Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
November 2002
Security System Bid Packages
After identifying and selecting the type of electronic security system that is required, the next step is to identify suppliers capable of bidding a contract to install a system and to conduct preliminary interviews with these potential vendors to determine their product offerings. There are many sources of information about potential suppliers. They include:
- any local chapter of BOMA (the Building Owners and Managers Association), IFMA (International Facility Management Association), or other professional facilities management associations
- and local chapter of ASIS (the American Society for Industrial Security), a non-profit organization of security professionals
- other facility managers
- reference publications such as Security Industry Buyers Guide, published by ASIS, and Access Control and Security Systems Integration, published by Intertec
- journals, magazines, and trade publications
To reduce the field of suppliers, eliminate firms that may not have the technical capability or the financial capacity to install your systems, or those whose reputation or business record do not meet your standards. The next step is to send a questionnaire to a manageable number of potential suppliers identified during your initial investigation. Once you have received responses and eliminated suppliers that do not satisy your minimum qualifications, meet with at least three of them individually to discuss their products. After these meetings, develop a project outline of all the steps required to proceed with bidding and installing the system, and then establish a timeline for each project step. Now the bid process begins. Do not depend on suppliers who are submitting bids to provide you with the bid package; some are likely to insert provisions to bias the process in their favor. In most instances, you should obtain a minimum of three bids to ensure fair competition. Exceeding this number of bidders can complicate and prolong the evaluation and selection process, although local policy may force you to review more than three bids for the work. Use the following checklist to assist in preparing a bid package.
- Describe the card and card reader technology selected for the sites where the system will be installed.
- Describe precisely where card readers will be installed, referencing floor plans and interior elevations if possible.
- Describe precisely where the field panels will be installed.
- Describe where the host computer, and all terminals to the host computer, will be installed.
- Describe where CCTV cameras will be installed, and define the local requirements for CCTV surveillance, including recording of entries into and departures from the protected areas.
- Describe the sites that must be protected by alarms and the alarm response requirements.
- Describe the devices required to prevent unauthorized piggybacking into controlled areas.
- Define those entrances requiring installation of devices that comply with ADA provisions.
- Describe local requirements for wire installations and the types of wire that m!ust be used.
- Describe the installation process in terms of allowable work hours, the locations where storage will or will not be permitted, and the local work rules required for compliance with safety and security requirements.
- Define the documentation that the installer must provide, including systems instruction manuals and as-built architectural drawings showing all components of the system installation.
- Define what kinds of power sources (e.g., UPS) will be available and where they will be located.
- Describe what type of cooperation may be required between the installer, local workforce, and other contractors to successfully complete the installation.
- Describe how local facilities management and security personnel will be trained to operate, program, control card issuance for, and troubleshoot the system.
- Describe the nature and scope of maintenance and troubleshooting training that must be provided to local management or their representatives to prevent unnecessary service calls to the contractor.
- Define the spare parts inventory to be maintained on site.
- Define the required response time to trouble calls.
- Describe the local construction permit process, and define who will be responsible for obtaining any permits required.
- Describe the requirements for code approval of equipment and inspection of installed work, particularly if performed in conjunction with other building construction.
- Describe local requirements for providing emergency power to the system and how long the emergency power system must operate.
- Describe the responsibility for designing and digitizing the identification credentials that may be printed by the electronic badging system (if one will be purchased).
- Define the types of equipment that will be required to specially code magnetic stripe cards or apply bar codes to them.
- Define the reports that the system must provide to enable effective management of the security function.
- Define other system interfaces that may be required and acceptance tests that will be required to demonstrate that data has been successfully received and transmitted.
- Specify whether graphical maps (small-scale floor plans) will be required for alarm identification and response.
- Define any mandatory interfaces between the CCTV switcher and the host system.
- Define the required fire panel interface to the security system.
- Define the local customer requirements such as time and attendance recording and paging.
- Describe the requirements for providing software upgrades to the system.
- Define the final acceptance process in a flowchart, describing required system performance, system testing and debugging, and successful demonstration of system features.
This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Technologies for Facilities Management, a course in the Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) designation program.
