Alistair Enser, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance High-Tech explains why aligning people, process and technology is crucial to ensuring security is effective, responsive and resilient.
Today’s threats demand that people, processes and security technology work seamlessly. Security leaders are working in an unparalleled time of growth, threat and change.
While that might make the job more exciting, it also places more pressure at the feet of security teams.
The threat landscape is changing, the risks that security must mitigate have grown rapidly and security teams are racing to keep up. There’s a quote that I heard recently that underpins the approach that all organisations today must take: “When safety is first, you last.”
Bluntly put, security is no longer an afterthought or a tick-box exercise, but a critical part of making sure daily operations continue, business continuity is maintained, risks are decreased and staff and customers are safe. Threats can come from multiple angles.
Malicious actors are actively seeking access to sensitive information and high-value assets. Physical risks such as trespass, vandalism and theft are rising sharply.
Staff are increasingly exposed to abuse, intimidation and violence.
According to the British Retail Consortium (2025) in the UK, retail crime is at its highest level on record, with incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers exceeding 2,000 per day in 2023/24 (up from 1,300 the year before).
Weapon-related incidents alone reached 70 per day. According to Bangs (2025) in the UK Data Service’s Commercial Victimisation Survey update, there are high levels of repeat victimisation among businesses, with customer theft occurring daily at 13% of premises and assaults or threats reported monthly by nearly a quarter of locations.
This persistent exposure to crime helps explain the sharp increase in demand for preventative measures; for example, our sales of body-worn cameras, particularly among public-facing personnel, have risen significantly.
Thankfully, security technology such as cameras, alarms, access control and Video Management Systems (VMS) is evolving to support operators more effectively and in a data-driven way.
AI-powered object detection within ‘intelligent camera systems’, behavioural analysis and real-time alerts now enable faster identification of suspicious activity, more proactive responses and improved situational awareness. Yet technology is half of the solution in mitigating today’s threats.
Effective security encompasses technology, people and processes.
You might have the best security system possible, but if your processes don’t reflect its features and capabilities and your people don’t know how to use it, then much of its potential will be left on the shelf.
Recent high-profile failures, such as the Louvre theft, demonstrate what happens when technology, people and process fall out of alignment.
In the Louvre case, blind spots in the surveillance system allowed the burglars to access the museum through a balcony that wasn’t monitored by external cameras.
Critical areas were not monitored, cameras were ageing and known gaps had not been addressed in time.
Simultaneously, the museum staff did not stop the intruders until the alarms had been triggered, partly because the burglars were dressed as construction workers and hence did not raise immediate suspicion.
The Louvre incident was the perfect combination of uncertain processes, outdated security technology and unaware staff.
The same mistakes play out across industries regularly, from retail environments where staff may not spot or feel able to respond to shoplifting, to bank tellers who don’t know if their panic buttons or cameras are working effectively, to event spaces where all staff, including temporary ones, need to know evacuation procedures in an emergency.
You need your technology, processes and people to be at their A-game to avoid becoming another news headline.
Security teams have advanced technology at their fingertips that will help them stay updated on everything happening on-site, gather critical information as events unfold and respond in real-time to threats or unusual activity, mitigating risk before it escalates.
But to achieve this, they need training and clarity on processes. Modern security ecosystems can be complex to the untrained eye.
There are AI-powered systems driven by ‘intelligent’ cameras, access control, body worn and drone systems, intrusion detection, perimeter detection, fire systems, sensor data, public alerts, visitor logs and more, to keep on top of.
How everything works together and how operators access each system will be highly dependent on its installation and the vendors being used. Training must reflect this.
You may or may not be familiar with the term ‘consequence boundary’. This is where IT systems and OT converge. Given the recent cases of retailers in the news being crippled due to cyber-attacks, the name is very apt.
Within today’s complex IP connected security world, this ‘consequence boundary’ is not hypothetical – it is real. We must all be vigilant in what we deploy and how.
Understanding how each component interacts is essential to designing effective processes and training programmes. Operators need to know not just how to use individual tools, but how to respond holistically when an incident unfolds.
Moreover, even if your security team is trained on your existing system, once a new solution is added or when your system is modernised, that training must happen again.
Building in a retrospective, post-event process is also vital to ongoing improvement. If an event occurs, have a process for reviewing your team’s response, how the technology performed and identifying any improvements to your training, processes and tools.
Investing in a security system, process and training that mitigates today’s complex threats will benefit more than security long-term.
The value you can derive from AI-powered video systems can inform operations, marketing, sales and business strategy.
In retail, insights into dwell times, customer flow and heatmaps can guide store layouts, promotions, staffing and stock planning. For transport leaders, real-time overcrowding alerts can trigger the opening of additional areas or services, protecting the passenger experience and safety.
In manufacturing, video analytics can support predictive maintenance by identifying abnormal machine behaviour before failures and unexpected downtime occur.
Ultimately, these returns beyond security can help offset the cost of new security investments.
In a world where “it will never happen to me” is no longer a credible position, resilience must be intentional.
Security must be integral to your organisation, supported by the right tools, empowered people and well-designed processes.
Those that take this approach will not only reduce risk but also unlock new value and position themselves to operate with confidence in an increasingly uncertain world.
