Why Securitas and G4S are Winning …and Your Security Firm Isn’t
Over the past few months we had the pleasure in meeting with multiple executives at some of the largest security firms in United States.
Our intention? To understand how they grew to be such thriving organizations.
For background, Radar is a guard management tool for the private security industry. We automate the monotonous tasks taken on by management so security firms can focus on the important stuff: ensuring quality well-trained officers and growing a valued customer base.
What we learned: As an owner/operator of a security firm, you must do whatever it takes to focus less on managing officers and more on obtaining contracts. In other words, your rate of growth will remain slim if you spend most of your day tracking down officers and collecting paper and/or e-mail reports.
So why are organizations like Securitas, G4S, US Security Associates and First Security Services winning? What have these organizations done that has allowed them to employ almost 1 million (and growing) security professionals globally?
Technology
These organizations (and countless others) have had the luxury in paying hundreds and thousands of dollars to create customized guard management systems that allow them to turn the hassle of managing officers into an easy task. This switch to digital reporting and remote location tracking has allowed these organizations to become what they are today (winners).
But how about the remaining 12,000+ security firms within the United States? Why haven’t they made the switch to technology? This question lead us to have conversations with nearly every type of security team out there, ranging from:
— One-person PPO’s that provide executive protection for very, very important people
— Armed 20-person units that secure sports stadiums and state building
— Security firms that employ 200+ mobile patrol officers that monitor sites across 250 square miles
What We Learned Surprised Us
Nearly every security firm we talked with were well aware of the hurdles that prevented them from growing. The only difference was that these firms did not have the means to solve them.
Unlike G4S, Securitas and the rest, these firms didn’t have the deep pockets to pay and have a guard management software created for them. So, they continued to deal with reporting and tracking how the industry had been doing it for years before them: on paper and in faith.
Albeit, we often come across unique cases: one of our first customers was so sick of his team conducting reports on paper that he made a switch to using Facebook Messenger to document parking violations and incidents.
