CCTV installation,before Xmas,lets wait and see

CCTV for Xmas?


How things turn around. For the last 18 months the CCTV security industry has been eerily quiet. The reasons are obvious. The recession has driven many areas of business to cut back and one of the casualties of this has been the security budget. A make do situation arose where by end users were happy to cancel service agreements and ignore faults that would have normally been rectified as matter of urgency. However the last 2-3 months has seen people seriously considering their security needs again.

CCTV installations start to grow.

CCTV installations have picked up slowly as the economy starts to grow again and there is now signs that with the many bankruptcies that occurred to security installers means there may be a shortage of good installing companies left out there to meet demand.

Can we get installations on the wall before Xmas?

Now it is always the same, Xmas seems to bring mass panic and everyone wants their intruder alarms and CCTV working, upgraded or installed for the holiday period. There are rumours that the “big boys” are already telling their clients that they can’t meet the deadline and intruder alarm and CCTV camera manufacturers are suddenly quoting 2 week lead times for delivery where we have all been used to next day for last couple of years.

Buy cheap buy twice!

So the moral of this story seems to be if you have a fault , fix it sooner rather than later. If you need an installation don’t expect miracles from installing companies who have had to cut staff and prices just to stay in business. And finally those who stuck by their favoured , reliable installing companies instead of shopping around for cheap inadequate replacements, will find that they will have their CCTV and security systems working for Xmas while others are left woefully exposed to crime. It will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.

How to get invoices paid……..quickly!

CCTV and security invoices are difficult to get paid promptly… here we see how to force the issue.

I was speaking to a colleague of mine recently who was venting his frustration over unpaid invoices. Not surprising in this current climate. It is starting to become a trait that is affecting the industry and one that needs to be resolved to ensure the survival of all the small to medium sized security and CCTV installers out there.  The crux of the problem is obvious, as businesses out there tighten their belts so invoice queries will increase. No one is disputing the right of a customer to challenge an expense that they consider to be unfair however it now seems to fall under the remit of the bean counters to stop payment rather than get the person on site who is actually responsible for the security system just to sign it off when happy . This is where the break down in communication starts. The bean counter does not care about the operation of the security cctv system and does not understand how it works.He will hold off payment as long as he can.

There are of course various methods that an installer can take to force payment, the first trick is to sit on the invoice until the customer wants a new call,then refuse to attend until it is paid. This is called the blackmail method and works rather well. The second is negotiation, especially where there is a grey area over the chargeability of the call in the first place, this also works well if you are a good negotiator. The third method is of course court action. This in my colleagues experience rarely works as most businesses would rather pay up and then use another installer than get a black mark against their name.The rest genuinely can’t pay so there is little point in taking them to court in the first place.

Oh, there is a fourth way, it works like this. The security installer carries out a service call and invoices for the work. The customer receives the invoice and he pays within 30 days. Unbelievable I know !!!!

IP CCTV regulation and certification

IP CCTV regulation.

IP video system, IP surveillance system, Networked camera system, Networked surveillance system. No one has yet to actually decide what the CCTV system that we know today is going to be called . CCTV is not really an option because it is no longer a closed CCT system.
Networked security cameras are here and over the next 5 years will start to dominate the security industry’s thoughts. However there are other industry sectors beginning to realize that there are big opportunities out there. Those  from the IT and networking industries are good examples. Excitement is rising amongst these groups as they find it more and more easy to steal business from under the noses of the security world.One important fact however that everyone seems to be overlooking at present is standards. As we know the NSI currently keep a tight rein on us, the installers and ensure sites are audited and certificated to a very high standard. But who is going to enforce this upon Telecoms companies who suddenly decide that IP video is now part of their portfolio. Insurance companies have never successfully driven business to get a certified cctv system installed unlike they have in the intruder market and so in the past it was the fear of cowboys that drove many big companies to push their business the way of CCTV companies who had transparently high standards and thus a good reputation.However, economics are now the driving force behind any companies decision as what kind of surveillance system they will buy. This is now heavily biased in the favour network installers who will issue no certification and although they would be bound by their own high standards to do a good job may not be as aware or even worried about basic security factors that always need to be applied when installing a CCTV system.This leaves CCTV installers in a highly vulnerable position, one that if they fail to address now, will leave many seriously struggling to stay in business. Manufactures will need to seek out new contacts as well or they could find that their rather large investment into IP products could be very abruptly trumped by the likes of Cisco and others like them. These large IT houses must be happily sat back waiting for the world of IP video systems to very simply, deliver itself at their feet.