business security

How to Plan for Safety and Convenience at a New Business Location

Are you thinking about renovating or relocating your business? Opening an additional location? Or maybe you’re starting that new business venture you’ve always dreamed about. Whichever direction you are going with your business ideas, there are many things to consider when planning that new location.

 

Safety and security:

Which building/room access points need to be secure? Who should be able to gain entrance and when? These are critical questions for consideration when planning for customer, employee, and property safety aspects.

A security system can control access to your premises to deter theft or vandalism. For greater safety and convenience, access control features can be incorporated into your security system. They will allow you to:

  • Secure doors and limit entry to certain groups of people at specific times
  • Manage employee access to workspaces, inventory rooms, and critical business documents. (Called security partitioning)
  • Manage or check on business sites remotely
  • Record access history and easily produce history reports
  • Monitor and notify Law Enforcement, Fire, and Emergency Services when needed

The safety, security, and well-being of your employees and customers are key considerations. In addition, Commercial security systems safeguard your business assets from fire and theft, preventing costly losses and giving you greater peace of mind. Secur-Tek can help you design the most effective and efficient security system that supports your business requirements and ownership needs.

 

The business environment:

Would your business be enhanced in the customer’s eyes with background music to reinforce the feeling of a relaxed atmosphere? Or would you like to energize your employees with some peppy beats?

Studies show that listening to music often improves your mood. Playing low-level background music in your business can have a positive effect on your employees, as well as your customers, clients, or patients.  

When exploring different music options for your business site, contact us. Secur-Tek can incorporate a premium multi-room audio system with award-winning Klipsch or Bose® speakers into the design of your new dental or medical office, salon, retail, restaurant, or gym. 

 

Secur-Tek is locally owned and operated in Apex, NC.  Our service area includes these North Carolina communities: Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Chapel Hill, Clayton, Garner, Holly Springs, Durham, Raleigh, Morrisville, Pittsboro and Wake Forest.

 

Community Spotlight: Animal Rescue Clinic

Harmony Animal Rescue Clinic helps animal rescue organizations save more lives by providing timely, low-cost veterinary care. The non-profit 501(c)(3) clinic is the only non-profit animal rescue clinic on the east coast. HARC’s sole purpose is to provide out-patient veterinary care for animal rescue groups when they need it.

HARC’s lead veterinarian, Dr. Claudia Sheppard, has volunteered her skills locally and with rescue organizations around the world. Shelter medicine quickly became her passion and her volunteer work turned into her full-time career. Many pets that arrive at shelters are too sick or injured to be placed in a home. Dr. Claudia found that helping them get well and finding their forever homes was deeply rewarding.

HARC is Harmony Animal Hospital’s way of giving back to local animal rescues for all their hard work in saving dogs and cats and giving them a new lease on life.

Secur-Tek’s owner, Ken Henke, has a soft spot for furry friends. He felt that providing care for rescue animals is a much-needed service and wanted to contribute to the effort. Secur-Tek provided and professionally installed HARC’s security and camera system at no charge for the equipment and installation.

“Harmony Animal Hospital worked with Secur-Tek when they provided a security system for our new facility in 2018. Their service was excellent and their team provided a very high level of service, so when we were looking to open HARC, of course we went to them. When they offered to provide our new security system at HARC for NO CHARGE, we were absolutely floored by their generosity. 

Just like Harmony Animal Hospital and HARC are always there for our clients….Secur-Tek has always been here for Harmony. Thank you Secur-Tek for being one of our first partners at Harmony Animal Rescue Clinic!!   

                                               — Gary Canfield, Harmony Animal Hospital Practice Manager

 

Secur-Tek is pleased to be able to support this local non-profit.

If you are part of a local, non-profit animal rescue, and would like to learn more about how HARC can help your mission, please visit their website, Harmony Animal Rescue Clinic.

Five Reasons to Install an Access Control System

 

If you are a commercial property owner, or responsible for controlling building access, you may be looking for ways to increase convenience while protecting business assets and employees.

Installing an access control system can reduce security risk. Most structures – commercial, business, and private have certain parts of the building where restricted access is desired. With access control, there is an array of system options so you can choose one that fits your specific needs.

Some of the specific benefits offered by these systems are detailed below:

 1) Protect Valuables

Does your building contain valuables? This is especially important for items that are easily transported, sold, or “fenced”. With controlled access keycards, you can identify who enters the space day or night. This information can help prevent items from going missing and help catch a guilty individual if this occurs.

 2) Control and Track Employee Access

What happens when an employee is fired or quits? With access control systems in place, the card or code they used to access the building or certain areas can be changed/deleted with ease, so they can no longer enter that space. You do not have to collect door keys from an exiting employee and there is no need to pay a locksmith to rekey the doors. With an access control system your property and personnel are protected from any unwanted intrusions.

3) Control Specific Access to Certain Areas at Specific Times

For most structures, every individual who enters doesn’t necessarily need to have access to every office, inventory/records room, lab, equipment/storage area, or even floor. For example, a business’s accounting department may have highly sensitive/confidential information that most people should not have access to.

In this case, an access control system is invaluable. It allows managers or owners to restrict access to those who should not be able to enter these areas. Another example could be maintenance or janitorial staff, who work at certain times and on certain days. You can program your access control system to restrict their access times to when they are scheduled to be there.

 4) Monitor Who is Coming and Going

With access control systems, you can have a full report of every door that opens for all areas throughout your building. You can check on who is accessing certain parts of the building and when they do it. If there is ever a dispute about something, you can easily pull up this information to help figure out what happened. You can also use the system to track employee’s worktime.

5) Remote Control

Secur-Tek systems make it possible for you to control the locks in your buildings using a smart device (i.e. tablet, phone, etc.). With this type of system in place, you can easily let a trusted individual in without having to meet them on location, or lockdown the buildings if an emergency occurs. This technology also allows you to add or remove credentials as needed.

 If you have responsibility for a structure and the safety of the people and items it contains, installing an access control system will be beneficial.

If you have further questions or are interested in having an access control system installed, please contact us at 919-387-1800 or check out our Access Control Webpage.

We will work with you to customize your access control system, so it is the most effective and cost-efficient for your unique structure and situation.

Business Security Systems Need to Protect Inside and Out

Business owners all strive to keep their businesses safe. Installing security systems, cameras, and access tracking are all part of burglar prevention for your business.

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But what about protecting your company from inside threats? According to a recent study, 20 percent of employees would sell their work passwords to a competitor.

“The research by identity management company Sailpoint, found that of those who would sell their passwords, 44 percent would do it for less than $1,000, and some for less than $100. This is made worse by the fact that 65 percent admit to using a single password among applications and 32 percent share passwords with their co-workers.”

Less than $100. That could be all that’s standing between you and a hacker who takes down your business. While we all want to believe the people we hire are good, moral employees who would not do something like that, we simply do not know what people have been through, what life situations may drive their behavior.

Business security systems that keep intruders out are important, but just as vital are your internal security procedures. Take a look at this checklist of things to review to keep your data safe:

  • Employee access – Secur-Tek can help you control access to the business itself, and to certain rooms. But what about who has access to your important data? Of course employees need to have a certain level of access to data, and programs to do their jobs. Maybe you already track who has access to what while they are employed with you. But what happens after that employee leaves? The above survey found that more than two in five employees still have corporate account access after they leave their job. Do you have security procedures in place to revoke access or change passwords?
  • Uploads to the cloud – Well-meaning employees may be uploading data to the cloud using various storage programs. While it’s useful to backup information in case of a crash, be sure to confirm which information is uploaded where. If you don’t have a secure server set up, your data may be at risk.
  • Downloads – In large companies, employees are supposed to check with the IT department before downloading any software or installing anything. Studies show this does not always happen. Employees get impatient with the extra layer of process. As a small business owner, you may not have an IT department, or may not have oversight of what your team downloads. But one wrong program means a virus or malware or spyware, putting your business at risk. Make a list of approved programs and check all the computers in the office on a monthly basis. While this sounds big brother, your employee is not the one whose business is at risk.

Secur-Tek works to keep your business secure from the outside. Be sure to consider what security measures you take inside your company to keep it safe.

5 Security Features to Consider for Your Business

Security for your business is not the same as what you install at home. Your North Carolina business needs to be secure not just from outside intruders at night, but at different times during the day, or from different people. Secur-Tek, Inc. can design a security system customized for your needs, with both wired and wireless options available.

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Here are five features to consider to keep your business secure:

  1. Limit Access – You might want to limit access to a certain area, such as a supply room. Security systems can be set up to partition an area without affecting other areas.
  2. Front Door Access – You can limit access to the entire building. Some businesses do not have customers coming in and out and therefore can have extra security with badge-only access to gain entry. Your employees will also feel safer knowing that they are protected from uninvited characters.
  3. Access Tracking – Want to know who is accessing those areas and at what times? Set up opening/closing reports. These reports can include who arms and disarms the system each day.
  4. Limit Open/Close Times – This feature will notify you if the system is disarmed outside specified hours. You may want to limit your morning opener only to a window of time from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Preventing 24-hour access — even for trusted employees — is one more way to secure your business.
  5. Video – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that about 30 percent of all business failures are traced directly to employee theft. B2C business owners should consider installing video cameras to monitor both customers and employees. Systems today can be monitored from a smartphone or tablet.

Bonus: Fire Security

Keeping your business secure against burglars and theft is critical, but it’s also important to consider other hazards that affect your business, such as fire. Fire is a big disaster for a small business. Fire detection systems allow for affordable and reliable protection that complies to stringent fire codes.

Fire protection systems can include:

  • Automatic and manual activation
  • Supervised smoke detectors
  • Waterflow supervisory systems to prevent water damage

Make sure your business is secure by giving Secur-Tek a call for a free consultation. 919-387-1800

Secur-Tek proudly serves the North Carolina communities of Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Chapel Hill, Clayton, Garner, Holly Springs, Durham, Raleigh, Morrisville, and Pittsboro

Security & Home Automation