Guard Tour Patrol Monitoring

SIMPLICITY

Imagine an officer conducting his daily guard tours by carrying a paper notebook and using it every time he passes from a specific checkpoint. He will have to write down any incident, describe the difficulties he may come up with or make any recommendations to improve the safety status of the patrolled region. Maybe there will be also an incident booklet that he should mark during his guard tour or fill in a paper form and spend some time recording what he just executed. If all officers follow the same procedure, a ton of paper should be used, many different notebooks should be examined by the managing staff and extra workload would be added in order to evaluate or combine information from all the different sources.

Guard tour software make things simple. No need for personal notebooks, no need to keep data in paper format. The officers send the reports by a simple tap of buttons on a smartphone or a rugged device and the monitoring center receives information automatically. All they have to do is to scan some checkpoints and use a simple interface to describe all of their activity. They could also program their activities and guard tours and manage all of their work via a mobile device. No need to sign in booklets and describe events, no need to carry on booklets from the managed territories to the monitoring center in order to be examined and get it back again. Simplicity is the core of any daily work and guard tour software eliminates paper load and reduces worktime, letting companies and officers focus on more significant aspects of their work.

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

Our daily life is deluged by data and numbers. We need data and information to evaluate processes, take decisions, visualize problems and suggest solutions. No company or organization could survive today without gathering and analyzing data and utilizing it to afford solutions and manage workflow.

Getting back to security guard industry and taking into consideration guard tours executed without a guard tour system, we have to deal with a major problem:

HOW TO ELIMINATE PAPER LOAD

It is impossible to keep thorough recordings of any work process without using computer-based system which automates procedures and eliminates paperwork. Even if there are strict guidelines in the delivery and conduct of reports and other necessary documents, there is no a reliable way to track and manage the whole procedure without losing information or valuable time. Certain doubts could arise in any stage of the patrolling process, such as:

  – Which was the exact time a guard executed the guard tour?

  – How many checkpoints were missed and for which reason?

  – Are there any missed inspections that are not mentioned on the paper reports?

  – Which are the exact time intervals a security officer accomplished the checkpoints scans?

  – Are the reports delivered in the predefined time?

  – How will a scheduled guard tour will be supervised without reliability issues arise?

  – How easy would it be to search for guard tours and patrols executed six months ago?

  – What if there is a device (e.g., hard drives, USB sticks) damage or archive loss?

All of the above provoke trouble. It is obvious that there cannot be a trace of accountability. Even if there is some, the data acquired is totally non- reliable, and you need so much time to index, record, log and search for documents and reports.

All of your data can be stored in secure databases and retrieved at any time. You can track activities, organize schedules and create digital footprints of your officers in order to validate that guard tours are executed properly in time. Turning into a guard tour software configuration for your daily needs, you will add value to your work. Accountability and documentation will also make your life simpler, eliminating time consuming and complicated tasks.

Enhancing all your guard tours with an up-to-date guard tour software should be in your immediate concerns. Stop wasting your time with pen and paper, unreliable information and complex processes. Guard tour systems are easy enough to use and offer simple documentation and largescale accountability.

 

KEEP HISTORY LOG

A guard tour system will help you get proper historical data for all patrols executed in specific time intervals. Any guard tour is recorded and all details are available in secure databases. The officers managing the procedure in the office will not retain data in archives and folders any more but will be now able to conduct a simple search on their computer and find any information regarding guard tours, patrolled time intervals, images and sound recordings attached to patrols, guards’ signatures and digital notes. The ability to track historical data is vital to control budget and extinguish ambiguity issues deriving about guards’ reliability and past patrol tours duration.

A guard tour monitoring system holds historical data for any executed guard tour. All information regarding a specific patrol is recorded and reported at time of the location inspection. Real time precise data provide no-doubt information about any aspect of a guard tour regarding incidents and guards’ activities.

 

RELIABILITY

Let suppose that you assign your officers specific guard tours and schedule their daily tours. How could you assure that all of them perform their patrols and how could you guarantee your officers performance towards your clients?

DISSIPATE ANY DOUBT REGARDING PATROLS

To get maximum value for the security officer, it is essential to confirm that he accomplishes his guard tours following a well-established procedure. During the patrols, security officers may work totally alone and with very little or in some cases (e.g., Lone Workers) not supervision at all. Sometimes, they may want to remain at their posts and don’t patrol according to the predefined time schedule. It may be particularly tempting in case of bad weather conditions which means executing guard tours under rain, cold or snow. And even if they execute patrols, there may be certain parts of the tour that are difficult to access and invoke them a tendency to skip their check for another day/time.

MONITOR GUARD TOURS

A guard tour system delivers a simple note to your guards: You care about how patrols are being carried out. This can lead to considerably better performance, improved professionalism and remarkable attitude and from their part. The installation and configuration of a guard tour system will normally confirm that some officers are under performing their guard tours and will help distinguish the reliable guards that will support the effort to improve safety status and upgrade security services provided.

A guard tour system will overcome this problem as it is designed to record officers’ activities and verify that they cover all portions of their guard tours.

 

DATA ANALYSIS

YOUR DATA IS IMPORTANT

In case of a unique area to be monitored, data analysis may not be vital for a company’s success and sustainability, but what if a large number of buildings and territories should be managed and properly patrolled?

GATHER AND ANALYZE

Guard tour systems offer a way to gather, analyze and edit a large amount of invaluable information about the protected areas and the guard tours executed within them. In most cases, data can be exported and used for further process and analysis, helping companies and organizations to understand the core malfunctions of their daily operations and find ways to cut them down. Acquiring data about guards’ activities, scanned or missed checkpoints, time intervals between patrols and territories that are many times in “alert” safety mode, companies can change their patrolling policy and focus on solving specific problems occurring during guard tours or reinforce safety status of certain areas and buildings.

REPORT AND SUCCEED

The majority of guard tour systems today allows the remote monitoring of data gathered in guard tours or even real-time notifications and data acquisition. The data include reports filtered by client, guard tour, time, location etc. or by a specific date range.

 

SCHEDULE PROPERLY

In case you plan your strategy regarding guard tour schedules, you should initially answer the following questions:

• Which officer will be responsible for each security zone?
• Will officers be responsible for specific areas or guard tours will be random and each one will change daily his tour?
• Which method will be used to track problems and safety issues?
• How will you be sure about your officers’ activities and the exact time of their patrols?
• How will you track their location and which tasks have been adequately accomplished?
• When each guard tour will be executed and how often?
• Will officers comply to a predefined schedule or will they tour at their own will?

 

The most of the above questions cannot be replied in case there is not a comprehensive automated system to structure a plan and specific schedules for each guard. Guard tour systems offer a consistent solution integrating technology and allowing people who manage guard tours to form a complete schedule program for their company.

 

BUDGET CONTROL

Resources are the core of any business. Investing on people and equipment is the initial priority to run a business in security guard tour field. But there are two opposite arguments to take into consideration.

RESOURCES ARE NECESSARY TO EXECUTE GUARD TOURS BUT RESOURCES COST

It’s so simple. Guards and officers are your invaluable assets in order to accomplish guard tours, protect areas and monitor all territories in an efficient way. They have to be equipped with all the necessary items and devices to facilitate their daily work and improve their daily performance. But resources mean cost. And all you have to do is to find ways to reduce your daily cost. You could think of the following common sources of extreme cost:

• Transportation costs during guard tours
• Equipment costs
• Additional inspections in order to check officers’ reliability
• Repetitive administrative tasks
• Too many time-consuming tasks – Less time means more money
• Data acquisition and analysis

GET RID OF TIME-CONSUMING TASKS BY INVESTING IN A GUARD TOUR SYSTEM

So, guard tour systems are obviously designed to reduce the above costs or even eliminate them. In simple words, a guard tour system will relieve from excessive transportation costs in order to check executed patrols or missed scans. It will reduce the amount of time spent to all daily repetitive managing tasks and will allow remote management of globally distributed locations. Officers managing the guard tours acquire now data via simple press of buttons on their computers and export reports rapidly and in real-time.

Every guard tour is verified without any additional cost and any equipment needed to execute it can be replaced by a smartphone. All of the above lead to much more available time to invest in development and services upgrade.

MANAGE REMOTELY

One of the most significant parameters a guard tour system is designed for is to relieve security managers from the time-consuming procedure of assigning tasks and monitoring many different territories simultaneously. The security manager in the office is the person who will decide which guards will participate in a guard tour, who will patrol and when, where checkpoints should be located and whether they are properly scanned or finally missed. He plans guard tours to meet the security and safety requirements and assure constantly that none of the assets are in danger.

Especially for largescale security firms, it is a prerequisite to be able to manage many territories all over the world and without communication problems. A security manager working on his office in Abu Dhabi should be able to monitor a guard tour in Dubai, check the position of a guard in Sharjah and finally check all checkpoints scans of the subsidiary company’s guards, settled in Fujairah, RAK, Ajman or UAQ.

 

PERFORMANCE

We have already mentioned some crucial features that a guard tour system bears and will help you battle against all security and safety issues arise in a daily basis.

All of these compromises a highly effective strategy for any security company. As a result, the implementation of a security guard tour system will increase performance and efficiency ensuring high quality security profile and superb popularity.

You have already understood why do you need a guard tour system. So, get a closer look by implementing our advanced guard tour system!