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Selecting a supplier - the most important choice

Why is selecting the right supplier the most important choice you can make? The obvious answer of course, is that they can offer you the 'correct' product. This would imply that a selection process has taken place to determine the supplier of the technology. Why then do some suppliers claim to always have the 'best' product, asks Honeywell SA's Mike Emery?

"Strolling through Securex at the Sandton Convention Centre during the first week of March 2004, I was amazed to overhear many of the companies on show claiming to have the 'best' product," says Emery.

"Can you imagine how hard it is to really have the 'best' product. The handy thesaurus on my laptop gives a couple of definitions of best, ranging from 'pre-eminent' to 'most excellent' to even 'unsurpassed'. Looking at these definitions I believe that it must be extraordinarily difficult to substantiate this claim," he adds.

"Having spent the last nine months on the contracting side of the business, it has become very clear to me that a lot of clients are easily duped into believing these statements instead of making informed decisions about the 'virtual' smorgasbord of technology on hand.

Let me relate an amusing anecdote to illustrate some of the hard decisions that have to be made when competing in the technology marketplace."

Outrunning the opposition

"Two friends are spending their holiday in the Kruger Park when their car breaks down quite far off the main track. As they are worried that they will have to spend the night outside the safety of the camp and as it is getting quite late they decide (against the rules) to walk back to the main road. Just after they start walking back to camp, they hear a lion grunt quite close to them. They both look anxiously at each other and then the one chap kneels down to re-tie his shoelaces. The other chap is quite amused by this and asks, "Do you think by doing that you can outrun the lion?" The first chap replies "No I do not, but I only have to outrun you!"

Says Emery, "This is the conundrum that we all face in the security industry, how to survive in a constant changing environment and in the face of opposition, where the daily requirement is to sell at all costs and talk bad about your fellow competitor.

There is no easy answer to this. What has struck me most in my years in the security industry is that people buy from people irrespective of whether the company and the products they represent are able to meet standards and requirements. It is therefore my opinion that security managers should judge companies not on the claims to have the 'best' products, but should rather consider what a company has to offer before making a purchasing decision."

Emery suggests that the following points should be taken into consideration:

1) Will the supplying company be there in the future?

2) Is technical support available for the products supplied?

3) Can the products be serviced and maintained?

4) What warranties does the company offer?

5) Can the supplying company offer added value for doing business with them?

Only after these points have been considered should one start looking at the so-called 'best' product specifications.

Concludes Emery, "It is with this in mind that Honeywell SA offer a complete range of electronic security products including intruder detection, fire, CCTV, access control and building management systems. And I have no doubt, that because we can answer in the affirmative to the above questions, our offerings will meet and surpass your security solutions needs."

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