(New year's resolutions have a habit of never being resolved. We take a look at our good intentions to concentrate on improving standards and communications in 1988, and measure the distance we've travelled since…)
"Any company, large or small, can improve its efficiency and its performance (which in turn, of course, improves its profits), but there first has to be a commitment – so there's our first resolution.
The second resolution to improve business involves a commitment to better and more wide-ranging communications, establishing and enhancing your contacts with existing and potential customers, with manufacturers and suppliers, with your local CPOs and also with the trade associations.
These two resolutions for 1988, adopted and applied, will hopefully mean that, when matters are reviewed at the end of the year, positive benefits and achievements can be identified – and everyone will be able to give themselves a little pat on the back."
Raising standards
(We cast a critical eye at the new British Standard for Security in Shops and Offices, BS8220:Part 2…)
"The body of the standard is divided into ten sections covering not only design and equipment of security protection but also planning and procedures, and a series of appendices at the end of the standards each relating to one of the sections offers a useful series of 'check list' questions to help readers formulate effective security plans.
One hopes that the omissions of detail and perhaps even the emphasis might be changed in future publications but we should all be grateful nonetheless, that another set of standards for the security industry now exists where there was none before.
Having British Standards as benchmarks undoubtedly helps to improve the standards of security both demanded and supplied – and that's got to be good news for everyone except the villains!"
Job creation
(TV cops were all the rage in the 80s. The industry got a little help from the stars as it continued its rapid expansion of monitoring centres…)
"Glynis Barber, co-star of LWT's popular Dempsey & Makepeace TV police series, joined a team of fully trained monitoring operators in Feltham, Middlesex, when she opened Europe's largest central monitoring station built for British Telecom subsidiary, Telecom Security Ltd.
Such has been the expansion of the company that more than 120 new jobs have been created within Middlesex in less than 6 months and chairman Peder Kollind foresees considerable further expansion now that the new central station is operational."
New business ventures
(We pointed out a new business opportunity for installers by helping local industrialists improve security on estates…)
"Special interest was shown in a surveillance camera system, which to be effective would need to be properly installed and a control room properly manned. A demonstration of the equipment would be necessary and, if required, firms specialising in such equipment would be asked to submit tenders for installation. This resulted from a police recommendation, with the Council also offering some financial backing.
Obviously, further investigation was required, and to be anything like successful, had to have the backing of all industrialists who would be expected to contribute to the costs of the scheme. The industrialists undertook to canvas all firms on the estate and reconvene to announce their decision on whether to form an Association to explore the possibility of camera surveillance and its financial implications."
Source
Security Installer
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