Electronic Security Systems

16

Consolidation

In the world of security, consolidation could refer to several differ-

ent ideas ranging from combining equipment to gathering security

personnel into a single location. In this chapter, consolidation

applies to consolidating the various Security Control Centers

(SCCs) across a company into a single location within that com-

pany. Consolidation in the security arena is the direction many

major companies are heading. The possibility of saving costs by

combining SCCs into a single location is a tempting plan in today’s

cost cutting environment. Continuing to support multiple SCCs,

sometimes at different plant sites within the same city, is an expen-

sive operation that can be combined to save equipment costs and

reduce the personnel needed to operate the multiple control cen-

ters. The reduction of a single position, which is operated twenty-

four hours a day/seven days a week, would be equivalent to

reducing the head count of four plus operators or four operators

with overtime. In larger control center operations, this reduction

can easily amount to two daytime positions, two swing shift posi-

tions and one midnight position, totaling a reduction in personnel

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of ten or more operators. Depending upon the salaries and benefits,

the savings can be three to five hundred thousand dollars annually.

Large companies are also evaluating whether or not to consol-

idate SCC operations on a much wider scale than within the same

city or state. There is no reason control centers throughout the

United States cannot be consolidated into one location. For years

this has been the approach used by the commercial monitoring side

of the business. They have found savings in consolidation, so it is

only natural that companies that are not specifically in the security

monitoring business would take the same approach. The commercial

monitoring services have also taken the approach of standardiz-

ing data inputs, defining an alarm as an event that needs attention,

and providing a descriptor, which provides the proper response to

the alarm. It does not matter where the alarm comes from when

phone numbers, responsible parties and responding authorities are

provided in the consolidated SCC database.

A large corporation’s SCC responds to alarms in the same way

the consolidated commercial monitoring service responds to

alarms. An alarm server/computer displays the alarm’s location

and provides response instructions that include any necessary

contact numbers. Both a commercial monitoring service and a

company should have database standards to assure information is

consistent from one alarm to another. This is addressed in Chapter

12. There are differences, however. The company SCC tends to have

more detail in the alarm location descriptor, because the descriptor

describes the exact alarm location within a building for the benefit

of the responding security officer who may have to use keys to gain

access to the alarmed area. The company alarm types are limited in

number based upon the type of industry that the company is in. For

example, the types of alarms may differ between companies that

process chemicals and an Insurance company. One company will be

primarily concerned with toxic chemical spills and the other will

primarily be concerned with security alarms and access to their

Information Technology (IT) data center.

Even though there are cost benefits and improved standardi-

zation across the enterprise with consolidation, there are still some

issues that should be considered. One obstacle that must be over-

come by a company with multiple locations (that could be consoli-

dated) is the “local is better” issue. The argument is based on the

250 Electronic Security Systems