Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
June 1999
Security System Maintenance Contracts
You’ve no sooner put the finishing toucheson a security system installation contract than someone stops by, pats you on theback, and says, “By the way, who’s maintaining this system?” There you goagain. If you haven’t already put the system installation contract out for bid,you might consider including maintenance provisions in it as well, to obtain thebest possible negotiating leverage — when no one has your company’s businessyet.
Most security system manufacturers and installers guarantee or warrant thereliable operation of their system and components for at least one year. If youcannot obtain at least this minimal guarantee, seriously consider selectingalternate manufacturers or their representatives. Before a warranty periodexpires, be sure to execute a service contract with knowledgeable supplierscertified by the manufacturers to service the equipment. The following itemsshould be included in a service contract specification:
- List the facilities covered by the contract.
- List the normal hours and days onwhich work will be required. The contractor must provide the rates per hour forthe work minus the cost of materials and parts.
- Describe the required emergency response time in case of system failure and how to communicate with the supplieroutside normal business days and hours. Because access control and physicalprotection of virtually all business occupancies are critical, response timesoutside normal business days and hours are important.
- Compile a detailed list of all equipment to be serviced under the contract, including:
a) Card readers
b) Field panels
c) CPU, terminals, printers and peripheral devices
d) CCTV cameras, housings, domes, time-lapse video recording devices, and camera controller devices and monitors
e) UPS and surge protection devices
f) Electronic door locks/strikes
g) Emergency devices, such as break-glass devices
h) Alarm contacts and audible alarm devices
- Define all local work rules that may exist, such as those governing parking,building admittance, communication with local management about problems, sign-inand sign-out on building registers, work area safety, work area cleanup, storageof materials, lockout and tagout, and the hot work permit process to controlwelding and cutting activities.
- Define what spare parts will be maintained andimmediately available for emergency installation in case a system componentfails.After a security system has been selected and installed, it must be properlyadministered to prevent retention of outdated information, which will tax thememory and storage capacity of the host computer. Facilities managers shouldensure that one person and a backup are assigned system administration duties,which should entail the following tasks:
- Deleting system records of people who have left the payroll or tenancy, or ofthose whose entry privileges have expired. This task requires very closecollaboration with the human resources department and the organizationresponsible for hiring contracted workers.
- Printing hard-copy access reports fromthe system for a given period and retaining them for a specified period, usuallythree to six months.
- Periodically polling the system to determine whethercardholders have stopped using their cards or have left the payroll or tenancywithout the security department being notified.
- Programming the system to denyentry privileges to a certain person or groups of people as business needsdictate.
- For investigative purposes, providing archived reports of entries anddepartures of specific individuals and matching the reports to video or CDrecordings of entries and departures.
- Assuring that the time stamp for the entry control system is perfectly synchronized with the time stamp for the videosurveillance system, so that actual facility entry and departure times are properly matched with recorded times.
This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Technologies for Facilities Management course, (www.bomi-edu.org/13041.html), a required course in BOMI Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) program.
