Security Services: Why the Public Sector Should Be Your Most Important Client

Your security firm has guarded an industrial estate for years. Solid work, satisfied client. But every time the contract is renewed, the client pushes the price down. Meanwhile, three streets away, the city administration is desperately looking for a reliable security service for its buildings – and can't find anyone to bid.

This story repeats itself thousands of times in Germany. Security firms compete desperately for every millimetre of margin in the private-sector segment, while the public sector sits with generous budgets looking for competent partners. The reason is simple: many security entrepreneurs are afraid of the bureaucracy and don't know the rules. That is a costly mistake.

The Market: Bigger Than You Think

The German security industry generates around 8 billion euros in revenue annually with just under 5,000 professional companies. [1] That is a stable, growing market. But how is the business distributed?

The public sector is a huge segment. Authorities, airports, clinics, schools, museums, courts – security is needed everywhere. The tenders run continuously, often in parallel at dozens of institutions. Yet many of these contracts go to the usual suspects – or remain unfilled because the qualified bidders simply don't see them.

Why? Because every municipality, every hospital, every school publishes on its own procurement portal. Districts use different platforms. Federal, state, and municipal law prescribe different processes. For a small security firm it looks like a jungle.

That is exactly where the first major opportunity lies.

The Trust Problem: Why Authorities Need Security Partners

The public sector doesn't have too little money – it has a trust problem.

Security is non-negotiable. When a tax office is guarded, a hospital, a school – it's not about cost optimisation, but reliability. Authorities are therefore happy to pay for partners who:

Are reliable: they announce a deployment plan and stick to it.
Work in a legally compliant manner: they know data protection, liability, insurance.
Are available long-term: a failure in the key management of a public building is unacceptable.
Train and retain staff: turnover costs authorities money and aggravation.

That is the contrast to the private mid-market. There, every renewal is re-quoted. With the public sector the premise is different: do we pay the fair price for someone we can rely on?

The Collective Bargaining Advantage: Fair Prices for All

Yes, the minimum wage is rising. Yes, collective agreements in the security industry are regularly increased. [2] But with public contracts, that isn't the problem it is in the private segment.

Why? Because public contracts are bound by collective agreements. That means:

All bidders work under the same conditions.
There is no price-cutting from dumping competitors who undercut minimum wages.
The costing is transparent and the margins are fair for everyone.

An example: you cost the guarding of a public building with realistic collective-agreement rates (18 €/hour including all surcharges and social contributions). The next bidder does the same. The third too. The winner isn't the one who squeezes the workers the most, but the one who delivers the best quality.

That is a huge difference from private clients who permanently ask: "Can't we do it 10% cheaper?" With authorities that discussion is over before it starts.

Framework Contracts: Predictability for Years

Public tenders often work via framework contracts. That means: you win a contract for two, three, or four years. Many framework contracts also have extension options – typically two years base contract plus two one-year extension options.

That gives you the planning security to hire staff, buy vehicles, plan training.

Compare that with your industrial-estate client: there it gets renegotiated again and again, price pressure is constant, in the end they may terminate to a new provider. In the public sector, after the award the client is locked in – and so are you. That is mutual security. This predictability is invaluable for staff development and stable margins.

The Portal Jungle Problem (And Its Solution)

In Germany there are roughly 2,000 different procurement portals. [3] Not 200. Not 20. 2,000.

Every district often has its own portal.
The federal government uses bund.de and the eVergabe portal.
Some federal states have central portals.
Major cities such as Munich, Berlin, Cologne have their own systems.
Individual hospitals, universities, museums publish tenders independently.

That is the result of 70 years of federalism and decentralised administration. The consequence: even if you actively search for security tenders, you don't find 80% of them.

Small and mid-sized security firms can't possibly subscribe to all 2,000 portals and search them daily. So it doesn't get done. The tender isn't seen, stays unfilled, or goes to someone who happens to look at the right portal.

That is exactly the situation BOND Tender Match addresses. With semantic AI matching across 2,000+ portals you can monitor all relevant security tenders in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the entire EU in real time. [4]

You enter once: "I'm a security service, my radius is Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, I offer property protection and patrol services." And BOND automatically finds matching tenders, evaluates the fit, and notifies you. Instead of maintaining 2,000 portals yourself, a system continuously monitors for you.

The Early Warning System: Knowing When Contracts Expire

Many public contracts are predictable. The public building in your area will probably re-tender its security in 2027 – because the current framework contract expires. The clinic where you once had a deployment renews its security contract every year in Q2.

Professional security firms should have an early warning: which contracts in my region expire in the next 6, 12, 18 months?

With BOND Company Match you have access to B2B data of 30 million profiles, including public institutions. [5] You can research: which schools are there in the district of Lippe? Who is the contact person? You can use this information proactively – even before the official tender is published – to start a conversation.

That isn't aggressive sales. That is proactivity: you know your counterpart has a known problem, and you can solve it.

Why You're Still Hesitating Today (And Why You Should Stop)

"That's too much bureaucracy for us."

Yes, there is more documentation than in the private sector. But it is predictable bureaucracy, not arbitrary bureaucracy. You know in advance what is required and can professionally prepare it once.

"We're too small for that."

Wrong. Many public tenders are split into lots. You don't need to be a 500-person firm to win a lot for the property protection of your city.

"We don't have big references."

Then win one. The first public contract is often smaller – e.g. the night watch of a town hall. But that is a reference at a public institution that will help you with larger tenders later.

"It all takes so long."

Yes, procurement procedures take 3–4 months from the tender text to award. But after that you have a 2–4 year contract. A private client could terminate you tomorrow.

The European Horizon

Security is a need that doesn't stop at borders. Embassies, EU institutions, international organisations, major airports – security services are tendered everywhere in Europe. Budgets are often more generous than in Germany, competition is more fragmented.

BOND works with semantic AI and supports translations into 40+ languages. [6] That means: you can see Dutch, Belgian, Austrian, French tenders – automatically translated and filtered for relevance to your services.

How to Start Concretely

Step 1: Define Your Portfolio

What exactly do you offer? Property protection? Personal security? Patrol services? Industrial security? Gate services? Access control? Define your core services, and do them very well.

Step 2: Define Your Geography

In which federal states, districts, urban districts can you realistically deploy?

Step 3: Set Up Monitoring

With BOND Tender Match [4] you automatically filter all public tenders according to your criteria. In the morning you see: "There are three new matching tenders from your region."

Step 4: Prepare

Prepare your application materials: certificates and evidence (Weapons Act, data protection, insurance), references, organisational chart and CVs of key personnel, a costing template for your standard services.

Step 5: Analyse Initial Tenders

Read 2–3 real tenders from your region. How is the bill of services structured? Which documentation is required? How is it evaluated?

Step 6: Prepare and Submit a Bid

Put together a team – including external support – to prepare the first application cleanly.

Step 7: Win, Deliver, Build a Reference

When you win a tender, deliver outstanding quality. That is your entry ticket for future larger contracts.

The Economics

An average property-protection contract with a city:

Duration: 2-year base contract + 2-year extension option
Scope: 40 hours per week night watch and weekend cover
Personnel: 2 FTE night guards
Hourly net rate: roughly 24 €
Annual contract volume: roughly 80,000 €

For a 10-person firm, that isn't a game changer per contract. But if you have 3–4 such contracts in parallel – suddenly that's 250–320k € of stable, plannable income. Personnel utilisation becomes precise, turnover costs drop because your staff have stable deployments.

That isn't spectacular. But it is the foundation for a healthy, profitable business.

First Concrete Steps With BOND

BOND offers two concrete tools you can use immediately:

BOND Tender Match [4]: Automatically monitor 2,000+ public procurement portals. Enter your services and region, receive daily matches with fit reports. No more manual portal trawling.

BOND Company Match [5]: Research 30 million B2B profiles to find out which public institutions are nearby, which contacts you have, when contracts expire. Use reverse tendering in 72 hours to proactively make contact.

With both tools together you have a complete overview: which tenders are out there (Tender Match)? And: which institution might soon have a tender (Company Match)?

BOND starts at 300 € per month. [7] A small price for the automation of something that otherwise costs 20 hours of research per week.

Sources

[1] Federal Employers' Association of Security and Guarding (BDSW): Security Statistics 2024: https://www.bdsw.de

[2] Collective Agreement for the Guarding Industry (Security Collective Agreement): https://www.tarifvertrag.de

[3] European Commission – Overview of Public Procurement Portals in Europe: https://ted.europa.eu/

[4] BOND Tender Match – Automated Tender Monitoring Across 2,000+ Portals: https://bondiq.eu

[5] BOND Company Match – B2B Profiles and Reverse Tendering: https://bondiq.eu

[6] BOND – Semantic AI and Multilingual Support: https://bondiq.eu

[7] BOND – Pricing Model from 300 €/month: https://bondiq.eu