How to Choose a Guard Tour System for Your Facility

Your security team is tasked with conducting guard tours.

We’re talking about a property that covers 1,000,000+ square feet, multiple entryways, and as many restricted areas as Area 51.

You’re not securing extraterrestrials.

But, there’s no doubt your team is keeping busy. We also know it never ends.

Answer this truthfully:

Does your guard tour system give you the accuracy and efficiency needed to do your job most effectively?

If you’re not sure, that’s OK.

Keep reading, because we’re going to give you the insight you need to choose the right guard tour system for your facility.

STOP LOOKING FOR MAGIC IN THOSE WANDS

Guard tours used to be conducted with radio and pen and paper.

Then, there was the introduction of wands.

Today, technology has evolved even more.

You can get into the present and go beyond the wands.

Consider it a new beginning – a fresh start.

You might have done some spring cleaning in another part of your operation, but now it’s time to evaluate this system.

Aren’t you tired of mounting additional receptacles and screwing plates on the walls?

Aren’t you sick of issuing wands to your staff only to have them aimlessly walk around time-stamping during their shift?

Wouldn’t it be better if your security team could truly inspect those areas, not merely walk by and stick a wand on a plate?

Unfortunately, guard tours are a drag.

All the hardware it takes to implement one of these systems that we’re all familiar with is not cheap.

The dreaded implementation starts with the questions you must ask:

• Who is assigned to each security zone?
• How do you track their location and which wands they’ve been issued?
• Are they touring areas at their own will, or do they truly follow the “schedule” you assigned to them?
• Most importantly, when and how often are they conducting their location inspections?

The next challenge is fostering a process to track tours in real-time efficiently.

Removing wands from your system can give you the peace of mind to answer all the previous questions.

We think it’ll help you identify your problem areas and problem employees.

Problem employees can positively affect your ability to achieve efficiency and peace of mind.

With antiquated wand systems, a vital flaw exists, the lack of documentation for managing your security staff.

There’s no accountability.

The data isn’t reliable, and there’s no way to regularly track, manage, and understand how efficient your processes are.

Consider This

These are your employees.

Yes, the people who have the responsibility of ensuring your facility, its employees, and patrons are all safe. And this happens — missed inspections.

To them, what’s a missed check when someone else is more than likely going to make their rounds later on during their shift?

Right, what difference does it make to them after all?

How’s knowing you might not be able to trust your staff?

Better yet, how’s knowing that implementing the improper touring system can lead to your inability to control these occurrences?

Your system can prevent you from having the ability to spot problems in your operation and shortcomings in your team.

You might be looking for your first system or a new one.

Whichever the case, know this.

If you don’t have the tools for the awareness needed to know your employees are not working efficiently – it’s going to cost you money in the long run.

Can you forecast the possibilities 10 miles down the road?

It could lead to legal repercussions.

The legal proceedings could be disastrous if someone snuck into your facility, left a package of explosives near a high traffic zone where your team should regularly be inspecting.

Would a time stamp indeed provide you with enough documentation to save your facility from writing more checks?

We don’t know.

That’s the problem.

You don’t know.

By now you’ve recognized the need to remove wands from your touring system, now the question is:

How do you fully validate whether your team completed a tour and obtain all the vital details to cover your bottom line?

Here’s a viable solution you’ll want to consider when choosing your new or next system.

UPGRADE YOUR GUARD TOUR SYSTEM

Enhancing all your security tours with RFID technology is the solution.

You are no more wasting your valuable time with pen and paper, unreliable information, cumbersome hardware, and wands.

Using a software solution that’s easy enough to use, that provides you with proper documentation and accountability that would give you quite the peace of mind you’re going for, right?

We’ve got great news for you.

We know from experience that efficiency and ease of use are two non-negotiable must-haves when moving to new software and moving your wands to the security museum archives.

A Guard Tour System With Accountability

The innovative, and we don’t say innovative lightly, software available to you for optimized event security, guard tours, and location inspections gives you the accountability you desperately need.

Leverage secure RFID technology for checkpoints, ensuring that your guards are physically present at all of their assignments.

Security staff can conduct tours and include details with attached pictures, videos, and even audio.

Let’s go back to the package of explosives.

Your security staff takes a stroll to this particular location you’ve now designated for today.

Now that they’re touring this site at the appropriate times, they notice an unmarked package.

How do they handle this with the modern touring system?

Using the new wand-less system, they record the date and time of the location, take a picture of the suspicious package, record the details of the incident, and notify all need to know people.

How’s that for efficiency?!

You have the total picture now.

Awareness, documentation, and accountability all make up your highly efficient security operation.

It’s official.

You now have proof of guard tours and location inspections.

Ensure guards are held accountable for their scheduled tours and location inspections.

There’s no more ambiguity and useless hardware.

ANALYTICS DRIVES EFFICIENCY

A system like this also gives you historical data for all tours conducted at your facility.

Information about a guard tour is recorded and reported at the time of the inspection, in real-time.

With real-time data, there’s no time for questions of accountability and useless data.

Accurate documentation also gives you a way to analyze the enormous amounts of useful and valuable information you’ve got.

All data is precise and can be used to improve your security operation during daily activities and for events.

The reporting features built into these solutions give your data purpose.

Manage, analyze, and use the statistics for executing guard tours and location inspections with full efficiency every single time.

For instance, rather than having your security staff walk in circles, you can randomize their schedule and make it extremely difficult for a security breach to occur.

Data tells you a story.

A story with the details you need to create the most efficient and effective security team ever!

OVER TO YOU

Choosing your guard tour system doesn’t have to be overwhelming. But, you need one, and it has to give you the flexibility, accountability, and data your operation requires.

The solution outlined in today’s article will afford you the ability to manage your security operation with ease.

So, will you be implementing guard tour software at your facility soon?

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.