Facilities Management Security

Managing security across a portfolio is a different problem from securing a site. The individual requirements are rarely difficult. What is difficult is running twenty of them to the same standard, with one set of records, when each site was set up by a different person at a different time.

Andor Group works with facilities management companies, managing agents and in-house estates teams across Hampshire and the south of England.

What actually goes wrong across a portfolio

Inconsistent standards. One site has a well-briefed officer and assignment instructions written for it. Another has cover inherited from a previous supplier that nobody has reviewed in three years. The service looks the same on the schedule and is not the same on the ground.

Reporting that does not aggregate. Each site reports differently, so estate-level questions cannot be answered without someone manually collating. The question “which of our sites had incidents last quarter” should take seconds.

No single point of contact. An FM manager holding several suppliers spends more time coordinating security than managing it, and every escalation starts with establishing who is responsible.

Cover that no longer matches the risk. Sites change — a building empties, a tenant leaves, a compound is added. Security specified two years ago is frequently still being delivered and paid for.

How we work at portfolio level

One contract, one contact, and assignment instructions written per site rather than copied across them. The standard is consistent; the specification is not, because a vacant office and an occupied depot do not need the same thing.

Reporting comes back in one place. Every attendance, patrol and incident is logged through HitDesk with its time and location, and you can look at one site or the whole estate. For an FM contractor reporting to a client that is usually the deciding feature, because it answers the client’s questions without a collation exercise first.

We also review. Where a site’s cover no longer matches its risk we say so, including when that means reducing it. A supplier who never recommends less is telling you something about how the specification was set.

Mobilisation across several sites

Taking over a portfolio is where most transitions go wrong, usually because everything moves on the same date and nothing has been surveyed.

We survey each site before it transfers, write its assignment instructions, and phase the handover so that problems surface on one site rather than twenty. Where an incumbent holds keys or codes, that transfer is planned rather than assumed — see keyholding and alarm response.

Evidencing the spend

Security on a managed estate is recharged, and recharged costs get challenged. The question from a client or a tenant is rarely whether security is needed — it is what was actually delivered for the figure on the schedule.

A timestamped record answers that directly: which sites were attended, when, what was found and what was done. Without one, the conversation reduces to assertion on both sides, and the supplier who cannot evidence attendance loses it.

It also protects you in the other direction. Where a site has had an incident, a record showing exactly what cover was in place at the time is the difference between a defensible position and a difficult meeting.

What we need to quote a portfolio

Addresses and a short description of each site, what is currently in place and who provides it, the hours each site is unoccupied, any site with a history of incidents, who holds keys and codes today, and what reporting your own client expects from you.

From that we can tell you which sites are over-covered, which are exposed, and what a consistent arrangement across the estate would look like — usually before a formal quotation, because the honest version of that conversation is more useful than a number.

Which services apply

• Mobile patrols — the backbone of most portfolios, with rounds built by geography
• Security officers — static cover where a site justifies it
• Keyholding and alarm response — so activations never reach your duty manager
• CCTV and monitoring — coverage without a permanent presence
• Vacant property protection — for the units between tenants that every portfolio has
• Site cabins and welfare — where the estate includes works or temporary accommodation

Working alongside your other contractors

Security on a managed estate rarely operates alone. Cleaning, maintenance, grounds and contractors all need access, frequently out of hours, and every one of them is a potential access failure if the arrangement is informal.

We prefer to be told how the estate actually runs rather than how it is supposed to: who holds keys, who lets contractors in at seven on a Saturday, and which sites have an arrangement that exists only in somebody’s phone. That conversation surfaces more real exposure than a site survey does.

Where we hold keys, contractor access can run through us with each attendance recorded — which removes the informal arrangements and gives you a log of who was on site and when.

Reporting to your own client

Most FM contractors are reporting upward as well as managing downward. Records that can be filtered by site, date and incident type go into a client report without being rewritten, which is usually the difference between reporting monthly and reporting when asked.

The vacant units nobody owns

Every portfolio has buildings between uses, and they are consistently the weakest point because they are nobody’s operational priority. They are also the cheapest to cover precisely because they are quiet.

We treat them as their own requirement rather than as an afterthought on the site they sit within — alarms, monitoring or patrols specified for the building’s actual state.

Where we work

We cover managed portfolios across Hampshire and the wider south of England, including Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Basingstoke, Andover and Alton, and work with FM contractors running estates across several regions.

Common questions

Can you cover our whole portfolio?

Within our coverage area, yes. Where sites sit well outside a realistic response radius we will say so when quoting rather than accept the whole estate and explain the response times later.

Do we get one point of contact?

Yes — one contract, one account contact, and escalation that does not start with establishing who is responsible.

Can we see reporting across all sites at once?

Yes. Records are timestamped per site through HitDesk and viewable per site or across the estate, which is normally what an FM contractor’s own client is asking for.

How do you handle taking over from an incumbent?

Survey each site first, write its assignment instructions, phase the handover, and plan the key and code transfer explicitly. Transitions fail when everything moves at once and nothing was surveyed.

Will you tell us if a site is over-covered?

Yes, and we would rather raise it than have you find it. Cover specified two years ago is often still running against a risk that has changed.

What about sites that are empty?

They are treated as vacant property in their own right. An empty building inside a managed estate is not protected by the estate around it.

Further reading

Choosing a multi-site security provider

Discuss your portfolio

Tell us how many sites, where they are and what is currently in place. See our security services or get in touch on 020 4602 3974.