Annual Report 2008 - Securitas

Securitas’ monitoring services are used by companies as well as individulas. These services include alarm monitoring,
verification, alarm response and Track and Trace services.
The model with specialized security services constitutes
a good opportunity to increase the value
added to customers, thereby increasing demand
for advanced guarding services. The mobile service
concept is still rather new and poses a favorable
opportunity for further development and
growth. Finally, there are opportunities to use
guards more efficiently combined it with appropriate
technology.
A potential threat sometimes raised is that the
industry is maturing, which implies that growth will
stagnate and margins diminish. Securitas believes
that our strategy of specialization and development
of new services and concepts will show that this is
not the case. Technology is often referred to as a
threat to the guarding industry, but as noted before,
humans are needed for making judgement calls and
respond to alerts or incidents. Hence, technology
complements guarding rather than substitutes it.
Another threat comes from the reversal of the
historical trends of privatization and outsourcing.
This could indeed have been a major threat, but the
opposite seems to be more the case. Outsourcing
makes sense due to the focus on core competencies,
cost savings, and less administration. Public
authorities are on tighter budgets and pass on
security responsibilities to private companies.
Finally, guarding companies often have a high
employee turnover. This is not desirable due to,
such reasons as, costs for hiring and training. However,
in times of recession, people are more likely to
hold on to their jobs and wage costs are less likely
to increase, a fact to keep in mind when evaluating
the guarding industry prospects in worsening economic
times.
The security services market
An overview
Securitas Annual Report 2008
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