Tim Wells, Sales Manager of Logosoft, reports on what he calls interesting times for guarding businesses.
Having visited many over the last 12 months, I am able to confirm that concerns about the expense of increased training, licence fees, and the financial burden of achieving Approved Contractor Status (ACS) are ubiquitous. Cost pressures are fast increasing.
Whatever the pressures it may well be high time for you to look at methods of increasing your busi-ness efficiency. Margins in the in-dustry have traditionally been low but can be increased dramatically through process synergy and auto-mation. Coming from a technology business background I have felt well placed to help businesses become sharper and more profitable in their operations.
One of the least expensive ways of achieving large cost savings is employing technology. Most companies now use computers to support their business and operational processes. Approaches range from the piecemeal introduction of stand-alone spreadsheets and databases to the implementation of comprehensive systems de-livering benefits across the organisation. It is the latter I would like to concentrate on. One thing is for sure, the proper use of such software can dramatically decrease resource cost and improve workforce management. Perhaps more importantly, ready access to information through rich reporting tools can contribute significantly to sound business decision making. All of these attributes add to competitive advantage and importantly increase margin.
Questions to ask when choosing a system:
Total cost of ownership? Although price is not usually the most important factor in choosing a system, it is one no businessman can afford to ignore. It is important to ensure you are aware of the full costs of ownership over say five years. This permits true year on year cost comparisons to be made. Making certain that you have included all implementation, training and support expenditure should be relatively straightforward but beware hidden costs. If your system depends on third-party components you may need to budget for significant expenditure on for example database and reporting software or additional licences for Microsoft Office. It is also important to take a realistic view of such expenditure over the life of the system i.e. if your supplier withdraws support for particular versions of third-party products you may be forced to absorb unplanned upgrade or re-placement costs. In some cases, databases are designed to limit the number of records that can be added without purchasing upgrades so you should also remember to make certain that life-cycle costs are consistent with business objectives.
Ease of use?
With quite different levels of computer literacy across organisations, it is important to rec-ognize the importance of achieving a balance between functionality and ease of use. A system that delivers the right balance for your business will reduce implementation and training costs and result in an ear-lier return on investment. It is also likely to mean reduced down-stream running and training costs.
Internet or client-server?
Most people understand that it is not currently possible to deliver the type of feature rich application over the internet that client-server technology permits. This doesn’t mean that web-based applications don’t have their place, especially if your needs are simple, you are happy for business critical data to be kept elsewhere and willing to rely on a medium (the internet) entirely beyond your control for access. The attractions of absorbing costs into operational rather than capital expenditure are, however, obvious although total cost of ownership over a period of years may be sig-nificantly higher.
System stability?
Building stable, error free applications presents a real challenge for developers and there is a widely held view that faults (bugs) are both inevitable and acceptable. Significant faults in systems supporting mission critical functions and processes are quite clearly unacceptable. Suppliers are unlikely to advertise faults in their products so you will be forced to rely on certain quality indicators. How often are "upgrades" issued? An annual upgrade containing significant new features is likely to indicate a thoroughly tested product whereas frequent upgrades con-taining trivial improvements are likely to be thinly disguised bug fixes. Does the supplier need ac-cess to your database for "maintenance" purposes. This is again likely to be indicative of poor qual-ity; if an application is well written using modern relational database technology it should never be nec-essary to change data.
Supplier support?
It is folly to run mission critical systems without the benefit of supplier support. Most supply an annual service offering an operational and technical helpdesk but you should be careful to establish whether there are preset limits on the number of calls you may make. You should also check whether software upgrades are include in the support package or an extra that will add to lifecycle costs.
UK system?
It is worth bearing in mind that systems may not neces-sarily have been developed in the UK or, indeed, for that market. You may be happy to skip over the fields relating to a guard’s firearm qualifications but the absence of key fields relevant to your business can be annoying. If systems have been developed principally for other markets, enhancements to reflect UK requirements are not likely to be given a high priority and obtaining support when there is a 12 hour time difference may be less than convenient.
References available?
It’s a good idea to ask for references and talk to the given contacts about many of the questions covered in this article. They may give you a valuable insight gained from system experience. Ideally, you should focus on references provided by organizations of a similar size and complexity to your own.
Rich reporting capability?
One of the most important aspects of a system is its usefulness as a busi-ness reporting tool at all manage-ment levels. It’s not much use having great system features when you can’t get at the data in a meaningful way. Having to buy reporting tools or gain expensive skills to access and manipulate your own data will certainly add to lifecycle costs.
Report by exception?
Being able to access data is a good start but finance functions especially, like to have reporting done by exception to manage the data. This saves time and highlights potential problems.
Direct input to payroll and in-voicing packages?
Cutting proc-ess time and maintaining the accu-racy of billing and payroll informa-tion is hugely important. Extra value is provided by the implemen-tation of interfaces to packages such as Sage Payroll and Line 50.
Internet access?
Security guards and customers are internet users. The ability to access information in this way offers the potential of improved communication with both groups.
Is the system able to link to other systems such as vetting packages? The ability to transfer data to and from your command and control systems in electronic format may be important. The data is yours so make certain that you have full and unrestricted access to it. If your supplier offers a vetting module, check that any automated link permits only screened guards to be transferred to operational systems; this is a reliable mechanism for ensuring that unlicenced staff are not accidentally deployed thereby pro-tecting directors from potential criminal liability.
To conclude, you may have looked at integrated systems in the past and decided they were not appropriate. Perhaps the business drivers for serious contemplation were not present at that time. You will find that in the meantime software has become increasingly powerful. These systems can make a very real difference to your bottom line. They can also release resources for important tasks like managing relationships with your customers and growing your business. Maybe it is time to re-evaluate.
