Professional Security Magazine Spotlights Unipart Security
Roy Cooper interviews Andy Perry, Director of Unipart Security’s Electronic Solutions division.
It is just over eleven months since Jeff Little OBE, Chief Executive of the National Security Inspectorate, officially opened Unipart Security’s Monitoring & Response Centre in Oxford. Professional Security’s MD, Roy Cooper, recently met up with Andy Perry, Director of Unipart Security’s Electronic Solutions division to find out if the huge investment in the new alarm and remote video monitoring centre has been justified.
My timing could not have been better. Andy was busy processing some orders which he had just received from a number of well known installation companies. Not surprisingly, Andy was in very good spirits and with an extremely positive attitude about the likelihood of sales success in 2012, despite the gloomy outlook for UK business projected by economists.
Q: Andy, why did Unipart Security commit itself to what must have been a significant investment in a new alarm receiving centre when there was already no shortage of existing commercially run alarm receiving centres?
A: To a large extent we were encouraged to do so by market demand. We were already successfully operating a remote monitoring facility for a small number of clients of the Unipart Group, but it did not meet the requirements of BS 5979 CAT II. We could not therefore respond to the large number of requests we were receiving on a regular basis from end-users who were dissatisfied for one reason or another with their existing remote monitoring service provider.
Q: So does your Monitoring & Response Centre now meet with all those requirements and can you know offer services that you could not do so before?
A: Yes, we now have a fully accredited NSI Gold Category II Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) and Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC). This means that as well as satisfying the police and insurance requirements for the monitoring of intruder alarms, we also comply with BS 8418 standard for detector activated remotely monitored CCTV systems. In addition, we can also offer asset and vehicle tracking, lone worker protection, manned security management and a 24 hour support desk.
Q: This clearly puts you on the starting blocks when it comes to competing with other monitoring centres, but what is it that makes you different?
A: I believe that we truly understand the requirements of the market place and how it is evolving; partly because of major advances in technology but also because clients no longer want an arms-length relationship with their service providers. There has to be a level of engagement which allows a monitoring centre such as ours to totally tune into what is important to the client in respect of their security requirements.
We have put together a management structure, and invested in a field-based Account Management team, which equips us to offer a level of customer engagement which we do not believe is matched by our competitors. Our Account Managers are tasked, and not just when a contract is up for renewal, to constantly measure if we are delivering against our promises. We recognise that no two customer sites are likely to be the same. When the client therefore has a clear view of what they wish to achieve, we are able to be flexible in terms what is written into a Service Level Agreement, although when required we are ready and able to offer advice based on our experience of what happens in the real world.
We look however to go beyond what is written into the agreed Service Level Agreements and that means continuously looking for opportunities to improve on how we deliver our services and by working smart, reduce our clients’ operational costs. Our entire team share a philosophy, or should I say a way of working, which is very much based on ‘The Unipart Way’. This permeates through all of the Group’s business units and translates into a commitment by every member of the team to exceed a client’s expectations
Q: Where does the installer fit into this?
A: We are looking to make life easier and more profitable for installers whilst helping them deliver value to their clients. An installer’s reputation does not just rely on its design, installation and service expertise. The service provided by a monitoring centre can also significantly reflect on an installer's relationship with its clients and therefore we totally respect their position in the supply chain.
The contracts which we have just won are in fact very good examples that what we have to offer ticking all the right boxes. One of the reasons that installers are recommending us to their clients is that we have in-house personnel with the expertise to manage site based issues and if necessary, visit the premises with the installer. Our Account Managers. Simon Jennings and Les Ramsden, are very experienced security professionals with the expertise to work closely with installers and clients to resolve any false alarm or other operational issues. Katie Neller has recently joined us as ARC IT Manager and Dave Razzell has also recently joined us as Operations Manager of our Electronics Solutions division. Dave, who has worked within the security industry for over 33 years, has responsibility for the operational efficiency of our Monitoring & Response Centre and he also manages our customer engagement programme
Q: What else are you doing which is likely to attract the attention of potential clients as well as the installers they work with?
A: We have an open invitation for installers and end-users to come to Oxford for a personal tour of our Monitoring & Response Centre. We are confident that they will be impressed with what they see. Apart from seeing how our highly trained and enthusiastic operators go about their work, we can also show visitors how our operating platform equips us to monitor any premises, and if necessary deal with any incident, regardless of whether the system at the protected premises is analogue or IP network based. We have also invested in a security based helpdesk package which allows us to manage reported faults and incidents through to conclusion. The feedback from people who have so far visited the Centre is that they have been impressed when we demonstrate to them a powerful set of end user tools which allow us to pro-actively engage with customers – visibly delivering a better service and speed and consistency of response. As I briefly mentioned earlier, The Unipart Way is a huge part of what we do. We find the drive for continual improvement and the transparency that this provides to the customer is quite refreshing in today’s marketplace.
We are committed to investing in the latest technology and in this respect there is some positive news for all of us involved in the electronic security industry and in particular, remote site monitoring. Next generation broadband is fast becoming a reality. After 100 years of supremacy, our copper PSTN infrastructure is being relegated to a ’has been’. The race to fibre is on and BT has announced plans to offer “superfast” internet speeds of between 70-100Mbps to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014 – a year ahead of target.
With many businesses and councils upgrading their communications networks to take advantage of VoIP services so that their data, voice and video applications can all share the same connection, the message to upgrade their signalling is potentially pushing on an open door.
Installation companies can boost profits further by upgrading their analogue signalling systems to IP and build customer loyalty at the same time. By upgrading to IP signalling, not only does the customer save for each dedicated PSTN alarm line removed, but they can also enhance security, improve system integration and experience a more proactive service. It is therefore not surprising that in these harsh economic times, more and more installers are realising the benefits of using IP signalling to send out a positive message of reducing costs and enhancing security.
Q: Are you confident that you can continue to win contracts similar to those on your desk?
A: Yes, very much so. In a tough economic climate, most businesses will be looking to reduce costs and that means security budgets, alongside all other expenditure, will come under close scrutiny. Anything that can help maintain the battle against criminal activity, whilst at the same time offering the potential to reduce operating costs, must therefore be welcome news to hard pressed security budget holders.
I believe the opportunity for us to generate new business is being partly accelerated by technological advances incorporated into the latest generation of intruder and fire detection, audio communication, access control, transmission and video surveillance products. The ability to achieve a high level of integration of these products with the help of sophisticated operating software platforms can provide our operators with high quality visual information and data to enable them to make the same decision that an on-site security officer might make, even though the operator might be in a control room, perhaps several hundred miles away. This has made it increasingly possible for ARCs and RVRCs to provide a service that can certainly complement the activities of security guards and in some situations, replace them.
I am not of course suggesting that manned guarding services will not in the future have a major role to play in deterring and detecting theft, vandalism and other criminal activity. In certain environments there can be no substitute for a well trained and managed team of security officers. However, a remote monitoring service can help clients minimise the number of security officers it needs to employ without compromising the ability to deter and detect any unwanted visitors.
Q: So what would be your key message to the marketplace?
A: The message to installers would be that they should proactively encourage their clients to evaluate the positive benefits of utilising the services of a third party remote monitoring service. There are plenty of ARCs and RVRCs to choose from, but undoubtedly some will be better than others in terms of the level of service they are ready, willing and able to provide. We obviously would hope that our Monitoring & Response Centre would have the opportunity to compete for the business.
To the end user market, we certainly believe that NSI Gold accreditation, combined with our experience and knowledge of what is important to clients, places us in a very strong position to be the first choice for when they are looking for a dependable one-stop-shop for all their remote monitoring requirements. If they wish to look elsewhere I would urge them to only consider a monitoring centre that can demonstrate that it has sufficiently invested in technology and also the human element of the service to enable it to fully engage and support your chosen installation/maintenance company, and as a result have the potential to exceed and not just meet its contractual obligations.
