Daring to trust technology

Joakim Halfwordson, who heads up Coor’s central security organization, thinks that there are few players in the security sector who actually work on functional solutions in practice—they either focus on delivering components, like card readers, or deliver patrolling services.

“This means that most customers buy technology from one supplier and staff services from another, without getting the whole thing working optimally. At Coor, we try to benefit from the synergies arising between all services, which normally, can bring cost savings of 30 to 40%. Simultaneously, we challenge the old security strategies and help our customers identify and implement contemporary, intelligent and effective solutions.”

Because Coor has customers in a raft of different sectors, it’s got experience and valuable insights from different environments, such as being responsible for safety at airports, in banking operations, in offices, logistics and municipal centers and industrial plants. Several of these environments have complex requirements and high safety standards.

“Our broad experience benefits our customers by helping them select the best solution for their unique situation. Moreover, we add value through our technological working methods by centralizing alarm functions rather than having staff on all sites, and by working on an incident-controlled basis when there are alerts, instead of staff having to sit and wait for something to happen.”

Joakim Halfwordson thinks that much of the time security guards spend on site is about being prepared if something happens. By utilizing resources better, Coor’s overall delivery becomes more effective.

If we’ve got a guard on site, we give him or her extra duties as a stimulus. Guards can work on FM services, which otherwise would be delivered by other parts of our organization during working-hours. This might mean doing the rounds of an estate simultaneous with a security patrol. In this way, we rationalize our overall delivery, while simultaneously getting more committed guards.

For Coor, security is very much about structure and good order, but also about identifying new support processes. One example is to match up entry control systems with HR lists so that only people employed have access to premises. Clients have to be able to trust that the information in their systems is correct and up to date.

“In many cases, by using technology solutions, we’ve been able to eliminate problems caused by the human factor. Our systems check and double check. Other things we automate include photography for pass cards, which we do in a photo booth. This enables service users to take their own pictures when it suits them, and we don’t need any staff on site. Self-service units are a clear current trend in several parts of service deliveries.

Security solutions are migrating more towards IT and away from mechanical locks and keys, which makes them more integratable. This is a huge paradigms shift, where more and more people are starting to question traditional staffing and examine what can be automated or remote controlled.

“The challenge of security services compared to other services is that if you’re unsuccessful, the consequences can be major. Additionally, security is a service, which in most cases, is delivered at a physical location, and this means we need a local presence of competent staff who can get support from our central specialist competencies,” continues Joakim.

Other added value an IFM provider can offer includes a single point of contact—a reporting system you’re already familiar with, consistent performance indicators between different offices/sites and the knowledge that someone is running the operational side of things so that clients can devote their attention to strategic work on safety.

“Buyers of integrated complete solutions are usually mature customers. It’s important to understand that the security organizations specify the requirements, even if in many cases, it’s a purchasing organization that actually orders the services. Ultimately, this means we unload the security organization from its operational and tactical work and give them scope to focus on strategy and functional requirements.”

Coor also does a lot of work on supporting strategy work, and for example, offers assistance on supporting data and investigations when customers invest in new systems. These are often global solutions and Coor has helped customers in countries including China, Japan, the UK and Saudi Arabia.

“Another trend is that companies that operate globally want to exchange information between all systems. A pass card should be usable at the office in Sweden and one in China. We also want to add more functionality to pass cards, such as logins in computing environments, printing on printers or paying for your lunch,” notes Joakim.

At the end of the day, it’s about everyone adopting security to the core. People doing cleaning should ensure emergency exits aren’t obstructed, staff shouldn’t let in people without asking where they’re going, everyone should have their ID cards visible and so on.

“For us, this is about taking overall responsibility, always working proactively and never reactively. Trying to find good, future-proof and flexible security solutions that can constantly be adapted to our customers’ changing needs.”

Want to find out more?

Please contact Joakim Halfwordson.