You planned for it in your budget and now it’s time to get the work done; a complete overhaul of your outdated video surveillance system and the addition of an electronic access control system. You’ll need to obtain competitive bids and you absolutely need to get this right the first time. You’ve been advocating for money to make your campus safer and finally got a decent budget allocation, but it will be years before that happens again so you know you can’t blow it.
The company that has been servicing your existing system does a decent job and they have offered to help you design a new system. You figure you can take their design and give it to two other security integrators and you’ll have your required 3 bids. Smart? Or, maybe not.
Perhaps a better approach would be to engage a security consultant with experience in system design and engineering that doesn’t sell or install, but will design a system around your objectives, specify equipment to meet those goals and help select integrators that are a good fit for you.
A good consultant will:
- ask you questions about what you want to accomplish that you haven’t thought of
- get you to think about how best to use your system efficiently now as well as position yourself for the future
- help you select integrators that will be a good fit now and in the future.
Is the company…
- large enough to get the job done on time?
- not so large that you’ll be insignificant to them?
- experienced on the type of system you need?
- employing technicians factory trained on the equipment you’ll be installing?
- maintaining an adequate fleet of vehicles and service techs so they can respond quickly to emergency service calls and provide loaner equipment?
- selling enough systems like yours so they can get favorable pricing and pass savings on to you?
carrying enough of the right type of insurance? - arrange on-site demonstrations by system manufacturers so you’ll see first-hand exactly how the system will perform in your environment.
A consultant will certainly charge you for his/her services but in the long run, using an independent, trusted advisor will pay dividends. Often, the amount of the consultant’s fee will be saved in project costs because there should be few, if any change orders during installation. And, you’ll have the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve spent your company’s resources wisely. You weren’t oversold products you didn’t need and you didn’t purchase inferior equipment that will stop functioning the day after the warranty expires.