Cost Savings: A Perspective From Your Installation Team
Posted on Tue, Sep 06, 2011
By James Whitehouse, ASG's QRT Manager
Many of us can remember a time when we didn’t have, or really need a cell phone. Can you imagine life without one?! Many of the technologies that we count on everyday seemed like just a convenience (and sometimes even a waste of money) at the time we first bought them. Now we can’t live without them. This seems to be true of most companies’ initial dive into the realm of security electronics. Whether they start with cameras, access control or even an alarm system, they purchase them thinking this will be a convenience for the company and its employees and soon learn just how invaluable these systems can be. They start small and as they learn the benefits that the systems offer, they expand the systems over time. This is the point in the lifecycle of their security implementation where many companies unwittingly begin to cause themselves undo heartache, stress and money.
Like most critical systems, your security system should have a vision, a plan and some key metrics to measure its performance. Start off with a long term goal both for your company as a whole and how security is going to fit into that plan. The better your plan is for the future of your system, the better able your integrator is going to be able to help you engineer your long term goals while helping you to save money. The next step: Create a list of short term goals and steps to achieve your long term security goals. Next look at the list and see how many of the short term goals share common resources with other short and long term goals. Many times spending more now will save you substantially down the road.
Here is an example:
You have an access control system. All of your exterior doors have card readers or they are monitored by the alarm system. You would like to install a card reader on one interior door right now, but you feel very certain that in the future you would like to install readers on three other doors near the first door. It may not be this year or even next, but you’re sure it is coming. Talking to your integrator about your plan before you install the first door will help you save money in the following ways:
1. Your cable pathways can be increased in size to accommodate the increased cable need in the future. This will save you from having to pay for multiple cable pathways that go to and from the same area. Larger hooks will cost you more now but will save you later.
2. Ensuring that any conduit installed will accommodate future installations will, again, save you from having to add additional conduit later. It is less expensive to install a larger conduit now than it is to go back in and add more in.
3. If those other doors are being installed relatively soon, cable pulls can be combined. Cable costs are ‘cents a foot’ but labor is expensive.
4. Engineering the head-end equipment to accommodate the number of doors that are coming will ensure that your enclosures, battery backup and available power are capable of handling the future requirements. We call this future-proofing. (This is by far the place where I see companies costing themselves)
5. Verifying that your access control system has the capability to accommodate the number of card readers both in necessary hardware infrastructure and the software licenses will save you unnecessary the expense of adding to your system at the last minute.
6. Bundling permits. I am often asked to install one door and then 2 weeks later I am asked back to install another door right next to the first one. For each installation, we are required to get a permit. Bundling these activities into one transaction saves project management time and reduces expenses relating to administration.
A cost saving tip if you are remodeling: ask your General Contractor to install pre-prepped door frames. This means installing a door frame that is ready to accommodate a card reader. The cost of the door frame is the same and it prevents us from having to cut a hole into your brand new wood (not to mention the noise, mess and frustration it saves).
I could go on. The main takeaway is to be sure to talk to your integrator about your future plans – it will save you in more way than one. In future blogs I’ll give examples from other systems.