Re-posted with permission from Campus Safety Magazine and edited.
Engaging your customers and taking action to solve their pain points and various challenges is an essential step to customer success. With the intention of better serving end users, you need to know as much as possible about them. Including what they most need from you as security systems integrators.
In that spirit, SSI delivers the second annual Commercial Security End-User Forum, where we tap the perspectives of four security directors as well as an expert in corporate security risk mitigation solutions.
Hailing from the K-12, higher education, healthcare and entertainment industries, the participants weigh in on organizational safety and security challenges, what makes for a successful integrator partnership, COVID-19 impacts and more.
Vetting Security Systems Integrators
Ask an end user for their thoughts on how they go about selecting the right integrator partner and the responses might seem analogous to choosing a significant other. Finding just the right match boils down to aligning various compatibilities and attributes that ensure the relationship is built to last. Trust. Honesty. Commitment. These are not just slogans but bedrock elements to a fulfilling, successful business alliance.
“One of the reasons I believe that I’ve been successful in my career as a security director is having great relationships with integrators in a good, constructive way where we learn from each other,” says Guy Grace, who retired from Littleton (Colorado) Public Schools in August after more than 30 years and now works as a security consultant for K-12 schools in Wyoming.
Grace, a 2020 Director of the Year recipient awarded by SSI sister publication Campus Safety, emphasizes patience and the ability to evolve with an end user as necessary virtues, especially in the business of campus security. Money is tight for most school districts and significant expenditures may only come around every five to 10 years as bond measures are approved or other funding is appropriated.
“You need an integrator that is going to help you to constantly evolve, but you have to evolve based on, No. 1, financial resources. But you also need to be able to evolve based on the school district’s culture and what they want from you based on processes and procedures and things that you have to do before you implement these things.”
Scrutinizing an integrator’s core competencies is, of course, a key exercise for end users. CoxHealth System Director of Public Safety Eric Clay explains the level of qualifications of a potential integrator partner is often an unknown quantity. Before he commits to an integrator, Clay works to raise his comfort level by verifying their experience on projects with a similar scope. This necessarily includes a demonstrated ability to cyber-secure healthcare networks, which are a favorite target of criminal hackers.
“What I am hoping is they have a deep understanding, and as I talk with them I might have a vision for a solution. I’m also hoping they’re going to draw out information that perhaps I hadn’t even thought about,” says Clay, also a 2020 Director of the Year recipient. “They may ask, ‘Have you considered this? What is your long-term goal? You’re looking for an immediate solution, but you might be able to integrate this particular solution that will address these other issues.’” (Update: since contacted for this article, Clay now serves as vice president of security at Memorial Hermann, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Texas.)
Robert Carotenuto is director of security at The Shed, a new $475 million, 200,000-square-foot cultural arts center located in New York City’s Hudson Yards. As a nonprofit facility, Carotenuto looks for integrators who are willing to create a symbiotic collaboration based on the venue’s best interests. Sure, it’s a monetary relationship as well, but that should be secondary to the partnership, explains Carotenuto, an ASIS Professional Standards Board member.
“For me, it’s not about getting the very best product out there, but that I get the very best product out there for my institution. If I have top-of-the-line equipment that’s going to cost me a lot of overhead over the years, it’s hard for me to sustain that in terms of my budget,” he says. “Maybe that’s the best solution for a Fortune 500 company, but I don’t need their solution. I need a solution that fits The Shed.”
Get Solutions & Advice from Your Local Expert
The ISG offers a wide range of solutions that can improve your school or business’s safety and security. We can work alongside your current security systems integrators, or in lieu of them, to get the job done right.
In fact, whether you manage a K-12 school, a college or university, a healthcare facility, government agency or a corporate campus, we have safety and security solutions and services that will satisfy all of your identification, credential management and access control needs.
Also, come back next week for Part 2 of this story!
Original article written by Rodney Bosch for Security Sales & Integration
