The Starting Line for Securing Your Premises - Considerations and Costs

What important factors should you consider when investing in premises security?

Your business is evolving, and the security industry is evolving right along with it to provide continuous and up-to-date protection of your assets, your people and your customers.

In today’s world of technology, there is a bewildering array of products and systems to choose from, but rest assured that choosing how to best secure your property is a straightforward process that starts with understanding two key variables:

Firstly, premise security solutions (whether that’s intrusion protection, video surveillance or door access control) are typically designed to do one or both of the following:

1)      Prevent theft, vandalism or other crimes from occurring in the first place;

2)      Provide useable forensic data after the fact if an incident does occur.

If a system does neither, the only thing you are paying for is a false sense of security; and it happens more often than you might think. For example, have you ever seen CCTV photos shared far and wide by local police services asking for help identifying someone who was involved in a violent crime? Sometimes these photos can look like a pixelated blur with no identifiable features. In these cases, the CCTV systems are neither preventing the crime nor providing much needed forensic value.

Secondly, your budget matters. You do not need to have an exact dollar figure in mind of course, but it is a good idea to put some thought into the value you are placing on your investment in premise security. Cabco works with you to determine your operational requirement, as in, what you are hoping to achieve with the technology. Every business is unique and will have different requirements, so we work with you to find the best way to secure your premises within your budget.

So what does a security system cost?

For video surveillance systems it is a good idea to budget at minimum $5,000 as a starting point, depending on your operational requirements and how many cameras you require.

For door access control, plan to spend at least $2,000 per door.

For intrusion alarm systems, a good starting point would be $2,000-$4,000, depending on your level of needed security and how large your facility is.

These numbers act as a guiding tool to allow you to begin planning a budget for your project. Once we understand what you need to achieve, it is a straightforward process of us working backwards through different products and systems to design your new security network!

Interested in learning more about determining your operational requirements and what options there are to achieve them? Check out our other posts discussing how to leverage technology to prevent crime and what we think about when designing your systems.

To discuss your Security project with an expert, please contact Evan MacAuley @emacauley@cabco.ca or 902-468-2252