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6 Reasons to Engage a Security Consultant

There are a multitude of reasons why you would engage a Security Consultant, but the following six might be considered the most persuasive:

Experience:

Professional security consultants are involved in different and often challenging security situations on an almost daily basis, and as a result, are constantly learning from such experiences. This constant learning process, including learning from mistakes, both by others and themselves (no one is infallible) is to the client’s advantage, particularly where the consultant may have considerable experience over many years.

Such experience, properly applied, will prevent the client from making similar mistakes. As a matter of policy, Wivenhoe Management Group, does not utilize consultants with less than 25 years of experience in the industry.

Expertise:

In addition to constant learning from different security situations, a good security consultant will continually add to their level of expertise in assessing security problems, separating symptoms from the real problem (an important reason in itself, to employ a security consultant) and applying what worked, as opposed to what did not work in similar circumstances, and incorporating proven, but up-to-date systems, equipment and measures to meet a given security issue.

It is a matter of fact that many installed security systems do not address specific security issues and had there been appropriate security design criteria, would not have addressed such criteria. In an incident that results in legal action, such situations will prove very costly to a client.

State-of-the-Art Solutions:

In today’s environment of technology change and evolution, it is important to stay abreast of the latest system and technology changes across the entire spectrum of security measures be it electronic systems, camera surveillance and video analytics, physical security, biometrics, cyber security, and the countless other areas that make up security as we know it today.

Security consultants are constantly striving to stay up-to-date, but at the same time will make the effort to ascertain that such new technology is field proven and has minimum bugs in any associated software and firmware. A good consultant will generally try to make sure that any given system or sub-system has been in successful operation for at least a year, before recommending same to a client.

Cost-Effectiveness:

Like any other industry, and perhaps more so in the security industry as many individuals perceive security to be a non-revenue generating, budget item, the inevitable evaluation of a new or upgraded security measure is “lowest cost.” Unfortunately, this can lead to grievous mistakes on the part of a client where low cost was the only deciding factor and the effectiveness component of their security choice “fell through the cracks.”

If a new security project is not cost-effective, and does not address an adequate level of security and protection for an organization or facility, not only is the specific cost questionable, but it is also quite possible that in the event of a security incident and likely legal action, the facility may have actually increased its negligent liability in implementing the security system in question.

Avoiding Negligent Liability:

In today’s libelous society, it is critical to avoid Negligent Liability, where in the event of a security incident, the court finds that the defendant company or organization was negligent in not providing adequate security.

Even where there were security measures in place, but they were considered inadequate in preventing a security breach, and it was proven that due diligence was not properly applied, or worse, a problem was known, but for a variety of reasons, additional security was ignored or considered unnecessary, and Gross Negligence was proven, the punitive damages can be crippling.

The employment of a security consultant, particularly in studying proposed new security measures prior to implementation, can often prevent negligence in either form altogether.

Peace of Mind:

The sixth persuasive argument for employing a professional and highly experienced security consultant can best be described as “peace of mind” in that a good consultant will leave the client with such a feeling based on the client believing that they did everything that could be deemed reasonable and adequate, approved by a security specialist with no internal bias or potential conflict of interest as an independent security consultant.

Bottom line, a little thought and a small investment in the services of a professional security consultant can easily be the difference between security incident prevention and dealing with the costly aftermath of a lowest cost solution and rushed decision.