How to evaluate a security provider: a tender scorecard for procurement teams
Most security RFPs are won or lost on price because buyers have no structured way to score the rest. Below is a weighted scorecard you can paste into your evaluation matrix. It is the same framework serious corporate procurement teams use — and the same one Warhawk expects to be measured against.
1. Compliance and accreditation (20%)
Verify the PSIRA business registration number and its current status directly on the PSIRA portal — do not trust a certificate PDF. Check CIPC standing, NBCPSS levies, WCA good-standing letter, PSSPF contributions and CSD registration for public-sector work. A provider missing any of these will cost you at audit time, whatever they charge on paper.
2. Operational capacity (25%)
Ask for the number of officers on the payroll (not on the database), the number of reaction vehicles physically deployed in your region, and the current guard-to-supervisor ratio. Ask for 90-day average and worst-case response times to sites of comparable risk. A serious operator tracks these numbers and hands them over without hesitation.
3. Control room and technology (20%)
A modern control room is Grade A graded, redundantly powered, dual-connectivity and staffed by trained controllers 24/7. Ask which alarm-signalling and camera-verification platforms they run, whether they support your existing CCTV/access control, and request a sample incident report from the last 30 days. If the sample is a template with no timestamps, that is your answer.
4. Reporting and SLAs (15%)
Boardroom-ready reporting is not a nice-to-have — it is how you defend the contract at renewal. Specify weekly patrol reports, monthly incident summaries by category, response-time SLAs with penalties, and a named account manager with a documented escalation path. Vague reporting is where under-performance hides.
5. Commercial terms (10%)
Insist on itemised pricing: officer wage, PPE, supervision, management fee, equipment and consumables shown as separate line items. Cap CPI escalation, disclose call-out and false-alarm fees up front, and specify a cancellation clause in plain English. Any line item the bidder cannot explain in one sentence is designed to be missed.
6. References and continuity (10%)
Request three references from clients of comparable size and sector, and call two of them. Ask about staff turnover on the contract, how the provider handled their worst incident of the last 12 months, and whether they would sign again. Also ask for the provider's BCP: what happens if their control room, their bank or their fleet goes down tomorrow morning.
Automatic disqualifiers
Any of these should end the evaluation regardless of score: expired or suspended PSIRA registration, refusal to disclose officer PSIRA numbers, no WCA letter of good standing, non-compliance with NBCPSS wage rates, or a control room that cannot be visited or audited. A cheap bid from a non-compliant provider is a liability transfer, not a saving.
Score Warhawk against this list
We built our business to be evaluated on exactly this framework. Send us your RFP and we will respond point-by-point against your scorecard, with the supporting documents attached. Book a tender briefing at admin@warhawk.co.za.