news round-up
Manned guarding gets a 21st Century UBER-like upgrade
Manned guarding is getting an ‘UBER-style’ upgrade where clients can track performance and give instant feedback in real-time.
Cardinal Security is looking to revolutionise manned guarding with the release of a new platform, Guarded 365. Designed to provide users with a level of insight simply unavailable to date, the intelligence-led approach is designed to provide users with full transparency and real control over their security spend.
Jason Trigg, CEO of Cardinal Security, said: “What people worry about in this business is what they’re getting for their money, and rightly so. The idea that manned guarding provides insight into your ROI is a myth. Most providers just don’t do it.”
He continues: “The security industry has forgotten that businesses must meet the needs of the customer first. We live in a world where can we order a taxi on our smartphones, track the car as it arrives and score the driver at the end of the journey. Uber-style tech is here, and it’s the future of the guarding industry. It’s time for security to wake up and provide clients with that level of interaction and control”.
Cardinal’s response to this challenge is an intelligent platform, linked to a central data management system. When a guard arrives at the start of a shift they use a geocoded tablet – or an app on their own device – to take a picture of their face. A controller from Cardinal instantly matches this against a database of staff members and approves the guard to start the shift.
This simple process ensures that timekeeping is accurate and that the correct, the fully licensed operative is on duty and wearing the correct uniform. The guard uses the tablet or smart app throughout the day to assess his or her duties, confirm when tasks are completed and report any incidents. At the end of the day, the customer rates the guard’s performance using a five-star system.
Guarded 365 collects data in real-time from all the tablets and smart devices connected to the platform and sends these to a secure client dashboard. This gives managers detailed insight into the performance of each guard at every one of their sites, highlighting any incidents, and when/where they occur. By eliminating paper records and poorly-maintained logbooks, Guarded 365 provides a real-time and fully accurate picture of the actual threats that an organisation faces, and allows better decision making by managers on where and when to focus their guarding resources.
The Guarded 365 platform is already working for Cardinal’s early adopter clients including some major high street retailers and it will be rolled-out across its customer base during the second quarter of 2017.
The technology, which promises to revolutionise the guarding industry, will be launched at Retail Risk in London on March 23rd, 2017.
