The Five Zones of Protection for Your Business Premises
You’ve strived to build a successful business to have it run like clockwork where possible, but unless you pay regard to these ‘five zones of protection’, you may be leaving your business open to disruption and losses. Here’s a quick summary of what you can pay attention to, in order to better safeguard and protect your important assets:
- Outer fencing and gates
- Fire and strong shutter doors and safes
- Motion sensors, smoke detectors and alarm systems
- External and CCTV camera systems, monitoring, lighting and surveillance
- Access control, staff escorts in restricted areas, and tracking technologies
- Outer fencing and gates
The frontline of defence against unwanted intrusions, particularly after hours, comes by having adequate measures in place to stop unauthorised entry. Consider whether your business premises could benefit from strong gates and fences to restrict access. Depending on the layout of the premises, you might choose the effective measure of commercial roller shutters for doors or windows. Not only do these heavy-duty, durable additions offer solid protection from both visibility and entry, they also add fire resistance and protection against rain, hail and high winds. For large industrial areas, warehouses, workshops and carparks, a durable, long-lasting shutter or roller door is a basic for maximum commercial protection at your work place. Custom roller shutter designs are available to allow for ventilation if needed and windlocks add more protection if the premises are at risk of exposure to high winds or storms.
- Fire and strong shutter doors and safes
Break-ins often occur through the front or back doors so you want to avoid cheap doors in favour of strong doors with hidden hinges, reinforced frames and possibly dead locks. Now, think about what rooms, floors, areas or assets in your commercial premises might need special protection or fire-proofing. Fire doors and sprinklers are simple measures to contain the spread of fire and can help protect flammable materials or substances used in your enterprise. Fire-proof safes are, of course, a tried and true means to protect important papers, computer drives, or other items or materials that need to be kept out of harm’s way. Large or small, they provide an internal fortress of protection against a range of dangers.
- Motion sensors, smoke detectors and alarm systems
Detecting unwanted movement on your premises, motion sensors can be placed to set off alarms or to silently alert monitoring systems. They are a good investment if you need an energy-efficient option. Look for ones that are resistant to breakage. You may find an alarm system works well hand-in-hand with motion sensors, and might benefit your operation and help your business to be protected. Smoke detectors are of course essential for early warning and action in the event of fire and can allow you to take action before major damage results.
- External & CCTV camera systems, monitoring, lighting and surveillance
Surveillance cameras assist you in watching over the outside and inside of your premises and in monitoring all aspects of your business to keep it safe. Cameras are able to transmit to your home after hours, or to surveillance patrols, to keep watch from a distance. You can get a wider range of views by investing in cameras with pan tilt and zoom capacity and low-light visibility. Place cameras where they can take in as wide a view as possible. Surveillance patrols can keep watch on your premises, day or night whether or not you have chosen to install cameras. Obviously good lighting and sensor lights help to deter intruders who prefer to act in the cover of darkness, as well as to better capture images on surveillance cameras.
- Access control, staff escorts in restricted areas & tracking technologies
When considering the questions of how access to best restrict access to stock and important records and how to regulate the flow of movement in and out of your building in the best ways, look into some of these options. Carded entry for staff via main doors or carpark roller doors, or combination locks on external doors are options that work well in many instances. Some businesses like to assign a staff member to escort visitors when on the premises, if sensitive or valuable material is prone to theft or damage by outsiders. When keeping tabs on stocks and deliveries, look for technologies now available in license plate recognition and RFID stock tracking.
Covering your bases with these Five Zones of protection will allow you to greatly reduce the risk of theft, vandalism, or storm and/or fire damage, and thereby keep your business on track and better equipped to weather many contingencies.
