Page 9 - Campus Security & Life Safety, September/October 2022

applications, and add new technology devices. Operators usually still need to go back to the source system for advanced functions and reporting. Finally, the cost of maintaining the integrations can often be higher in the long term than the productivity gains.
Considering an open-architecture, unified platform will remove most of these constraints and help deliver situational awareness and
By Mark Feider
"Large corporate campuses often have multiple buildings and thousands of access points, cameras, and sensors. Making sense of the data haystack these sensors create is a challenging task for security operators. Events that are clear in hindsight can easily be missed due to the sheer volume of data that needs to be manually processed in order to detect an anomaly."
productivity gains. In a unified platform, all security applications can be installed, administered, managed, and coordinated using one user interface. This includes access control, video surveillance, automatic license plate recognition, duress & communication, alarm monitoring, and more. An open-architecture system facilitates the addition of new security technology and sensors to adapt to the campus’s evolving needs. The result is a solution that not only secures their sites but also provides actionable insights.
Laying the Foundation for Efficiency
Large corporate campuses often have multiple buildings and thousands of access points, cameras, and sensors. Making sense of the data haystack these sensors create is a challenging task for security operators. Events that are clear in hindsight can easily be missed due to the sheer volume of data that needs to be manually processed in order to detect an anomaly. If the goal is proactive security, this will require significant resources that must be trained on multiple systems.
A unified platform provides a more efficient alternative – instead of toggling between systems, operators can monitor events, handle response protocols, and manage investigations across multiple locations from a single user interface. Managers can even define standard operating procedures (SOPs) for specific events, and the system will guide the team step-by-step from the initial response to the resolution. This minimizes guesswork, improves incident response times, and ensures the campus stays compliant.
With unification, corporate security technology teams can also reduce the cost and complexity of system deployment and administration. Since there is only one application to install, train on, administer, and maintain, the lifecycle cost of administration is significantly reduced.
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