Best Ways to Increase the Security of your Business

Best Ways to Increase the Security of your Business discussed by Elite Fire & Security

Whatever your business you will want to ensure your premises are secure and your staff are safe and there are many ways of doing this. You may already have some security systems in place but there are always ways to update and improve these and a specialist security company will have the expertise and know-how to assess the security risks of your business. Our Best Ways to Increase the Security of your Business will help you understand what options are available and how they can work together to give you and your team peace of mind.

You should start by identifying where you, your business and your property are most vulnerable and this can be done by carrying out a risk assessment. This will help you prioritise the areas that need focus and enable you to plan any actions. A good and professional security company like Elite Fire & Security will come out to your business and complete a full assessment and analysis to help you understand the areas you should and could focus on to increase the security of your business.

Security options can be based on the security of your property and people as well as data and cash security. Adding security features to your property will often reduce your insurance premiums so always check this and take it into account when reviewing costs.

Increase the Security of your Business with a CCTV System

CCTV systems are used for two purposes; investigation and deterrence. They enable a property owner or business to see things happening in real-time in a building or an area or go back to review specific dates and times if you need to and this helps to keep a property secure from unauthorised people entering or unauthorised activity happening. The cameras simultaneously transmit footage to a screen which allows the areas where the cameras are installed to be viewed in real-time and recorded for playback later. A CCTV system can be used to:

• Monitors Activity in real-time
• Collect evidence from a crime or accident
• Decision Making
• Keeping Records
• Deter unauthorised access, unacceptable behaviour, crime etc

In order to maximise CCTV cameras, they should be placed at specific points and expert security businesses will be able to advise you on this.

There are lots of different types of CCTV and each one offers different benefits. A professional security company will come out to your property or business to assess your needs and security hotspots to design the best system for you and your budget.

• Dome CCTV Camera
• Bullet CCTV
• Infrared CCTV
• IP CCTV
• Wireless CCTV
• High-Definition (HD) CCTV
• Thermal Heat detection CCTV
• C-Mount CCTV
• Day/Night CCTV

Increase the Security of your Business with a Commercial Intruder Alarm

Commercial Intruder Alarms or commercial burglar alarms are systems that will sound an alarm when an unauthorised person enters your property. They will put potential intruders off and protect your property and business, giving you peace of mind 24 hours, 365 days a year. It is a well-known fact that intruders would rather target a property with no security system or an old, outdated alarm system than take the risk of breaking into a property with a newly integrated intruder alarm.

Depending on your requirements, Commercial Intruder Alarms are all designed to trigger an alarm when an intruder is detected inside, outside or both. There are different types of alarms available and the alarm you choose will depend on the nature of your business and the property and belongings you are protecting.

• Wireless Alarms, Remote Monitoring Commercial and Domestic Intruder Alarms
• Wireless Intruder Alarm Systems
• Audible Intruder Alarms

Increase the Security of your Business with a Bespoke Access Control Door System

Access control systems offer security to businesses, homes or premises by giving flexible control over who can enter. They are one of the most commonly used security systems and there are several types available to suit your needs. An access control system can be used on a door, gate, lift, barrier or any entry point or multiple entry points to control who enters and leaves a property. They are a solution to protect people, an area, belongings and systems inside a property as well as the property itself. They also enable you to monitor who is entering and leaving at any given time.

The purpose of an access control system is to provide quick and convenient access to a building or area to anyone who is authorised, whilst restricting access to unauthorised people.

There are several different types of Access Control Door Systems and each one works slightly differently with different ways of accessing a building, property or area.

• Keypad Entry Access Control Systems
• Key Fob Entry Access Control Systems
• Card Entry Access Control Systems
• Fingerprint Entry Access Control Systems
• Retina Entry Access Control Systems
• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Entry Access Control Systems

An access control system also negates the need for multiple people having keys to enter which can get lost, stolen or passed on. If keys are lost its saves you from having to change locks and re-issue multiple keys to multiple users.

Increase the Security of your Business with Commercial Gates & Barriers

Commercial gates are strong enough to secure your business or commercial property and come in a huge range of styles, sizes, materials and colours, and they can be automated to make getting in and out of your business easy whilst still keeping it secure. Automated Commercial Gates can be opened and closed using a variety of devices including; digital keypads, card readers, intercom systems, CCTV systems and vehicle tag readers.

Commercial barriers are barriers which prevent unauthorised access and control access to a commercial business or property and are ideal for high traffic sites or properties that need entry and exit points monitored. They are also used in car parks and on train crossings and their strong build mean they can endure high volume traffic access points and be opened and closed a lot of times day and night. Automated Commercial Barriers can be opened and closed using a variety of devices including; digital keypads, card readers, intercom systems, CCTV systems and vehicle tag readers.

The main purpose of Commercial Gates & Barriers is to protect a site or property from unauthorised access, monitor and control access, prevent access or slow traffic down when they are entering or exiting. A Commercial Gate system will also give a property or site privacy compared to having an open entrance.

Commercial Gates have many different benefits and are manufactured to your specifications and businesses needs, therefore, you should always make use of a specialist Commercial Security Company who will assess your business, property and site to advise you which Commercial Barrier system will be best for you.

• Preventing Unauthorised Access
• Securing your Property, Team and Assets
• Convenience
• Adding Value to your Commercial Property
• Privacy
• Reduction of Insurance Premiums
• Reduction of Security Costs
• Manufactured for Strength & Use
• Weather Resistant

Types of Commercial Gates:

• Swing Gates
• Sliding Gates
• Bi-folding Gates
• Automated Gates

All of these can be automated and accessed in different ways and made from wood, aluminium or steel depending on your requirements.

Commercial Barriers have many different benefits and are manufactured to your specifications and businesses needs:

• Preventing Unauthorised Access
• Security
• Reduction of Insurance Premiums
• Controlling Traffic Flow
• Controlling Crowds
• Convenience
• Manufactured for High Volume Entry & Exit
• Reduction of Insurance Premiums
• Reduction of Security Costs
• Manufactured for Strength
• Weather Resistant

There are many different types of Commercial Barrier Systems available and each one will vary depending on your business or commercial property needs, therefore, you should always make use of a specialist Commercial Security Company who will assess your business, property and site to advise you which Commercial Barrier system will be best for you.

Types of Commercial Barriers:

• Height restriction bar
• Manual access barrier
• Swing barrier gate
• Automatic raise arm barrier
• PAS 68 counter-terrorism barrier

A Commercial Gate & Barrier specialist will fully understand your security and access needs and will be able to advise you on the best system for you and your property. They will design, supply, install and maintain your Commercial Gate or Barrier system, making adjustments and additions to your security needs as and when you need it.

Increase the Security of your Business with a Commercial Fire Alarm System

A fire in a business can be devastating for you, your team, your customers and the overall running of your business, as well as being a threat to lives and serious injury, both physically and mentally. Lots of fires in workplaces or commercial properties can be avoided by taking the right steps to prevent fires, minimise them if one starts and by having effective systems, controls and processes in place for the people inside the property to enable them to safely evacuate and ensure the emergency services are called quickly to prevent the fire from spreading.

It is known that there are nearly twenty thousand commercial fires in the UK every year and it costs UK businesses millions of pounds, from damage to property, loss of business, fines, compensation claims and increased insurance premiums and this highlights the importance of being fire safe within your business. As a commercial property or business owner, you have a legal responsibility so it should always be taken seriously. We would recommend that your businesses ‘Responsible Person’ use a reputable and professional Fire Safety Specialist to help support and deliver your legal responsibilities when it comes to fire, fire prevention, fire safety and fire procedures.

A fire alarm system will have a number of devices working together to detect when there is smoke, heat, fire or carbon monoxide and subsequently warn people through visual lights and audio alarms. Alarms can include motorized bells, mountable sounders, horns and light systems.

Fire Safety Legislation

The UK fire alarm regulations state that all business premises must have ‘an appropriate fire detection system’ to ensure that if there is a fire, it can be easily detected and all occupants are warned and able to evacuate quickly and safely. Fire Safety Legislation applies to all commercial property and other buildings to which the public have access. The Fire Safety Legislation states:

• Employers (and/or building owners or occupiers) must carry out a fire safety risk assessment and keep it up to date. This shares the same approach as health and safety risk assessments and can be carried out either as part of an overall risk assessment or as a separate exercise.
• Based on the findings of the assessment, employers need to ensure that adequate and appropriate fire safety measures are in place to minimise the risk of injury or loss of life in the event of a fire.

To help prevent fire in the workplace, your risk assessment should identify; what could cause a fire to start, ie sources of ignition (heat or sparks) and substances that burn, and the people who may be at risk.

When you have identified the risks, you can take appropriate action to negate them. Consider whether you can avoid them altogether or, if this is not possible, how you can reduce the risks and manage them. Also, consider how you will protect people if there is a fire.

It is not always a requirement of a business insurance policy, however, every insurance policy varies so you should always check this. Often having a sprinkler system fitted as part of your business’s fire safety setup will help to reduce the cost of commercial property insurance, however, this isn’t always the case.

Fire Alarm System Benefits

• Fire alarms save lives
• Fire alarms alert people in a building that there is a risk of smoke, heat or fire
• Reduce property damage and loss
• Reduce damage caused by heat, smoke and fire
• Some Fire Alarm systems will alert the emergency services that there is a fire so they are dispatched to the property as soon as the alarm is activated
• Fire Alarm systems will alert designated fire officers in a building so they can ensure a safe and orderly evacuation of everyone inside

Increase the Security of your Business with Internal & External Lighting

Having adequate lighting inside and outside of your property is a crucial element for security. A professional security company will come out to assess your property and advise you where any lighting and motion sensor lighting should be placed to maximise the security of your property. It is well known that motion sensor lighting and automated timed lighting deters illegal activity and will deter people from breaking into your property.

Increase the Security of your Business by Reviewing your Property Exterior

Making sure that hedges and trees are cut back and at a reasonable height ensure that criminals don’t have any dark spots and places to hide. Poorly kept exteriors can tell potential criminals that your business run-down, poorly secured and not looked after making them think it is an easier target.

Increase the Security with Policies & Processes

Closing Blinds After Hours

Closing blinds at the end of a working day or shift will prevent potential criminals from looking in and seeing the equipment and stock inside your property.

Training your Team

Train your team to be vigilant and to understand what they should do if they see any unusual activity and refresh them on it regularly.

Visitor Management Policy

An unauthorised visitor coming into your property or business can be a physical threat as well as giving them the opportunity to steal stock or sensitive data or information. You should always direct visitors to a specific entry point (a gate or reception area) and have a sign in and out process with visitor badges incorporated into this. This enables your staff to know if a person inside your property is a visitor or staff member. When writing your Visitor Management Policy decide if visitors should be accompanied by a staff member in all areas or specific areas only. Train your team on your visitor management policy and refresh them on it regularly as this will ensure they will feel more comfortable approaching or reporting a suspicious individual or any suspicious activity.

Floor Marshall

Assigning a Floor Marshall is a simple and effective way to help protect your business against unauthorised access. In a larger business where there are lots of employees, it is difficult to recognise every customer, supplier, contractor and new employees so a floor marshall can help with this and assure colleagues they have someone to go to if they don’t recognise someone who doesn’t have a visitors badge.

Password Policy

Only allow your systems to accept strong passwords and ensure it is mandatory they are changed regularly by every employee. A strong password policy may seem inconvenient to your team, however, it is far batter than experiencing a data breach or a network crash.

Social Media Policy

Develop a sound Social Media and Email Policy and ensure your staff are trained and refreshed on it regularly. Company information that is exposed via a company email or social media will rarely if ever, be retracted so it’s an important factor in securing your business. Your email policy should address appropriate content for company emails, social media pages and posts always assuming that nothing is private on the internet.

Hard Drive and Data Processes

Before you dispose of any old systems or hardware ensure that you erase any company information or personal data is as an old system can be a treasure for identity and data thieves.

Securing Equipment

Conduct regular property and equipment audits, and assign responsibility for individual items to individual employees. Tag computers and record details with serial numbers, and if you feel you need to you can secure expensive equipment to floors or walls.

Employment History

Always conduct thorough checks of potential employees employment history by requesting references. This doesn’t mean an employee won’t be a potential security risk to your business, however, it goes some way towards it. Only give access to areas and data that employees need for their role and have clear policies around the theft of company property and data. Regularly review who has what access privileges and change passwords regularly.

Ex-employees

Always have a robust process in place top delete ex-employees user and access accounts as soon as they leave the business to prevent unauthorised access to any information or accounts, always remember it is very difficult to prove illegal activity if they still have access.

Paper and Waste Processes

Install lockable filing cabinets to store personal or confidential information and have sensitive data paper waste for your employees to use to ensure that information can’t be used if anyone shouldn’t gain access to it.

Data Policies & Processes

Keeping sensitive online at one location or on hard drives is susceptible to security breaches. Sensitive financial information, business information and personal data should always be automatically backed up to a cloud-based system to protect anything that is deleted locally, or if your systems crash. Emails often have attachments with viruses in them so train your staff to never open an attachment unless they know who it’s from. Ensure your IT systems are adequately protected from external threats by installing firewalls and anti-virus software.

Mobile Phone & Laptops

It is really important to have a mobile Phone Usage Policy to prevent customer and business information from being passed on as well as policies around laptop use and security.

Increase the Security of your Business Summary

Protect yourself and your staff by making sure the necessary security and policy training is available and is conducted regularly. Everyone should know what to do in the event of a serious threat, or if they suspect any suspicious behaviour. Put signs up around your property to advise;  limited cash is kept on-site, CCTV is in operation and certain parts of your premises are only accessible to staff members if applicable.

A professional security company will be able to advise you about the most up to date and advanced security systems and will assess your potential security risks to advise you of a system or systems which will prevent security breaches.

About Elite Fire & Security

If you are considering updating or improving the security of your property or business then Elite Fire & Security can help. We will come to you and learn about your business, your security requirements, your operational functions and assess your security risks. We will then recommend the best systems for you and design it to suit your needs.

Our security systems are high-quality advanced systems that will protect your business, its occupants, data and allow you to be in control of everything.

The type of security system you choose will depend on your premises, property, business, operational needs, premises layout and security needs.

1. We will visit your premises to learn about your business and conduct a full site and risk assessment
2. Our on-site visit will assess your building layout, access and exit points which enable us to design a fully integrated security system to suit your needs and requirements
3. We can communicate with architects, facilities managers or building contractors if needed before providing you with written recommendations, a bespoke plan and a free no-obligation quote
4. We will offer you varying system options and explain the benefits and disadvantages of each one, as well as the cost of installation and maintenance
5. If you already have a security system in place we will review your existing equipment and identify any security risks to design a system that suits your needs and business
6. We can scale up your existing systems and add in other components to make your business more secure and up to date
7. We can provide you with information about the businesses we have worked with and the types and scale of security systems we have designed and installed
8. The installation of your security system will be completed by a team of our fully trained security specialists who will install and test it
9. We will provide you and your team with full training, an understanding of your new system, along with how to add, remove or amend users access authorisation at any time remotely
10. We offer maintenance and servicing options that will keep your security systems operating safely and effectively
11. We offer planned maintenance and service contracts to ensure your security systems are kept in good and safe working order, preventing issues and giving you peace of mind that your business is secure 365 days a year, 24 hours a day
12. Our team are friendly and professional and are passionate about delivering excellent service and outstanding security systems every time

We are one of the UK’s leading Security System Specialists and we supply, install and maintain a wide range of systems and products at premises throughout Bristol, Bath, the South West and London. We offer professional and cost-effective security advice that you can trust along with a free no-obligation site assessment and quote. if you are looking to Increase the Security of your Business or property then contact us today on 0333 577 1230 and one of our experts will be able to answer any questions you have or arrange your free security assessment.