Successfully implementing 
security transformation with 
the UK’s largest retailer

In partnership with the largest UK retailer, we conducted security transformation under our ASEL Risk Modelling brand, ARM. 

ASEL WERE TASKED WITH / SCOPE

• re‑designing their security estate
• building a risk-based security proposition to cover more locations with less people
• improve incident reporting and business risk understanding
• reduce volume spend
• raise security standards through better training
• improve security visibility raising public trust

HOW WE APPROACHED THE PROJECT

This project commenced with a risk analysis of the whole customer estate (including competitor locations), from granular at store level, to analysis of the regional and national portfolio. This enabled an hour-by-hour risk overview to support a risk-based deployment strategy and the removal of traditional binary security deployments. 

The data collated was a combination of external risk metrics and internal customer data e.g. assets, losses, incidents, site format, and footprint. These were combined and analysed to identify a holistic risk profile of each location. We then designed a set of principles which applied hours commensurate to risk at a site level. This created a true resource-to-risk solution, as well as facilitating a national consistent strategy of data collation, giving a global view of risk, security requirement and performance returns in a live BI environment. 

Core risk hours were supplemented by a geographically aligned roaming flexible resource covering anomalies and known risks, or busy footfall periods. This negated a core requirement in lower risk locations and provided a flexible resource to better support incident management / events, while reducing wasted volume expenditure on ineffective minimum wage security resources. 

ONGOING SUPPORT

Our officers provide audit activities, identifying and reporting on process exception failures, supporting loss prevention initiatives, in parity with our customers security strategy. Live dashboard monitoring includes seasonal change risks down to high loss line items, above traditional category only reporting. 

Activity data is captured live and fed into the dashboard, enabling a true customer performance overview, supporting their own exception interventions. This integrates third party security colleagues into the customers retail structure, with officers relaying risks to store colleagues during visits, ensuring all security deployments are targeted, avoiding ongoing deployment stagnation and traditional morale impacts.

Through liaising with local crime partnerships and police, the roaming team identify risks and threats. All security colleagues receive live alerts to proactively understand location risks, security requirements and customer service. Roaming officers collaborate with local businesses, furthering shared knowledge generating preventative opportunities, whilst coaching and sharing with static deployments supported through our Command and Intelligence Centre (CIC). 

THE RESULTS

This risk-based deployment strategy has enabled vast returns.

Year-on-year we have:

• improved incident reporting by 86%
• reduced violence by 46%
• generated an ROI of 78%  
• saved the client over 1,000 hours of static security, every week

This approach has also provided four days of training above industry standard workings to each officer (800 colleagues) and facilitated pay levels above the national living wage.