If you want to know the future, ask manufacturers; as their business relies on getting it right for customers. Two men from manufacturers told an OSPAs thought leadership webinar this afternoon that covid has not been the only recent change.
The two were Simon Cham, the former 30-year Met Police man now at Warrior Doors; and in the Netherlands, Jasper Weijman, CEO of the speedgate and hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) barrier company Bavak Security Group; chaired as ever by Prof Martin Gill of Perpetuity Research. Naturally, the pandemic loomed large. It has affected supply chains; during the first, total lockdown, factories might have shut altogether. Firms may have furloughed staff, and seen delays in parts and materials. Jasper spoke of a rise in the cost of steel, as commonly used in doors and gates; such a rise, in fact, he added, that it’s hard to build it into the price of products.
Teams and touch
Now that the UK is coming out of covid restrictions, as Simon said, it may be that some workers have become used to working from home and find it difficult to break the habits of a year. Some covid-safety things – such as the wearing of masks, and using hand gel – may stay in place, Simon said. Warrior has adapted to changing crime trends – such as, burglars entering empty properties and from there seeking to break into the target. Jasper at Bavak said that the biggest change was not covid, but the shift towards integrating physical security products (such as its gates, used typically in prisons and military bases) with the ‘Internet of Things’.
Professional Security asked if social distancing due to the pandemic has made it harder to get feed-back from customers. Jasper agreed, but said that his firm had changed over to Microsoft Teams to keep in touch with customers. “And frankly I have to say in some cases we have more frequent contact with our customers and partners due to Teams sessions than face to face meetings.” He and Simon Cham did acknowledge that virtual meetings cannot completely replace the personal touch, or what Jasper called ‘the hugging factor’. Simon Cham added that as an installer of doors, it had to meet on site to fit the equipment. While online meetings are efficient, what can be missed on Teams are the incidental, overheard comments, that can be vital, but that might not be aired in a Teams forum.
The next webinar, the 120th, on Thursday is all about South Africa; the panellists are:
Tony Botes – Ingulule Consulting and Security Association of South Africa
Doraval Govender PhD., SOE, F.I.S – Department of Criminology and Security Science at UNISA and ASIS International South Africa
Johan Du Plooy – Roarr-Advisory (Pty) Ltd. and ASIS International South Africa
Andre Du Venage – Secure Logistics, and Transport Asset Protection Association (TAPA).
That’s at a different time from usual, 10am in the UK (11am in South Africa). Then winners of the inaugural South Africa OSPAs will be announced virtually with Securex South Africa. Next Tuesday’s webinar at the usual time of 3.30pm will ask; should the reporting of fraud be made compulsory?
You can sign up to attend the webinar free, and listen to previous ones, at https://theospas.com/thought-leadership-webinars/.
