The right mix of security products and solutions and proper installation of them goes a long way in comprehensively securing your facility. But, you have to continue to manage and maintain those security products and systems to make sure your facility stays secure. Here are some best practices for managing and maintaining security systems:

1. Evaluate Security Cameras

Video surveillance is one of the essential components of any comprehensive security solution. With both physical and digital components, it’s important to regularly maintain every aspect of a video surveillance system to keep it performing well.

Regularly look over and evaluate your security cameras. Check the physical components to make sure they are in good shape, and that they are securely and properly installed. Also, make sure any associated software is up to date and digitally secure.

Additionally, review the best places to install security cameras to make sure they are all fully monitored and covered. In doing so, you may discover some security gaps that you need to cover.

Look Over Camera Angles

As you’re looking over your security cameras, make sure you check the camera angles, time syncing, and backups. You want to make sure that you are using the right types of security cameras, that your security cameras are installed in the right areas, and that they are angled correctly to effectively monitor the area and capture the right footage.

Ensure Time Syncing is Correct

Another thing to check is the time on your security camera footage. Is it accurate with the current time? If things are not maintained and regularly updated, the timing of cameras can be off. This can seriously affect the accuracy of your camera footage, so it’s important to make sure time syncing across cameras and systems is correct.

Check Your Backups

In addition to updating video surveillance software, also check your backups. Part of any building vulnerability assessment when it comes to security cameras includes backups. Is your security camera footage backed up?
Is it stored somewhere so you can reference it at a later date if you need it? Where are these backups stored? Are they stored securely and who has access to them? These are all important things to consider as you manage and maintain security systems.

2. Manage Video Footage Storage

Another one of the best practices for managing and maintaining security systems is to review how you manage video footage storage. You should be able to access, review, and store past and current video footage easily, remotely, and from any device.

Also, your security camera footage and backups need to be stored somewhere where you can access and review them. This is a lot of data, especially if you maintain backups for a long time, and you need to make sure you have enough storage space available. There are several ways to keep your video surveillance footage secure while also keeping it accessible to you.

Local storage is an option, but can quickly become a problem. In these cases, cloud storage can be a good option. In fact, it’s often one of the security features you didn’t know your business needed until you look into something like managing video footage storage.

3. Test All Systems to Ensure They Are Running Efficiently

Depending on your facility, operations, and specific needs, you may have access control systems, nurse call systems, wander management systems, etc. in place. These should all be integrated, regularly updated and maintained, and checked to make sure they are running efficiently and appropriately.

It’s important to check each system and its components individually, the specific integrations, and also the comprehensive, integrated system as a whole. Often, if one piece is off, it can affect the performance of the individual system and also the effectiveness of any systems it is connected to. This is essential to reliable wireless nurse call systems and other systems.

For example, wander management systems often link into access control systems and nurse call systems. If something is malfunctioning on the wander management side, it may result in issues with the other systems like not triggering alerts or calls when needed or not limiting access as it’s supposed to.

4. Make Sure Access is Updated

Access to security systems can be granted to internal employees or to external third-party vendors and partners. One of the best practices for managing and maintaining security systems, and one that is often overlooked, is managing and updating who has access to them. This is one of the ways to maintain access control systems.

Find out everyone who currently has access to security systems, what their credentials or level of access includes, and also keep track of current and past employees. Does anyone have access that shouldn’t? Do you need to update passwords to limit access to specific software? Are there key cards, keys, or other access credentials that are unaccounted for or that need to be deactivated?

5. Review Security Protocols to Determine Gaps

Part of a new year security checklist and one of the best practices for managing and maintaining security systems regularly throughout the year is to review security protocols to determine gaps. There should be security protocols and processes in place for your facility and operations. If there aren’t, it’s a good idea to start creating them.

Reviewing those protocols and also reviewing reports in a comprehensive incident management software can help you figure out what protocols are missing and which ones need to be updated. This is one of the reasons why you need incident management software. Additionally, it can help you determine security gaps in your current technology and solutions. If there have been several incidents and security threats to your facility, it’s one of the signs your security technology needs an upgrade.

6. Invest in a Maintenance Plan With Your Security Solutions Provider

There are many benefits of integrated security systems, but receiving those benefits requires properly installed, properly integrated, and well-maintained components and systems. A good security solutions provider that has experience with products and manages the installation and integration of them is a valuable resource for managing and maintaining your security systems.

In addition to the peace of mind that comes with the quality installation of security products and systems, many security systems integrators also offer maintenance plans for those products and systems. This is one of the benefits of using a full-service security systems integrator.

Investing in a maintenance plan can help make managing and maintaining systems easy and effective while ensuring your facility stays as secure as possible. This also means that reviewing your facility’s security and renewing the building vulnerability assessment also becomes more effective.

A security systems integrator that has been keeping your products and systems updated has in-depth knowledge of what you have in place, its current status, and more. This gives them valuable insight into what your facility needs, doesn’t need, etc. to improve building security and only helps make your security systems as effective and efficient as possible.

Get the Security You Need With NEPPS

Skipping out on regular maintenance is one of the common security mistakes businesses make. By following these best practices for managing and maintaining security systems, you can avoid this mistake and help keep your facility secure.

Just as the right mix of security products will vary from facility to facility, the maintenance needs will vary as well. Choosing the right security systems integrator can help you get the right security for your facility and also help you manage maintenance after installation.

There are many qualities of good security systems; if your current security is lacking, it could be leaving your facility exposed to risks. If your security needs an update, contact Northeast Protection Partners at 800-736-1456 to schedule a free site assessment.