How Cleaning and Security Companies Cut Costs Without Cutting Corners

By Debbie Trecek Volkens, Content Specialist July 2, 2025 Categories: ,

Weathering a Tough Economy with WinTeam ERP Software

Economic forecasts indicate significant challenges ahead for building service contractors (BSCs) and security companies. While traditional cost-cutting may provide short-term relief, companies investing in methods to gain operational efficiencies can achieve sustainable resilience instead. 

Economic Challenges Facing Cleaning and Security Industries

Global growth forecasts have been revised markedly down compared with January 2025, reflecting economic changes. Federal Reserve research shows economic activity has declined slightly with businesses reporting elevated levels of economic uncertainty, which can lead to hesitancy in business decisions. 

The Cost of Operational Inefficiency

Poor contract management costs businesses approximately $2 trillion annually across all sectors, according to research from Deloitte. For multi-location service contractors, these inefficiencies can compound across every site, creating significant resource drains where efficiency matters most. 

Technology Investment vs. Cost-Cutting Strategies 

During times of economic uncertainty, cleaning and security companies are often faced with a fundamental choice: reduce expenses through traditional cost-cutting or invest in operational improvements. Both approaches aim to preserve profitability, but they take different paths to get there. 

Traditional Cost-Cutting Approaches

  • Reducing staff or hours
  • Cutting supply budgets
  • Eliminating training programs
  • Postponing equipment maintenance
  • Reducing service frequency

Technology Investment Approaches

  • Automating manual processes 
  • Improving operational visibility
  • Enhancing compliance support 
  • Streamlining administrative tasks
  • Preventing operational and administrative errors

While immediate cost reduction can provide short-term relief, not addressing underlying operational inefficiencies can likely contribute to ongoing expenses. In some cases, companies may even have to backtrack on traditional cost cuts to rectify problems, adding expenses to the bottom line instead of removing them. 

Documented Performance Improvements

Cleaning and security contractors that implement comprehensive workforce management ERP technology report significant improvements and efficiency gains, including: 

  • 90% reduction in payroll processing time
  • Elimination of 40+ hours of weekly administrative work
  • Prevention of fraudulent labor costs
  • Improved job costing accuracy enabling strategic pricing decisions 

Although every business operates in their own unique way, these results come from contractors who have implemented industry-specific ERP solutions like WinTeam, designed for building services and security operations needs. 

Industry Expert Analysis

To find the best ERP solution for your business, it’s important to gather information from industry leaders and take into account the complex needs of your operations. For example, cleaning and security businesses require effective timekeeping, payroll processing, scheduling, billing and invoicing, and compliance needs, so having a solution for their business that brings all of those functions together is critical as a method of saving time and expense in a tight market.

“[WinTeam] integrates compliance, so many of our officers’ licenses for various state requirements, as well as armed licensing, are integrated. The scheduling is integrated with payroll and billing, so it keeps it all together. That makes it much easier if you have to go back and audit for a client.” – Allied Universal 

Four Areas Where Technology Drives Competitive Advantage

Process Automation

Immediate impact can come from automating repetitive administrative tasks. Companies report that integrated workforce management systems eliminate manual data entry errors while seamlessly connecting timekeeping, scheduling and payroll processes. 

For enterprise-scale operations, technology enables regional managers to oversee operational needs like work tickets, overtime scenarios and compliance across all jobs using a unified ERP platform. This eliminates inefficiencies created by disconnected systems and provides real-time operational visibility. 

Financial Visibility

Advanced job costing capabilities allow contractors to allocate all direct and indirect costs–including labor, taxes, insurance, supplies, materials, fuel and vehicle costs–down to individual jobs and locations. This granular visibility becomes crucial during economic uncertainty when every contract decision impacts overall profitability. 

Contractors with sophisticated costing systems can make better strategic decisions about contract renewals, pricing strategies and resource allocation during challenging economic periods. 

Compliance Management

Contractors operating across multiple states and jurisdictions face complex compliance requirements that become more critical during economic stress. Technology solutions designed for the industry include built-in tools to support compliance and protect against costly penalties, fines and issues. 

This proves particularly valuable for large-scale operations managing distributed workforces, where manual tracking errors can carry significant financial risk. 

Quality Assurance

During economic downturns, customer retention becomes increasingly valuable. Industry-leading contractors use technology-enabled quality assurance programs that help ensure consistent service standards across all jobs, providing proof of service or guard touring and protecting client relationships when new business becomes harder to secure. 

These systems enable creation of flexible inspection templates, collection of responses and systematic addressing of deficiencies, with web and mobile components that make implementation and use seamless across distributed operations. 

ROI Analysis During Economic Uncertainty

Return on investment is a critical factor in technology selection even during economic upswings. So, when margins are even tighter, it stands to reason that proven ROI is of even more importance when considering an ERP investment. Contractors report measurable ROI from technology investments like WinTeam, including: 

Industry Outlook

Economic uncertainty is creating increased competitive differentiation within the BSC and security industry. Companies maintaining outdated manual processes and disconnected systems struggle to compete against those leveraging integrated technology for operational excellence. 

Contractors investing in comprehensive operational technology during economic uncertainty also position themselves to scale and grow when conditions improve, gaining the agility needed to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, regulatory requirements and customer demands.

TEAM Software has served the BSC and security industries for more than 35 years, helping companies gain efficiencies and profitability in the face of changing market conditions. If you’re interested in learning more about how an industry-specific ERP can help build resilience regardless of economic forecast, contact us.