The rise in physical breaches, cyber threats, and the ever-increasing complexity of security challenges leads end users to seek comprehensive commercial security solutions that can help protect their employees, assets, and sensitive information. Therefore, today’s rapidly evolving business landscape has turned security into a top priority for commercial enterprises in many industries.
It’s crucial that the people responsible for security understand the unique needs of commercial property security to provide tailored and effective security measures. This article delves into the key aspects of commercial property security pain points and explores strategies to address them.
1. Lacks a Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Without a comprehensive risk assessment, management won’t know what kind of commercial property security it needs. This can be easily overcome with a risk assessment. Conducting a risk assessment is a crucial step to developing an effective security strategy. This assessment involves identifying vulnerabilities, potential threats, and other physical security risks around the perimeter of the commercial property.
It’s recommended to bring in security professionals to do the security risk assessment. By conducting a detailed evaluation of the physical environment, including access points, surveillance systems as well as cybersecurity infrastructure, security professionals can tailor security plans that align with the specific needs and goals of the commercial property.
The security risk assessment will also help prioritize the security risks to inform the decision-making regarding what to implement first. After identifying and prioritizing the gaps, the next component is to document a mitigation plan. This plan lists the actions to take to reduce or eliminate the security risk.
It’s highly advised to define risk metrics. These will provide a snapshot of the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies. A completed risk assessment is never final. It needs to be reviewed at least once a year. Risks continuously change and evolve. The reassessment will review what happened in the previous year. The information will help in the process of revising the risk assessment.
2. Overlooks Integrating Security Systems
When a commercial property does not integrate its security, it could cost more and be less effective. The data shows that integrated security services are a huge market that’s growing quickly.
According to Allied Market Research, the integrated security services market was worth almost $16 billion in 2021. They expect it to reach more than $55 billion by 2031. This clearly shows companies are increasingly investing in integrated security systems. The fastest-growing types of integrated security are theft management, identity and access management, and compliance management.
This is why companies looking for commercial security often demand integrated security systems that bring together multiple components into a single unified solution. These integrated systems seamlessly incorporate an access control system, video surveillance, camera monitoring, intrusion detection, and fire detection. Integration makes it possible to centralize monitoring and management.
Integrated security systems reduce security incidents, improve response time, enhance efficiency, and save on costs. This is because a centralized security system streamlines reporting, processes, and workflows.
3. Fails to Scale Commercial Property Security
Commercial properties often undergo changes in their operations, expansions, and relocations. Thus, commercial property security systems need to be scalable and flexible to support their ever-evolving needs. A report by MarketsandMarkets states the global physical security market was worth about $103 billion in 2021. It’s predicted the market will be worth $140 billion by 2026. The reasons for the jump include the rising number of terrorist activities and physical system security breaches.
The report indicates the use of video cameras is climbing. This is largely due to advancements in video surveillance technologies, scalability and flexibility, effortless implementation, and remote access.
Scalable systems like video surveillance with remote monitoring help ensure long-term value. They allow commercial properties to adapt their security measures as their organization grows. By investing in scalable security systems, commercial properties can avoid expensive replacements and system overhauls as their security needs evolve.
4. Has Weak Cybersecurity Measures
The increasing prevalence of cyber threats necessitates robust cybersecurity measures for commercial security properties. Data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other malicious activities pose significant risks.
Cybercrime comes at a high cost. The Cost of a Data Breach Report from IBM indicates the highest average cost of a breach in 2021 was $4.24 million. A cyber breach hurts a company’s reputation, relies on legal support, needs an incident response team, and requires resources to contain the incident. A cyber breach disrupts operations and may result in damage to the company’s assets and infrastructure.
To address these threats, commercial properties must invest in robust cybersecurity measures such as network segmentation, encryption, intrusion detection systems, and regular security audits.
It’s also important for IT professionals to collaborate with physical security to create detailed security strategies to safeguard physical and digital assets. The implementation of such strategies not only protects sensitive data but also preserves the reputation and trust of the commercial end user. This is the convergence of physical security and cybersecurity. Like integrated security systems, having these two departments collaborate helps increase efficiency and reduce risk.
5. Uses Reactive Commercial Property Security Systems
Many commercial properties still use outdated security systems that are reactive. For example, video surveillance can be reactive or proactive. It depends on the technology and setup. They both have video cameras placed around the commercial property’s perimeter. The cameras watch over the entrances, interior, parking area, roof, and back alleys.
In both systems, the cameras can show crimes happening. But this is where the difference ends. A reactive video surveillance setup cannot catch crime and problems before they happen. They can only be used after the crime or damage has occurred.
Proactive security involves real-time monitoring that capitalizes on the strengths of humans and technology. This pairing can help trained monitoring operators catch suspicious activities, potential threats, and anomalies early and quickly. They can take the appropriate action for the scenario without wasting a single second. Part of this is because their lives are never at risk as they work in a safe location away from commercial property.
In proactive video surveillance with remote monitoring, trained operators constantly monitor the live video feed. As soon as they see suspicious behavior or criminal activity in real-time, they can act. They may send a verbal warning to the intruders via onsite speakers. They can alert the intruders they are being watched and instruct them to leave the property or else they will contact the police.
If the suspects don’t leave, then the operator can call police dispatch and provide information while tracking the suspects’ movements. The partnership between humans and intelligent video analytics makes it possible to identify and respond to security events as they happen. It can largely mitigate risk and help reduce potential losses. This proactive approach can swiftly and effectively handle security incidents. As a result, it helps deter escalation and business disruption.
These five problems can be solved with the right integrated commercial property security system.
Powerful and Effective Commercial Security Technology
Commercial property managers and owners have a lot on their plates. They may need to do more with less and may be short-staffed. Consequently, they need to find ways to be more efficient. How do you add commercial property security on top of these challenges?
That’s why they need to work with a security integrator who understands their pain points and knows how to effectively address them. This is where security integration comes in.
A powerful integrated security solution pairs live video monitoring and an access control system. These streamline security processes without adding more employees. This security system includes monitoring by humans and video analytics. It can also be used to supplement onsite security guards.
Moreover, it can provide more eyes around your commercial property. Integrated security with cameras and an access control system comes with other benefits. Some of ECAM’s clients use video recordings in their marketing strategy and employee training. That’s why it helps deliver a fast return on investment. Many ECAM customers get an ROI within months.
Sometimes an incident happens, and you don’t learn about it for days, weeks, or months after. There are many incidents that won’t look suspicious on video or even occur on the commercial property. An example is someone making a liability claim. They claim they got injured on the property. The video could show they were not even there in the first place or left the property without injuries.
Since an integrated commercial property security system saves and stores all recordings, they can be reviewed long after a supposed incident took place. The video footage is also helpful with insurance investigations.
Commercial property management has a responsibility for the safety and security of data, assets, employees, and visitors. An effective security system helps keep everyone safe and healthy while protecting your physical and digital assets. A holistic integrated commercial security system can help improve the bottom line, protect the business’s reputation, and keep people safe.
The evolving needs of commercial property security require a holistic and proactive approach. By conducting comprehensive risk assessments, implementing integrated security systems, prioritizing cybersecurity measures, and investing in scalable and flexible proactive video surveillance with monitoring, commercial properties can help safeguard their assets, protect their employees, and maintain a secure environment amidst the growing number of threats.
To understand how commercial property security can help protect your business, watch videos of security cameras with remote monitoring in action for commercial properties. You can also learn about protecting your commercial property from digital and physical vulnerabilities by checking out the information risk management guide. For more information about video surveillance and other proactive security solutions, please contact us.
