Customer-oriented Services

SECOM’s business model collects usage fees from customers each month, a system known today as a subscription model, which was established when our company was founded in 1962. We consider improving customer satisfaction one of the most important elements of corporate growth, as satisfaction with our services leads customers to renew their contracts and introduce new customers.

SECOM’s security services aim to protect customers’ lives, assets, health, and information from all types of risk and to minimize damage if an incident does occur. We set the “crime prevention rate*” of intrusions and thefts as one of our indicators, and above all, we strive to achieve zero damage, so that our customers can feel secure in using our services.

Our security services, which are handled completely within the SECOM Group, include everything from R&D, equipment manufacturing, sales, customized security planning, and installation to irregularity monitoring, emergency response services, and maintenance. This approach is based on SECOM’s unique Total Package System concept. Handling everything within the Group enables us to take responsibility for the quality of our services. We have created a system that collects information about equipment malfunctions, false alarms, user friendliness, and other issues, providing feedback that can be used to improve security equipment and systems and develop new products.

In the Total Package System, our security staff members visit customers in person to conduct emergency responses, carry out maintenance, provide consultations on various topics, and handle customer requests. We place the highest priority on the education we provide to all employees involved in security services, since their words and actions with customers will establish SECOM’s reputation.

In addition to the legally mandated training provided in accordance with the Security Services Act, we provide other training programs aimed at reinforcing the ethics and skills of each and every employee, including various types of group training at the training center in our headquarters, the Grade Education system, which visualizes and certifies practical operational skills, Systematic Behavior contests with defined behavior rules, and safe driving workshops and Security Driving contests.

Furthermore, dedicated to personnel development, we have created unique training programs for each position, including salespeople responsible for security planning; control center staff, who are key persons in issuing emergency response orders 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; customer service center staff, who handle a wide range of inquiries by phone; and staff specializing in promoting customer satisfaction, who listen to requests and gather feedback directly from customers.

Going forward, SECOM will improve the quality of our services by enhancing the skills and receptivity of employees directly responsible for providing security services. We will strive to offer customer-oriented services, from R&D to maintenance, to maximize customer satisfaction.

* Crime prevention rate: SECOM’s indicator aiming for zero intrusion and theft damage to subscribers

Leveraging Advanced Technologies and Partnerships

SECOM has continuously incorporated cutting-edge technology into our businesses since the earliest stages of our establishment.

In 1966, four years after our company was founded, the foundation of our main on-line security business was laid when we launched the SP Alarm system. It allowed us to connect to our customer installations as well as receive emergency notifications from the installed sensors, enabling our Control Center operators to respond by dispatching the closest emergency responder to the installation. This embodiment of IoT through the aggregation of a large number of sensor signals over communication lines proceeded the concept of IoT by more than 50 years.

Sensors installed at a customer site must not only accurately detect emergencies by quickly processing and transmitting signals, but must also be integrated reliably in the different environmental conditions of each site. Our belief in sophisticated technological capabilities to provide our customers with "safety and security" lead to the creation of the R&D Center in 1979 and the Intelligent Systems Laboratory in 1986. These research and development efforts have been key in rapidly marketing new products and functions to counter the diversification of crime as well as the changing needs of society.

The Intelligent Systems Laboratory is tasked to be the driver of innovation for SECOM's services. The Laboratory conducts research in a broad spectrum of areas from the fundamental technologies required to create innovative services and operational research into society and services, to engineering methods to rapidly prototype research output.

The R&D Center incorporates these state-of-the-art technologies to develop pioneering security equipment and services. For example, although AI-based services may be commonplace today, Japan's first on-line image surveillance system to detect intruders via image recognition, SECOM AX, was commercialized in 1998. It still forms one of the cornerstones of our AI-based technology. The intersection of AI and robotics is also another key area, where through the development of autonomous patrol robots, airships and drones, we have been endeavoring to provide security to ever larger and dynamic areas.

The acceleration in technological advances combined with the diversification of societal issues in the present emphasizes the necessity of rapidly innovating new solutions through the integration of ideas and technologies cutting across fields and industries. Partnerships across industry, government, and academia focusing on emerging technologies to provide innovative services that benefit society must be strengthened and a co-creation strategy through open innovation must be aggressively pursued.

Although the role of individual divisions may differ, the philosophy of endeavoring to better society through SECOM bind our research and development divisions together.

Employee Self-realization and Diversity

SECOM has developed together with its employees. SECOM’s employment rules begin with the words “The prosperity of the company and the growth of employees are inseparable.” We believe that enabling each of our employees to constantly strive on their own initiative and to engage in self-realization will ultimately contribute to the growth of our organization.

Diversity of human resources is another essential element for our organization to grow. Key factors include accepting diverse human resources with varied backgrounds regardless of their age, gender, nationality, or disability, fostering a workplace culture that incorporates opinions and ideas from a wide range of perspectives, and developing a worker-friendly organization where all members fully demonstrate their abilities. SECOM promotes activities aimed at achieving these goals through our Declaration of Promoting Diversity & Inclusion, including our efforts to promote the active participation of working women.

We also consider the achievement of work-life balance essential for employees to work positively, and SECOM has an abundant range of childcare support systems. For example, the Act on Childcare and Caregiver Leave stipulates that a worker can take childcare leave until the child reaches one year of age, in principle. However, SECOM employees can take childcare leave until the child reaches three years of age.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we introduced flexible workstyles such as teleworking and staggered commuting. These diverse workstyles are not only for dealing with emergencies but also represent a trend of the changing times, and we are considering establishing them as permanent systems.

However, there are areas for which teleworking and staggered commuting are not feasible, such as security services, which we offer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Besides conducting daily employee health checks, our COVID-19 headquarters implements stringent measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 such as making new operation standards for responding to emergencies, etc.

The decreasing labor force is a serious issue for society and for SECOM as well. We are striving to make further improvements to ensure that each and every employee can work in a healthy and secure manner by reducing the workload resulting from the labor shortage and striving to promote occupational safety and health measures to maintain the well-being of our employees. By continuing these ongoing efforts, we will work to be an attractive company that continues to be chosen by human resources.

Coexistence with Local Communities

SECOM offers services such as security services, fire protection services, and medical services, etc., and strives to create new social systems for providing integrated systems and services that deliver safety and peace of mind, as well as make life more comfortable and more convenient.

While pursuing those efforts, we also believe that it is important to fulfill our responsibility as a member of the community and to leverage our expertise and strengths to contribute to the community. For this reason, we engage in community-focused activities in various areas, including crime prevention awareness-raising activities, disaster support, cooperation with local police and fire departments, and collaboration with local companies.

For example, one crime prevention awareness-raising activity is our “SECOM Child Safety Workshop.” Started in 2006, these safety workshops are held in schools and event halls in response to requests by schools and other organizations. SECOM employees serve as instructors and explain important points on how children can avoid crime. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to school closures as well as irregular class schedules, and has also made it more difficult for outside parties to enter schools. As a result, we have been unable to hold Safety Workshops as we normally would.

For those reasons, we decided to create DVD teaching materials and instructional guidelines that teachers could use themselves, when their schedules allowed, to offer safety education at schools without having SECOM employees on-site, as in the past. These educational materials, which are provided free of charge, eliminate the need for the schedule coordination required when employees visits schools or event halls as instructors. This change has enabled us to provide SECOM’s know-how for safety and peace of mind to more children than ever before.

Another example is our efforts to promote AEDs (automated external defibrillators) and conduct AED workshops. SECOM has sold a cumulative total of 305,000 AED devices as of March 31, 2022. That number puts it in the top level of AED suppliers to the domestic general market (excluding medical and firefighting units). We have also worked hard to offer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) workshops to explain, for example, the proper way to perform chest compression, so that we can create a society where everyone can use AEDs whenever they are needed. We will continue to promote the widespread deployment of AEDs and will continue and enhance our first-aid training, in the hope of saving as many lives as possible.

These are just some of the examples of SECOM’s efforts. In the future, we will continue to respond to changes in society, fulfill and exceed our responsibilities to communities, and help communities flourish.