality of service to your customers.

Top 3 Reasons For Using Security Guard Management Software

From my experience managing and selling security guard service for more than a decade, I have seen the need for this type of software increase dramatically. I have also found that this increase is a function of three primary factors:

1. The need for security companies to become more operationally efficient;
2. The need to match the service offerings of large national providers; and
3. Because security guard service buyers want this type of software.

Increased operational efficiency. Using security guard management software greatly improves your ability to be more responsive to your customers’ and your organization’s operational needs. We recently conducted a survey that shows that 90% of our customers felt that using OfficerReports.com’s security management software helped them operate more efficiently. We attribute this increase in our customers’ efficiency to 4 things:

1. The ability to review, edit, and approve reports online prior to their being distributed to their customers
2. The ability to have incident reports emailed to their customers and supervisors instantaneously
3. The ability to use Tour Tracking Software to verify that their officers are doing patrols in real-time without having to be on site
4. The ability to create schedules online that their officers can view from a computer or smart device from anywhere in the world

Compete with the national providers. I have talked with an increasing number of small- to medium-sized security guard companies who have recently lost contracts to large national firms. Each of these companies has similar stories in that they were unable to provide some of the technologies that the large firms are using as differentiators.

Because of their financial resources, most of the large security guard firms have developed proprietary security guard management software that enables them to provide a higher quality of service. Unfortunately, most small- to medium- sized security companies don’t have those same resources, so they are not been able to compete with the national firms’ technology. But by using software like OfficerReports.com, smaller security guard companies can now match the capabilities of the larger firms at a fraction of the price.

Your customers want it. Did you know that according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 87% of American adults use the internet? When those adults are online, they aren’t just playing Candy Crush or updating their Facebook statuses. Many are conducting business-related or even banking-related activity. In fact, Pew research also shows that 51% of U.S. adults are now banking online. People trust online resources and also depend on the ability to access information online. With that being the case, why would it be any different for the information that your customers are receiving from your security officers?

It isn’t.

Your customers want fast and easy access to that information online. And please don’t think that they don’t want that ability just because they aren’t asking for it. If you think otherwise, just ask Tony Castillo, Jr. He provided security guard service to one of his customers for 14 years—until he lost the contract to G4S. According to his client, G4S won the contract due to “administrative enhancements they provide and management efficiencies as a result of some innovative technologies.”

Security guard management software such as OfficerReports.com is also great tool for enhancing performance, accountability, and relationships between primary security guarding companies and their subcontractors for large and complex service agreements. In the next section, I will lay out the benefits of security guard management software for both primes and subs.