Greywing, an introduction.

The evidence was abundant that the high risk security industry was flawed. People that companies used lacked individual vetting. Clients typically vet security companies and there is a huge drop off between the vetting of a security company and vetting individual operators, particularly if that security company white-labels other security companies services and passes them off as their own. 

The impact had already been felt in my own industry, maritime security; murder suicides conducted with the weapons they had been issued with to protect the vessel and former special forces heroin overdoses whilst stood down in port, had touched companies and as wages continued to fall, driving down the quality of the personnel that could be recruited, the probability of an incident was trending up. Security was becoming commoditised and when a security operator carrying a weapon is earning less than the Seaman he is protecting, the question has to be raised, is the right choice being made?

Of course all too often many don't appreciate that the easiest cost to cut for any security company is personnel wages. And the quality of the personnel, more than any other variable, is what affects the quality of the service delivery. A conversation I had with an International Security Manager of an oil operator in London is like a splinter in my mind on this issue.

"If the cost is drastically different, I will ask to see what they are paying their people. I need to know they are (the security company) paying their people the right amount. If they don't pay their people enough, I know they won't do a good job."

Today there is no way for clients to compare the personnel wages, and by extension the quality of the personnel, when they choose a security company. That is a system that could be better.

The Greywing vision is a three sided marketplace. Of course clients want to connect with Private Military/Maritime Security Companies (PMSC’s), but what they really want, is to know the people working for those PMSC's, whether they are in Africa, Afghanistan or the Indian Ocean can be trusted with a loaded weapon.

That is why we created Greywing, a digital marketplace for security in general, although we are focused on maritime security at the moment. It is a marketplace that shipping companies can use to source maritime security in the Indian Ocean, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. We track the performance of the personnel where we can, like in the Indian Ocean, and where we cannot, for instance where the personnel providing security are Local Military Personnel, we track other metrics around the vessel condition and supplier performance and English Language levels of Local Liaison Officers to make sure the client receives the best service available.

When clients have worked with a supplier they can give them a rating to let others know what their experience has been. It is completely anonymous, but you can only rate suppliers if you have worked with them. Clients can discover suppliers that they haven’t worked with before and most importantly if any kind of issue is identified with a supplier either by a client or Greywing we can quickly intervene to advise platform members of the issue and advise the supplier to take remedial action.

That is why Greywing is here. We are the single data store for security. We rate People, Assets and Security Companies in that order. It is not immediately apparent to the outsider, but a lot of security operations still have brokers and intermediaries helping clients and security companies connect to the people and companies that actually do the work. Greywing's purpose is to connect clients directly to the people that keep them safe.

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