Overview: $109,000 Saved on a New HQ Security System

When a company relocating to a new headquarters put its security system out to competitive bid, one vendor’s proposal came in at $709,000. BPS reviewed that proposal line by line and found $109,000 that didn’t belong there, with no reduction in the security the system would deliver. That brought the bid down to $600,000, below the competing bid, and turned a $28,000 design fee into roughly a 390% return.

On a project like this, the common instinct, especially from a general contractor, is to take the lowest initial bid and move on. This case study shows what a closer, independent look turned up instead: where the costs were inflated, how the vendor came to agree, and what the client did with the savings.

The Client and the Project

The client, a mid-cap corporation with more than $4 billion in revenue, was moving into a new 600,000-square-foot headquarters. Its real estate department brought in BPS for security design services, and BPS worked alongside the company’s architect, landlord, and general contractor to put a full security system out to bid: video surveillance, intrusion detection, and access control, with the added complication of folding in existing equipment and shared resources.

Two bids came back. One vendor’s proposal totaled $709,000; a competitor’s came in around $612,000. Part of BPS’s role on any security design project is to review proposals like these for suitability, accuracy, and conformance to the bid specifications, so the numbers on the page actually match what the project calls for.

The Goals of the Technical Review

The concern wasn’t just the price. The higher bid didn’t line up cleanly with the competitor’s, and awarding it without scrutiny, or defaulting to the low bid without understanding why it was lower, risked either overpaying or under-buying. The review set out to:

• Verify the proposed labor hours, equipment specifications, and project phasing.
• Identify over-specification or redundancy.
• Bring the cost down while keeping the system reliable and in line with the plans, specifications, and industry standards.

The point was never to pick the cheapest option. It was to make sure the client paid a fair price for the right system.

Inflated Labor Hours: A $50,000 Reduction

The proposal carried an extra 400 hours of program and project management labor, 200 of each, beyond what the work required. Rather than simply strike them, BPS worked through the numbers with the vendor’s management team and estimators and laid out why a reduction was warranted. The vendor agreed the adjustment was fair, and the change took about $50,000 off the bid.

Oversized Video Servers: Another $50,000

The bid specified two 270TB video servers. Against the system’s actual requirements, the camera count, frame rate, and resolution, that was more storage than the project needed. BPS proposed consolidating to a single 170TB server, which the vendor accepted as reasonable. That saved another $50,000, with no effect on how the video system performed.

Correcting the Access Control Reader Count

The proposal also overcounted the access control readers, treating existing readers as if they were new. BPS asked the bidder to revisit the door and device schedule and separate what was already in place from what actually needed to be added. The corrected count reduced the cost by a further $9,000.

The Results: $109,000 Saved, Security Intact

Together, the three adjustments cut $109,000 from the proposal, bringing it to $600,000, an 18.2% reduction, and, notably, below the competing bid. The system kept all of its required functionality; nothing was traded away to reach the lower number.

The savings didn’t disappear into the project either. The client’s real estate department redirected them to other parts of the headquarters buildout, which drew praise from senior leadership. Measured against the $28,000 design fee, the review returned roughly 390%. And because BPS worked with the vendor rather than around them, the bidder came away on good terms, which helped the working relationship going into later phases.

The Value of an Independent Security Design Review

The thread running through this project is a simple one: an independent set of eyes on a proposal can find value that a quick comparison of bottom-line numbers misses. Because BPS has no systems to sell and no stake in which vendor wins, its only job is to make sure the client buys the right system at a fair price.

If you’re planning a significant investment in security, it’s worth having the design done properly and the proposals validated before anything is awarded. And if you already have proposals in hand and want them checked, BPS can step in at short notice to review them before you commit.