Kieron Stead is the Commercial Director at Reflex Systems in South Yorkshire. The NSI Gold certified business designs and delivers integrated fire and security solutions with ongoing service support and maintenance.
What would be a typical project for you?
Typical projects would include control room upgrades or centralisation projects encompassing the likes of CCTV, Access Control, IP Intercoms, Fire Detection and Wireless Networking as well as LAN and WAN.
I am also responsible for open tenders, managing the bid team, the overall quality response and the final commercial sign off. Rather than open tenders, I much prefer working directly with client and end users; albeit there may be third party involvement such as an external consultant. Our approach is to work with the client in a true partnership to ensure that their requirements are met whilst still trying to deliver best value; particularly in the current climate which is seeing increasing product and labour costs.
It is important to separate best value from simply being a cost driven exercise. As through collaborative working, we gain a greater insight into what truly matters to the client from an operational perspective. We strive to ensure that these are fulfilled. Ultimately, this often leads to organisational savings through utilising the technologies available.
Do you have any ‘go to’ technology and manufacturers?
We try and remain relatively manufacture agnostic however, we don’t try and be everything to everyone. From experience, we have found that working with a smaller number of enterprise level manufacturers and key supply chain partners, not only leads to enhanced project implementation but it also ensures that we can maintain high level maintenance and service support as engineers are fully trained and experienced in the solutions we deliver. We are always investigating the market to ensure that we are offering optimum solutions and this had led to new partnerships particularly in the field of cloud solutions.
What is the best thing about working in this industry?
As a technology driven industry, things are constantly changing. I enjoy the challenge of taking on board previously undeliverable objectives where technology has advanced and now allows a viable solution to an otherwise unachievable obstacle. I have a short attention span and the fast paced and dynamic nature of the industry means that you can’t stand still and I’m always interested in liaising with key partners. It is also interesting how the industry is moving away from traditional security deliverables and we are seeing the technology being deployed in different environments and being used for things such as health and safety and business process management.
Is third party certification beneficial?
Third party certification is important as it demonstrates that certain minimum requirements have been met and this gives clients confidence that they are dealing with an accredited company that is capable of managing and delivering their requirements. There are a lot of companies out there that don’t hold such certification and often deliver standards way below than what is expected and this gives our industry a bad reputation. I think third party certification gives reassurances and shows that the business operates at a certain professional level but I also think that this should be in conjunction with manufacturer training and certification as quite often organisations deliver products and solutions for which they have no specific accreditation or skillsets within the business which often leads to issues for the clients.
Read the full interview in the January 2023 edition of PSI magazine
