The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) has published a new guide to help businesses understand how security consultancies can play a vital role in helping them make the right choices when it comes to security products and services.

The guide, entitled ‘Security Consultancies - Expert advice on protecting your business,' provides a useful checklist of all the services that consultancies can provide, giving companies an overview of the wide-ranging expertise offered by these specialists, from assessments and information, technical or HR security consultancy to specialist support such as expert witness or investigation services.

"The number of threats that organisations are faced with nowadays and the nature of such threats make it almost impossible for businesses to be able to put together all-encompassing security strategies that will effectively protect their people and assets without expert advice", says Chris Lawrence, Chairman of the BSIA Security Consultancies section. "One of the main risks is that, in the face of budget cuts, this lack of expertise can result in companies overlooking the quality of suppliers and using price as the key measure to benchmark products and services. Needless to say, this approach can prove costly and detrimental to the business in the long-run."

Reliable consultants will have experience of providing advice on all manner of issues for all types of operations, whether these be construction sites, high profile governmental or business buildings, depots or small business concerns. Moreover, consultancies can help avoid rogue suppliers, and ensure a security strategy is tailored to the requirements of each individual client.

"The scope of the services provided by security consultancies is often not fully understood by procurement specialists, so I hope this guide will provide businesses with a first port of call to appreciate what consultancies can do for them. There is an expert out there available to give independent and tailored advice regardless of the size and type of business you run, or the industry it operates in." concludes Chris.

The guide is available for download on the BSIA's website http://bsia.co.uk/publications.php?r=OXFPYA592061

Members of the BSIA Security Consultancies section provide independent professional support to ensure that measures required by clients correspond to both existing and emerging threats whilst complimenting the client's business environment and operation. To find out more about the work of the section visit www.bsia.co.uk/consultancies