Page 33 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2020

Intelligent Communications is transforming the security vendor ecosystem
Intelligent Communication is the communication between sys- tems and within business processes. It encompasses all forms of communication, not just voice, to meet the standards and expec- tations of a truly intelligent system. In an increasingly demanding world, intelligent processing becomes critical to the operations of any business in any industry.
By ensuring that your communication solution meets the standards of intelligibility, interoperability and the “ilities” – an IT term around the provisioning of mission critical technology – you optimize your investment and empower your enterprise with the ability to hear and be heard every time.
The Cornerstones
There are some key requirements that determine the success of
an intelligent communication solution. We look at these require- ments as cornerstones represented by:
Intelligibility. The ability to hear, be heard and be understood in any situation.
Interoperability. The recognition that communications be embedded in risk, resilience, security and business solutions to optimize their resources, their budget and their organizational performance.
IT mandate. IT must ensure that intelligent communication solutions are scalable, maintainable, reliable, cyber secure and, most of all, be part of the intelligent network of devices that, to- gether, will create the intelligent business. This will require intel- ligence at the edge using intelligent communication devices.
“Integrators must weigh the promise of technology with the reality of deploying, maintaining and managing the technology over time.”
aware of the end user’s need to manage the IT needs of their organiza- tion, which can often feel burdensome to organizations.
Whether you have a full time IT staff or not, you still must budget, train, manage and monitor the cyber defensibility, maintainability, reliability and interoperability of your communication solution. Manufacturers must reduce the complexity and cost of ownership by reducing this complexity and driving a simple, safe and cost-effective implementation. They also must easily integrate communication into their existing business and security technology infrastructure.
Interoperability is foundational to making communication “intel- ligent” because it offers a holistic approach to previous silos such as access control, video surveillance and intrusion by activating voice and audio into real time situational awareness, actionable response and customer service.
Envision’s Joshua Dobnikar, security division manager, and his team completed its evaluation and soon after engaged Liberty Home, a retirement community in Kansas City. Envision had identified a project they were currently working on and planned to specify a com- petitive intercom system based on price. With the help of Tavares Allen, their security project manager, the team collaborated on help- ing the customer align their values, their business and their security around intelligent communications.
Intelligent communication vendors should hide the complexity behind intelligibility, interoperability, installation and service. One of the benchmarks for an integrator like Envision is to evaluate where the manufacturer’s capabilities and an end-user’s short- and long- term requirements intersect. Envision represents competitive inter- com products, but none of them could match the simplicity, audio clarity and maintainability of the manufacturer that Envision deter- mined would be the best for Liberty: Zenitel.
“What you think would be simple is often a burden to supporting the customer,” Dobnikar said. “Change is a constant in every organi- zation. Retirement homes are no different. Residents move or leave,
and the station directory needs to be updated. We were blown away by how easy it was to help our customer make changes in the direc- tory when and If needed. And the residents really love the audio clarity; especially those who find it difficult to hear and be heard.”
Dobnikar is now expanding the intelligent communications influ- ence on their core business by sending more and more of his techni- cians through Intelligent Communication training.
The unique digital transformation of moving intercom to intelli- gent communications is a force multiplier for the security ecosystem of end users, consultants, integrators and manufacturers. The transi- tion encourages a focus on business and security workflows and highly differentiated outcomes based not only on technology, but also how it is collaboratively understood, evaluated and applied. Knowl- edge through benchmarking provides the context for creating an evaluation scorecard containing the consultant’s and integrator’s prospects and customers, which, in turn, provides a foundation of trust on both sides.
Paul Rux is the sales and support manager for the South Central REgion and Mexico for Zenitel.
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