A guard or a security system? When you need both

• Judgement: tells the unusual from the threatening and adapts to what no rule foresaw.
• Presence: a visible guard deters before anything happens.
• Response: raises the alarm, escalates, directs people, secures an area.
• Service: greets, directs and checks entries in a human way.

The limit is hours: full-time work in Greece is 40 hours a week (Labour Code art. 189), so a 24/7 post (168 hours) needs at least 4.2 full-time positions. The guide to guarding costs explains how to reject an offer that cannot cover those hours lawfully.

• Constant coverage: the alarm is armed every night, all night.
• Detection: sensors on doors, windows and the perimeter alert the moment something happens.
• Recording: cameras show what happened, and access control shows who entered when.

Cameras come with rules. According to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, no permit or notification is needed, but cameras may not be used to monitor or evaluate employees (art. 27 Law 4624/2019). Directive 1/2011 requires clearly visible signs before camera range (art. 12) and deletion of footage without an incident within 15 working days at most (art. 8).

• Alarm + response: the system detects, and a person goes to look. Without response, an alarm going off at 3 a.m. only tells you something happened.
• CCTV + guard: the guard sees more of the site from one position and goes where needed, instead of patrolling blind.
• Remote monitoring: someone watches the alerts from a distance, checks the image and decides whether to send help.

OVIT pairs the right equipment (security systems: alarms, CCTV, access control) with field response and visibility on the Guardly platform, where the client sees patrols, incidents and reports in one live picture.

1. Risk: if an incident must be stopped as it happens (an assault, a theft in progress, people in danger), you need a person. If it is enough to detect and record it, a system may do.
2. Site: a large or open site with many entrances needs detection and cameras for a guard to be effective. A small, closed site may be covered by a system alone.
3. Hours: with the public or staff on site, a guard adds presence and service. When the site is empty, the system does the constant work and a person handles response.

Example (hypothetical): a shop open to the public until 21:00 and empty at night. By day, a guard at the entrance with cameras on the aisles; at night, an alarm with response. For retail specifically, see the guide to shoplifting and loss prevention; for building sites, the guide to construction site theft.

• Cameras that record, but no one sees anything until the next morning.
• An alarm that alerts an owner who is asleep or in another city.
• A guard on a large site with no cameras, sensors or logged patrols.
• Cameras pointed at workstations instead of entrances and the perimeter.