On April 26, more than 40 volunteers from Supply Source One, a division of Schwarz, spent the day refurbishing the SHORE Joseph Koenig, Sr. Training Center in Morton Grove, Ill., as part of National Rebuilding Day. The event is organized annually by Rebuilding Together, a national nonprofit with a mission to preserve and rehabilitate the houses and communities of low-income homeowners. It mobilizes volunteers across the country to lend their skills and energy in assisting families with disabilities, the elderly and those under financial duress. 
 
The Supply Source team and other volunteers contributed approximately 350 man hours to the center’s restoration, which included cleaning, painting and repairs. SHORE estimated that the work would have cost the agency close to $10,000.
 
SHORE’s mission is to improve quality of life for people with developmental disabilities through educational, residential, vocational and related programs. Its training center provides vocational training and employment to more than 200 developmentally disabled adults.
 
Supply Source One, with a dozen distribution centers nationwide, provides retail and maintenance supplies to the self-storage industry. It participates in National Rebuilding Day every year. For more information, visit www.supplysourceone.com.
 
To learn more about Rebuilding Together, visit www.rebuildingtogether.org. For information about SHORE, visit www.shoreinc.org.

Self-storage has boomed over the last 20 years, and along with that boom, sites have sprung up in just about every town. So how do you differentiate your store from the site down the road?

What happens when the customer has a choice of where to store if multiple sites exist close by? In most cities, potential renters face that choice every day. It can be argued that they may choose a store based on price or special offers, but surveys show that security of their goods is paramount. Price is almost always further down the list. After all, would you store your goods at a site where you didn’t think they were secure?

Keeping Your Investment

Individual door alarms have had the biggest impact on self-storage security over the last 20 years. CCTV is the other clear solution for self-storage security. Surveillance—or the threat of it—has a big effect on renters, and they tend to behave themselves when they think their actions are being monitored.

What do these systems deliver? Simply put: an edge over the site that does not have them. The security of people’s goods has been one of the primary causes of a change in business patterns, especially for those sites that have little security when another store with all the latest security features opens up down the road.

To ensure you get the best value from the security system you have already installed, take these simple steps:

Maintain what you have purchased. Security systems are just like any other piece of equipment. Some components have a finite life—like batteries used for backups. Make sure that door switches are aligned and working, cameras are focused and in good repair. Create a regular maintenance schedule for the equipment. Clean keypads regularly. Also, don’t make claims that cannot be substantiated. If you have sign up that says “24-hour surveillance” and you don’t have anyone sitting in front of the monitor 24/7, you are lying and open to criticism or even legal action in the event of an incident. A better sign might read: “24-hour event CCTV recorded.”

Monitor your security system diligently. Many sites have systems installed and, for whatever reason, just don’t use them. You spent the money, so make sure you use the recorded information. Access logs and CCTV footage can reveal interesting tenant activity and, used diligently, can uncover undesirable activities and potential security threats daily. Make sure the management software link is working and the correct PIN numbers have been downloaded.

Know how your system works. A time will come when information will need to be retrieved from your systems. Access-control information and CCTV images can be extracted from most systems. As the owner or manager, it’s important you know how to retrieve the information. You will need it some day.

Archive information. Keep copies of CCTV footage and access logs if you believe you will need the information in the future. CCTV systems eventually override the images stored with new ones, and it could be too late if you want to recover important information later.

Check CCTV footage daily. Checking footage frequently can reveal after-hours activity that is not acceptable. If you see something you don’t like, act on it. Also, the images should be focused and exposed correctly. Poor images are of no use in the event of a security breach.

Never allow tailgaters. These are tenants who come in just behind another tenant and cannot be bothered to enter the PIN code for their space. A simple sign that shows a “$95 call-out” fee for false alarms usually fixes this. Also, tailgaters may not even be tenants, so don’t let them in.

Monitor who’s inside. Many door alarm systems will show the tenant has entered the site and has opened his storage space door. Keep your eye on these tenants. If you think it’s been too long for the door to be open, they might be up to something.

Have a Security Plan

Dealing with a security event is also part of the process. Do you have a plan? How would you deal with a hoard of reporters outside your office asking questions about seized drugs or the bomb-making materials authorities just found? Are your security records in order? Can you provide the information law-enforcement authorities need?

How you deal with these issues defines your business in the community, and the image of self-storage rests on your shoulders when these types of events happen. Staff members can easily be thrust into the media spotlight, only to say the wrong thing or reveal sensitive information if they haven’t been trained or you don’t have written procedures.

Also, as an owner you have a legal responsibility to look after staff security. Do you have a CCTV camera in the office to record any incidents with customers? Owners sometimes rely on the customer’s view of events and the staff often bears the consequences. Staff members know they have to be polite and courteous. When it all gets down and dirty, a CCTV recording of the event will be important.

The first murder of a self-storage staff member last September in Houston was sobering news to us. The tragic case highlights the fact that we must pay more attention to personnel safety. Don’t think for even one minute serious events won’t happen at your site. Serious events happen anywhere, anytime. You must be ready.

If you’re not sure what to do, contact the leading vendors in self-storage security. They have many years experience and can help you determine what security system will fit your budget and site needs. Also, budget to upgrade the security equipment at least every five years to keep up to date with the latest trends.

Market Your Security

Do not underestimate the importance of marketing your security system. It sends a strong message to the market that you have taken steps to ensure customers’ goods are safe. Customers assume their goods are safe, right or wrong, when they store with you. While the agreement might say, “all care taken and no responsibility,” the very fact that you have charged a fee for storage infers that the site will safeguard the goods stored. That’s how the lawyers see it as well. It’s better business to ensure the safety of stored goods than to have endless litigation.

As a staff member or manager, take charge. Don’t ignore these important points. Your own safety or other staff and customers are at risk if you don’t take security at your site seriously. Knowing your system will make you a more valuable staff member.

Dallas Dogger is CEO of Centreforce IT in Brisbane, Australia. Centreforce IT is the largest installer of access-control, CCTV and individual door-alarm systems in Australasia. For more information, visit www.centreforceit.com.au.

The planning committee for Badenoch, Inverness, Nairn and Strathspey, Scotland, are being urged by local officials to approve the conversion of a nuclear bunker near Fort George into a Self Storage 4U facility. The recommendation is despite local dissent concerning additional traffic the facility would generate, the Press and Journal reported. Self Storage 4U paid six figures for the 1,400-square-foot bunker on 2.6 acres, and intends to use the compound for storing 18-by-8-foot portable-storage containers. Info: www.selfstorage4u.co.uk

Real estate developers seeking new business prospects and self-storage owners looking to expand their operation can get vital information about a thriving opportunity during a comprehensive seminar titled “Developing Boat & RV Storage: Cruising Into the New Market.” This full-day event will take place Aug. 15, 2008, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina in San Diego, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 
The seminar will be presented by self-storage experts Caesar Wright, president of Mako Steel Inc., and RK Kliebenstien, president of Coast-To-Coast Storage (C2C). Attendees will learn all the critical aspects of developing a boat and RV storage facility: 

• Site selection: Where to build and why
• Feasibility: Conducting a study and understanding the results
• Land Use and Building Coverage: Getting the most out of a site
• Owner/Builder vs. General Contracting: Understanding the difference
• Financing: Getting the money necessary to begin
• Building Basics: Unit types, styles, components and features
• Condominium Trend: Deciding whether to rent or sell the units
• Marketing: Promoting the facility to the target customer base

"According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, 390,500 RVs were shipped in 2006, the best annual total in the past 25 years,” said Wright. “And Dr. Richard Curtin, director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan, projects that the number of RV-owning households will rise to 8.5 million by 2010. The overall demand for boat and RV storage is at the highest level I've seen in my 20-year career in this industry. We want to help developers and owners determine whether a property may be suited for this type of development."

The cost of the seminar is $695, with an early-bird rate of $595, good until July 15, 2008. The fee includes a workbook, continental breakfast and lunch. 
 
"Working with Caesar to help developers figure out the challenges of vehicle storage is like getting in on self-storage in 1970,” said Kliebenstein. “The market is wide open, and the opportunity is getting more challenging every day. I hope anyone who has ever even thought of vehicle storage will invest their time and resources to make sure they get it right." 
 
“Developing Boat & RV Storage” is sponsored by Inside Self-Storage, which provides a monthly trade magazine, bi-annual conferences, and a host of online educational products and services for the self-storage industry.
 
Mako Steel designs, supplies and installs steel buildings for the self-storage industry. C2C is a self-storage consultancy firm specializing in feasibility studies, site selection, financing, and management and marketing services.
 
For seminar details and to register, call 800.454.5760; e-mail Debbie Pirkey at [email protected]; or visit www.developingboatrvstorage.com.

For many years, self-storage software and security services relied on separate pieces of equipment to run respective applications. Often, one did not know how to communicate with the other, which resulted in two separate databases that had to be individually maintained.

This double-entry method sometimes meant discrepancies between the databases. This was especially dangerous when a tenant—who should have been denied access because he was delinquent—was permitted into the facility due to a data-entry error.

Realizing the need for a higher level of automation, self-storage providers built alliances and opened up the gateway to have products communicate with each other. This was the first step toward addressing the dual-input issue, but a couple of other major issues were created as a result. The critical component was you could not simply choose property-management software and a security system you liked; you had to make sure they were compatible.

Such compatibility issues still exist today. The word “integration” gets thrown around quite often when a software or security company gets asked about how things work. Defined, integration is the method used to form, coordinate or blend into a functioning or unified whole. Interface, however, is the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other. Understanding this concept could be the difference between the system you believe you are getting and the system you actually end up with.

Open Communication

Interfacing two programs generally involves each side providing an additional software piece that lets the individual sides communicate. This is done because it is the simplest road to having the systems communicate. It is much easier to hand off information and tell the other application to retrieve it than it is to write directly to that application’s database. While this might be a very tidy way of accomplishing the task, it does limit the overall support of each program’s capabilities.

Situations exist where a specific access-control function could be unique to that product and may only be used in very specific situations. While this might be advantageous to certain operations, it probably would not be supported because in an interface environment only so many development resources can be dedicated toward maintaining the interface. Most companies would rather work on making their products all they can be. They carefully weigh the decision of enhancing the way they speak with other programs versus adding new features to their own product lines.

Recent shifts in technology and thought processes have dramatically changed how some of the companies that provide both the property management and security approach the way the programs work together. There are a few providing an integrated solution, which has opened some pretty amazing doors.

One location means never having to audit the two systems to make sure they match. A timesaver and as accurate as you can get, one database makes sense for this type of application. Most systems of this type use the property-management software to generate, build and perform database changes in tenant status (i.e., locked out, paid up), making them instantly available to the access control and security portion of the system.

Detractors will make the point that a company that makes hardware and one that makes software cannot be perfect at each. The fact is if they had both product lines they would be crowing about the benefits of an integrated solution.

The self-storage marketplace has seen many new security and software vendors through the years. There is such a wide choice of providers that if a company cannot keep up with the innovations they probably won’t survive. To think that a company cannot provide quality solutions for multiple applications is preposterous.

Apple Inc. is a shining example of what is possible if you choose a company providing both a hardware and software solution. Sure, you can run your music program in a Windows environment and it works just fine most of the time. Trying to get support from both parties when something goes wrong can be frustrating and time-consuming.

Putting it All Together

I was recently involved in the purchase of a new phone system for our business. We had a local service provider, a long-distance service provider, and a third company that manufactured the phone system. Any time we had a problem, it was never clear whose issue it was, but one thing was certain—it was our issue!

We made the decision to go with a new system that integrated all of our services into one package. The one time we had a problem we made one call. What used to take hours to resolve took minutes, and the interruption to our business was kept to a minimum.

Now that true integration is here, it’s possible for the security system to display things only the property-management software once had access to. A great example is when somebody is using a keypad to access the property some systems can thank the person for his business, give a reminder about rental due dates or newly available units, or even market a discount for referrals.

You can provide a great deal of knowledge without ever having any actual contact with the tenant, which can be of great importance with so many 24-hour facilities in operation today. Your security system will act as an after-hours office assistant, collection agent and marketing manager in addition to providing a greater level of security system awareness.

All of this is made possible by taking the word “integration” by its definition—a method used to form, coordinate or blend into a functioning or unified whole. No transmitting database information off to a secondary processor with the opportunity for data to be corrupted. No handing off from one program to the other with the opportunity for the data to be tampered with or overridden without an audit trail. These are the benefits to choosing an integrated solution.

Deciding what is right for your business should be an informed decision. Making sure the products you have chosen work together is even more critical. If all is well, you should never have to think about how different functions are interacting. This should be the goal. One management program might be more comfortable, and you might like a unique feature on a different security program. Chances are they will work fine together, but keep in mind the benefits of an integrated solution when weighing your decision. It might just be the best for you in the long run.

Joe Burt is the international sales manager for Sentinel Systems Corp., a manufacturer of mini-storage and self-storage software for property management, gate-access security and individual door alarms. Founded in 1976, Sentinel continues to lead the way in self-storage security and software solutions. For more information, call 800.456.9955; visit www.sentinelsystems.com.