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Maintaining security systems

Properly maintaining a security system can have an enormous impact on the longevity of the system, as well as the total cost of ownership.

What often happens in the security industry is that companies will spend huge amounts of money to have systems installed, but will not spend on the required maintenance contracts.

A person will spend R100 000 on a car, but then he will insist that he has got to have a maintenance contract on that car. So why would anybody spend R100 000 on a security system that is going to benefit him for a specific reason, and not pay a monthly fee to maintain it? Maintenance contracts can range from normal preventive maintenance into full lease maintenance, where the contractor will carry the cost of the spares as well. I believe companies are increasingly realising the importance of maintenance contracts and their return on investment by entering into these contracts.

We have two sites that we have maintained for 13 years and there are dome cameras on the sites that are over nine years old and still operating. We do have to repair them now and again, but it is a small repair that might cost a couple of hundred rand. That is a good example of preventive maintenance - making sure it is clean, making sure the tests are in place, making sure. Occasionally through wear and tear, there will be parts that may fail, but after nine years they are still getting a return on their investment.

Through good maintenance we have in the last year upgraded the analogue systems to IP-based systems in the control room, with all the original analogue cameras in the field.

Some companies choose to have a less intensive maintenance contract, which - at the bottom end of the scale - merely involves a support system from the contractor and a weekly visit to make sure that the system's functional, so they go in they make sure the recorders are on and working and to make sure the picture quality is still good. This would cost a company in the region of R2000 per month.

Contracts like this are particularly helpful in cases where UPSs have not been used and there is not a generator in place and the system goes down because of a power failure. The contractor will make sure the system is up and running again as it should be. In many cases companies only review their systems when an incident has taken place. They do not go during the day and look at that system and at the end of the month something has gone wrong and they need to collate that data to see who drove into the boom at the gate, for example.

The next step is a minimum preventive maintenance contract where the time the contractors spend on site will depend on the size of the system. Typically, they would go to the site, check that everything is working, have a look at picture quality and then they would clean all the cameras and make sure all the focusing is done, that is normally a little bit more time on site.

Then the next level is a proper preventive maintenance contract. In such cases a team would be deployed on the site, because the Health and Safety Act stipulates that two people have to be on the site.

These contractors work to a daily schedule and hold weekly maintenance meetings with the client.

I think the importance is that there are checks and balances which are signed off by the operator or by the supervisor so that they are fully aware of exactly what has been handled. I think also in the industry a lot of people are tending to go more to the maintenance contracts because of the past history that they have had, were they have put those systems in and they have found when it comes to recording then getting data off those systems have not operated. The picture quality has not been what they wanted because cameras have been knocked out of focus.

The contractor assumes accountability and responsibility on this site as well as for the system, which is very important in those maintenance contracts of this magnitude. Then, if there are problems on the site, the contractor can advise the client on the technologies available and give the right recommendations. It becomes a trust relationship.

For more informaton contact TechniSec Security Specialists, +27 (0)11 845 4050, kmonk@securityspecialists.co.za, www.technisec.co.za

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