Software for a security company guarding a site: what is really needed

Software for a security company guarding a site has to allow for the fact that the company works on someone else’s site, with someone else’s equipment and someone else’s data. A security officer needs access to what is essential for the duty and nothing more, while the security company’s coordinator needs a view of who is staffing which post, summaries for the client and a trail of decisions. The scope of access is set before the system goes live, because correcting it after the first incident comes too late.

The guard post: the current picture, incidents, patrols and check-ins

At the guard post, the security officer needs a current picture of the site: who is on site, which vehicles have come in and what is happening at the gates, on one screen instead of in four applications. They also need to be able to record an incident straight away, on the spot, instead of reconstructing it from a scrap of paper at the end of the shift.

Then there is confirming patrols at checkpoints, with photos where they are required, and handing over the shift with a record of what the next person should know. If the officer is alone at the post, the most important item on the whole list is check-ins, the regular confirmations that they are all right.

The security company coordinator: staffing, summaries and a decision trail

The security company’s coordinator has to see the staffing: who is at which post and who has not checked in. They give the client summaries of patrols, incidents and the course of duty for a chosen period, because those are what confirm that the service was delivered. The third thing is the decision trail: who let in a vehicle without a booking, who lifted a ban, who closed an incident.

What the security company sees and what only the client sees

When implementing at a site guarded by a security company, the most important question is which data the security company sees and which only the client sees. The answer is set down in writing and usually looks like this:

TraxSystem has 217 permissions in 24 groups, so a split like this can be mapped exactly, without a single ‘security company yes/no’ switch.

Who is the data controller: the site owner or the security company

The role of data controller has to be settled before the system goes live. Usually the site owner is the controller and the security company processes data on its behalf, which requires a data processing agreement. It can be otherwise, depending on how the contract is structured.

Put in writing:

• who is the data controller and who is the data processor,
• what scope of data the security company processes,
• what happens to access rights when the contract ends,
• who is responsible for deleting data from the security company’s devices.

The last point is sometimes overlooked, even though it is exactly the one someone is bound to remember on the day the contract is terminated.

Who pays for the system and what happens to the licence when the security company changes

At a site guarded by a security company, the system consists of the base package, whose size depends on the number of gates and workstations (concurrent sessions), and the Site security module, priced by the number of guard posts. The module covers check-ins, patrols, the duty log and the security board. You can work out the amount for this combination in the pricing configurator; hardware is priced separately, outside the licence.

Who pays, the security company or the site owner, depends on the contract. Settle it together with the question of what happens to the licence when the security company changes.

What TraxSystem does not do at a site with a security company

TraxSystem will not replace the site security instructions or determine what they should say. Nor does it draw up the security company’s rotas: it shows post staffing in the context of the duty, but it is not a rostering or payroll system.

The system does not replace a CCTV recorder, because it saves only photos and clips of events from the cameras, and it does not recognise faces. Nor does it exchange data between sites. Each site is a separate instance with separate data, so a site ban entered at one site does not carry over to another.

Questions and answers

See also: Lone working on site: the employer’s duties and how to meet them · What is a security duty log · Guard tour checkpoints: patrol records you don’t have to take on trust · Who is responsible for entry control in a logistics park