It can be secure or it can be cheap
September 2017, News

Kicking off the Residential Estate Security Conference 2017, Rob Anderson noted an unpleasant truth about estates and their endeavour to be secure. Rob noted that estates ask for advice, request quotes to meet their specific requirements, and then choose the cheapest quote. Alternatively, someone on the HoA or body corporate knows someone “who is brilliant at this type of stuff” and the job goes to them.

Not too long after the installation is complete, the complaints start coming in about perimeter breaches, illegal and undocumented access, cameras that produce yellow (or sometimes green) images when they are working, and guards that are never where they are supposed to be (except when they’re asleep). Of course this applies to more markets than only estates, but it is an inconvenient truth many integrators, consultants, service providers and vendors deal with on a regular basis.

Even if you get someone to install the cheap stuff professionally, they won the bid on price and you will be disappointed if you think they are going to support and maintain their work just as professionally – no matter what was agreed. The budget cuts have to come from somewhere and it’s either saved during installation or in the support/maintenance phases (or both). We all know the economy is in the dumpster, but is that worth the risks involved in bad security?

Perhaps the problem is that the people making decisions are not aware of what makes security work. Those nasty bean counters simply count beans, not the cost of lives and the trauma involved in failed security. But there again, see what cars they drive and ask them why they aren’t in a 1973 VW Beetle – that’s a cost-effective buy?

Cost of ownership was one of the presentations at this year’s Residential Estate Security Conference. You can find a brief summary of it and the other presentations in this handbook. We also have an article on the total cost of ownership as it pertains to the security market among the different editorials we include in the publication.

We also have insights from some people involved in ensuring their estate’s security who sat around a table with Hi-Tech Security Solutions to speak about the challenges they face. Money is always an issue, but it doesn’t have to mean poor security.

I would like to thank everyone who supplied information and answered questions in the process of putting the Residential Estate Security Handbook 2017 together. It’s difficult to compress everything into one publication, but with the able assistance of Rob Anderson we have managed to address many of the security issues estates today are facing.

I hope you enjoy the magazine and I welcome comments, suggestions and criticisms to andrew@technews.co.za

Andrew Seldon

Editor