What’s the price of doing things properly? Another way of putting that question might be – what’s the cost of not doing things properly?
Simon Banks, pictured, MD of alarm signalling product company CSL DualCom, began his talk at ST15 Nottingham, speaking as a director of the National Security Inspectorate (NSI), with Weston super Mare pier fire in 2008 – ‘quite a profound image’: “It’s really your worst nightmare, if you are an alarm installer, an insurer, an ARC in that value chain, because somebody has to pay.” As he recalled, the installer went bust; and the alarm receiving centre settled out of court. Turning to police response to alarms, he gave the view that ‘we enjoy a fantastic police force; I have been hearing ever since I joined the industry that we are going to private policing, and that has never happened; and I hope it never will happen to the level it has in the United States.” Putting on his CSL hat, he spoke of a lot of retailers trading down with their alarm communications, and going for single path, as a more economic option for high street risks.
Apprentices
If the alarm-user has two false alarm calls in a year, the authorities send a warning letter; three false alarms, and response is withdrawn. To get response back, you have to fit confirmation systems (such as CCTV, to verify an alarm), and in the meantime employ guards. The £52.18 cost of a unique reference number (URN) for a police response Banks described as ‘the last bargain left on earth’, without recurring charge. “In fact I think it’s too cheap, I think it’s unfair on tax-payers that don’t have alarms. I think it should be a recurring charge. It’s such a good service; it could be a better service, if people paid a bit more.” Simon Banks went through the ‘100 in 100’ campaign to get companies to bring on more apprentices. He made the point that you don’t get something for nothing: “By the second or third year the apprentices will be indispensable in your business. It’s worth the investment.” Typically within 18 months the installation company apprentice, starting from scratch, is fault-finding and looking to do commissioning. He showed a video from the Bradford-based installer Kings Security, whose mentored apprentices Chris Hardwick and Luke Whittaker were interviewed; and Kings training manager Jolene Taylor – who was among the attenders at Nottingham.
Thanks to sponsors
Thanks go to exhibitors, and the sponsors of the event: Y3K of the conference; Canon of the Monday night dinner; and Anixter of the goodie bags for visitors and their lanyards.
