As the leading – and only – dedicated monthly journal solely aimed at the practising security manager, Security Management Today (SMT) is duty bound to keep its 8,000-strong readership abreast of the latest developments in the private and public sectors.
Those developments are happening at pace. Whether it’s the onset of licensing for manned security personnel (which begins in January), the roll-out of Internet Protocol (IP)-based surveillance schemes, changes to employment law or the terrorist threat, SMT must be the purveyor of highly accurate and topical information so that we can help you to do your job to the highest possible standards.
During the past four years, the journal has evolved into a practical design reference work for security managers (both in-house and contract), and independent reader research conducted by BJM – not to mention our Letters to the Editor postbag – tells us that we’re on the right tracks.
However, rather than rest on our laurels we want to raise the bar yet again. As a journal, we’ve always supported worthy initiatives in the wider industry. SMT continues to sponsor Consec (the annual conference of the Association of Security Consultants), and the SITO National Conference. We’ve also actively supported the JSIC Annual Forum.
That said, the industry desperately needs a journal that campaigns on its own merits, highlighting and evaluating areas of central relevance to today’s practising professional.
That’s why we’ve launched The SMT Forum. We want to help frame where the discipline of security management is (and should be) heading over the next few years on the road to a truly professional status. We feel we can do so by engaging the industry’s practitioners in reasoned debates that have a genuine outcome. Having reported each debate in the journal, we’ll then collate reader feedback and publish the results. In other words, we want the industry to involve itself in shaping its own destiny.
Of late, many of the corporates have begun cutting back on their security spend at a time when, if anything, they should be allocating more resources to stave off potential risks and reputational damage. In a good many cases, this has translated into a blurring of the security role. The security manager becomes part of an amorphous facilities management mass, tasked with looking after not only security but Health and Safety, fire protection, building maintenance and contract cleaning.
Is that a positive development? Will the security emphasis be diluted over time? What are the benefits to be had from security, IT and facilities cross-pollinating?
These questions and more were discussed at the inaugural SMT Forum, which took place on Wednesday 13 October as part of Securex 2004 and debated the motion: ‘Should security management continue to remain as a separate discipline?’ This month, we present both sides of the argument. Many valid points were raised as to why security management might become part of a bigger facilities operation, but so too the speakers who feel security must remain separate put forward a forceful case. Read on… and let us know your views. In the December edition we’ll be publishing a full transcript of the lengthy debate that followed our six speakers’ presentations, and the questions asked. It makes for extremely interesting reading.
