You spend your days juggling bids, urgent service calls, manufacturer updates, truck schedules, change orders, and a growing list of “must-have” technologies from clients who often don’t really know what they need. You care about doing good work and protecting people, but it can feel like you’re running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up.
On one side, customers want modern, IT-friendly, “future-proof” systems. On the other side, you’re fighting tight margins, a shortage of experienced technicians, and constant pressure to move faster. Somewhere in the middle you’re expected to be the designer, engineer, project manager, IT translator, and long-term support resource… all at once.
That’s a lot to carry.
At the end-user level, the biggest challenge is often living with aging systems and trying to squeeze more out of what they already own. For security dealers and integrators, the number one challenge today is different:
The biggest challenge for dealers and integrators is delivering modern, integrated, and secure system designs while short on time, staff, and engineering resources.
It shows up in a few familiar ways:
Sales promises are made before a real design exists.
“We’ll figure it out in the field” becomes the default plan.
IT and cybersecurity requirements show up late and blow up the schedule.
Technicians spend hours solving design problems that should have been handled before anything was ordered.
Projects turn into “one-offs” instead of repeatable, standard solutions.
You’re not struggling because you’re bad at what you do. You’re struggling because the work has become more complex than a typical dealer or integrator can comfortably handle alone, especially across many projects at once.
When design and modernization work outgrows your team’s capacity, the impact is real:
Engineering time is buried inside “installation” hours.
Technicians become the designers on site, which takes longer and leads to rework.
Missed details (conduit, network switches, storage, licensing, brackets, integration drivers) turn into change orders and very uncomfortable conversations.
Your best project manager becomes the “firefighter” for every complex job.
Senior technicians are pulled off revenue-producing work to “figure out the design.”
Newer techs don’t get clear drawings, device layouts, or network diagrams, so they learn by painful trial and error.
IT departments lose confidence when networks, ports, and cybersecurity needs aren’t clearly defined up front.
End-users are confused when what was promised in the proposal doesn’t match what they see in the field.
Modernization projects stall because the customer never gets a clear, phased roadmap they can afford.
This is where a dedicated, vendor-neutral security consultant can make a huge difference.
A firm like Theseus Professional Services does not replace the dealer or integrator. Instead, they act as an extension of your team, focused on everything that has to be right before the first ladder comes off the truck.
Here’s how that can look in real life.
The challenge:
Your sales team lands a sizable project: video, access control, maybe some gunshot detection or perimeter protection. The customer has a rough idea of their risks, but not much more. The proposal is sold before a detailed design exists.
How Theseus can help:
Risk-based needs assessment
Theseus meets with the end-user, walks the site, and documents real risks and priorities. Instead of a generic “more cameras” approach, the design focuses on entrances, sensitive areas, and workflows that matter.
Conceptual and detailed system design
They translate that assessment into:
Device locations and counts
Field of view sketches and coverage concepts
Access control door schedules and hardware sets
Integration points between video, access, intrusion, intercom, analytics, etc.
IT-ready documentation
They produce network diagrams, bandwidth and storage estimates, and clear notes for the IT team so conversations with IT start from a place of clarity, not confusion.
Result for the dealer/integrator:
Your proposal becomes a clear, defendable design instead of a guess. Your technicians get actual direction. Your project manager is not left “designing from the truck.”
The challenge:
Every project feels like a custom one-off. Different cameras, different switch brands, different mounting methods, different naming schemes. It’s hard to train people, and harder to support systems long term.
How Theseus can help:
Standard device selections
Work with your team to define “go-to” families of equipment that you trust and that fit your market: core camera lines, preferred access control platforms, analytics tools, and intrusion solutions.
Standard details and templates
Build repeatable:
Typical device layouts
Door hardware templates
Standard notes for electricians and IT
Sample pages for drawings and submittals
Design playbooks
Create simple internal guides: “For a typical school, here’s the recommended package.” Or: “For a corporate office of X size, here’s our preferred design pattern.”
Result for the dealer/integrator:
Your sales team sells what your field team can support. Training gets easier. Every project stops feeling like a brand-new science experiment.
The challenge:
Your customer wants to modernize an old VMS, NVR farm, or access control system that’s been patched for years. They’re worried about cybersecurity and end-of-life notices, but they can’t rip and replace everything at once.
How Theseus can help:
System health check
Review existing hardware, software, licenses, and network design. Identify what must go now, what can stay for a while, and where the real risks are.
Phased modernization roadmap
Build a realistic multi-year plan:
Phase 1: stabilize and secure what exists
Phase 2: replace the worst systems and add key features
Phase 3: full platform modernization and integration
Communication tools for your customer
Provide simple diagrams, executive summaries, and budget ranges you can brand and present. This helps your client understand the “why” behind each phase and secures buy-in.
Result for the dealer/integrator:
You stay in control of the relationship over several years instead of chasing one-off “emergency fixes.” The customer sees you as a trusted advisor, not just a contractor.
The challenge:
Almost every modern project touches IT: VLANs, firewalls, certificates, cloud services, and cybersecurity policies. Many integrators are capable here, but it’s still easy for small details to slip through.
How Theseus can help:
Pre-project IT workshops
Sit down with the customer’s IT team early to review:
Network impact and segmentation
Port and protocol lists
Authentication methods and directory integration
Logging and monitoring expectations
Cyber-aware design choices
Help you select solutions aligned with modern security requirements, like encrypted communications, secure boot, certificate-based auth, and proper patching practices.
Documentation your team can reuse
Build standard IT requirement sheets and checklists that become part of your regular process.
Result for the dealer/integrator:
Fewer surprises at cutover. Less finger-pointing between IT and security. A reputation as the integrator who “gets it” in mixed IT/OT environments.
The challenge:
Large campuses, critical infrastructure, data centers, and healthcare sites often come with strict requirements, long review cycles, and high expectations. You might not have the internal bandwidth to give those projects the extra attention they deserve.
How Theseus can help:
Partner role on key pursuits
Act as your design and consulting partner on specific high-value opportunities. You stay the primary contractor and relationship owner; Theseus provides the deeper engineering and documentation.
Owner representation and coordination
Help align architects, general contractors, IT, facilities, and security stakeholders so you are not stuck in the middle of every disagreement.
As-built and closeout support
Assist with as-built drawings, device schedules, and narratives so closeout packages are professional and complete, increasing your chances for repeat business.
Result for the dealer/integrator:
You can confidently pursue “bigger” and more complex projects without burning out your internal team.
The pressure on security dealers and integrators is not going away. Technology will keep changing. Customers will keep asking for more. IT and cybersecurity expectations will only grow.
But you don’t have to face that alone.
A consulting partner like Theseus Professional Services working hand-in-hand with the end user and the security solution installation team can:
Take on the heavy lifting of assessment and design
Create standards that make your work more repeatable
Support you in modernization planning and IT coordination
Free up your internal team to sell, install, and support with less stress
In short, you get to focus on what you do best: building strong relationships and delivering reliable systems in the field. The complex planning, design, and documentation work has a home with a team built for exactly that.
If you’ve ever thought, “We could win and execute even more great work if we just had a bit more design and planning horsepower,” you’re not alone. That’s the exact gap a firm like Theseus is built to fill.
Contact us to discuss how we can grow together...
Watch our free on-demand webinar featuring insights that transcend healthcare and apply to any facility security program. Whether you're managing a hospital or a corporate campus, the strategies discussed can help improve your environment’s safety and operational readiness.
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Security professionals are constantly looking for innovative ways to secure their facility and provide a safe environment within their budget. And, they are also constantly looking for resources to help them achieve that mission while expert advice is hard to come by.
Fortunately, we have released a considerations guide that will help security professionals perform their own in-house security risk assessment.
What's Inside?
This guide is intended to assist you with performing an in-house physical security risk assessment. In many cases, assistance from a third-party expert, like Theseus Professional Services, is required.
Identification of missing or inadequate physical security measures that safeguard assets (people, property, and information) and critical business functions is of paramount importance. The findings of a security risk assessment are used to measure and communicate the level of risk to the organization.