Many facilities today face two seemingly conflicted mandates:
- Improve security to comply with new laws; and
Reduce operating expenses and resource allocation
Yet, it is actually possible to achieve both goals. Consider the following example of a regional healthcare facility.
The 800-bed hospital recently was in dire need of a security upgrade. However, it could not justify the expense under an operating budget that was down 10 percent from the previous year. The hospital also had a space crunch, but lacked the funds for expansion.
The wing in most desperate need of a security upgrade had special requirements — e.g., patient video monitoring and increased guard presence. Its video security system consisted of several analog video cameras feeding into a large control room at the center of the wing, where two guards monitored the video.
When the hospital decided to integrate this wing’s security systems, various departments consolidated their control centers into a single point of command that could be monitored by one guard from the wing’s front desk.
The results? 
The hospital no longer needed a volunteer to staff the front desk since the video monitoring required only one guard. The second guard was able to patrol the wing’s public areas to create a visual security presence. And the large control room was converted into additional office space.
The security upgrades improved safety and saved the hospital approximately $450,000 annually in administrative and labor costs, which paid for the upgrade and the office retrofit.
The State of Facility Security
In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, security pressures are greater than ever before, but resources remain limited. However, facilities are safer thanks to new tools and means to make sure those tools provide the maximum return on investment.
Integrating security technology with core building services and enterprise systems is the best way for the building owner to maximize the value of those tools. This integration allows businesses to work within budget constraints, react quickly and increase operator efficiency while improving security and their bottom line.
Several emerging technologies offer significant improvements for facilities and security managers, as well as end users. (Figure 1) Used alone, they provide clear benefits to users. But used in a holistic, integrated approach to managing security, they eliminate information silos that can slow response rates and blur the facts in emergency situations.
Integration not only automates many security functions, but it also enables these security functions to automate and centralize building functions. For example, an integrated system might tie access controls into lighting controls so lights automatically turn off when no one is in a particular space thus improving efficiency and reducing costs .
Factors Critical to Success
This leads to an important point: the technical solutions that enable an integrated building management system are often much further developed than the political and procedural processes required to leverage them — i.e., technology is no longer the critical path. The most challenging part of creating these integrated building management tools, and realizing their financial and operational benefits, lies in overcoming traditional design, specification and procurement processes that have been optimized to deliver standalone security system components (rather than comprehensive building management and security solutions).
In the United States, the Construction Specification Institute recently modified its master specification to reflect the coordination required to design and deliver integrated solutions that cross the bounds of traditional electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems, and telecomm and computing networks.
Another factor to consider is the human impact of an integrated solution. The traditional practice of having standalone security systems has in many cases spawned separate departmental authorities with their own motivations, power structures, financial priorities and individual agendas. The path to the successful integration of CCTV, intrusion detection and access control with other building and enterprise systems must include building a case for how such a solution will benefit not only the business as a whole, but the individual stakeholders who must come together to make it possible. A comprehensive life-cycle cost/benefit analysis may be the key to getting individuals to consider the potential of the integrated option .
WHAT DOES AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM LOOK LIKE?
Integrating Security Systems
A large university in the United States uses digital video in six remote parking structures. Cameras located at key “pinch points” in each structure monitor license plates and people entering and exiting the facilities on foot or in vehicles.
The system connects to the campus network via a wide area network and wirelessly to police cruisers. Patrolling officers can see real-time activity, enabling complete coverage and quicker response times.
Previously, the university used a reactive system that required one person to manage and maintain it full-time. Now, maintenance has been greatly reduced and police officers spend more time patrolling to prevent crimes.
Users can transmit network-enabled video from any or all locations with a network connection, allowing greater flexibility to temporarily place a camera to a problem area. Digital video also can create electronic fences around important areas and perimeters and offers a more cost effective and aesthetically pleasing alternative to chain-link fences with razor wire.
Advanced video capabilities move video from an observation system to a sensor system. The video provides real-time feedback and responds according to a situation. For example, cameras can locate stationary bags, items out of place, or people and objects moving too quickly through a space. These incidents can be early indicators of an escalating situation that will require intervention. Detection gives security personnel a head start on preventing potential problems.
Additionally, a facility that once employed multiple guards to monitor buildings and grounds by foot can now use an integrated security solution to monitor all areas from a single command center, reducing administrative costs and improving overall monitoring capabilities .
Integrating Security with Core Building Functions
Beyond integrating individual security systems, facility managers can achieve additional benefits by tying these systems into core building functions.
Increased Operator Efficiency
Most facilities can experience a 20 to 30 percent improvement in operator efficiencies by integrating security systems and building functions. Additionally, a single platform for multiple building functions reduces employee training time and human error. (Figure 2)
Information Management and Report Generation
While security focuses on understanding information and taking action based on that information, integration is key to making sense of all collected data. End users can reap daily benefits when they combine and properly analyze data, such as access control reports and video information, within a wider facility system.
For example, access control trend information can help end users predict building loading for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting. It also can show how people move through the facility, which allows building managers to properly schedule cleaning and maintenance.
Integrated access control also can provide information to tenants on after-hours building usage. Property managers can gauge peak activity times and schedule deliveries and elevator service to reduce wait times and traffic congestion thereby improving customer satisfaction .
Reports also are effective tools in helping manage tenant expectations. By providing weekly or monthly reports of energy, conditioned air, lighting and access control costs, integrated systems provide details on the cost of doing business.
By monitoring access records, for example, one company learned some employees often came into work on the weekends. While great for the company and employees, this lowered building efficiency because access of a single employee on a floor activated the building’s HVAC system, which regulated the entire environment for just one occupant.
After analyzing this hidden expense, the company realized it would be more cost effective to purchase home desktop computers for employees and encourage weekend warriors to work from home rather than the office.
Integrating Security with Enterprise Systems
Integrating with Administrative Services
When Thomas College, in Waterville, Maine, recently increased its residence capacity by 30 percent, it decided to implement a smart card solution for students, faculty and staff to monitor and control building access.
The college also integrated its student and staff records and library management systems with the access control system. As a result, it reduced administrative costs and provided the college community with better service and less hassle.
The system even helped campus officials track down a student who tried to steal a change machine. When campus security realized it had been stolen from one of their residence halls, they were able to look through door logs to identify the culprit.
Integrating with Financial Systems
Employing smart cards for vending and cash management often leads to increased spending because consumers are more likely to spend, and usually spend more, when they do not have to pull cash from their wallets. Other benefits of using smart cards for cash management include improved productivity, reduced administration costs associated with bookkeeping and cash handling, and reduced petty theft as fewer consumers walk through the building with valuables.
Integrating with IT Functions
Think about how often employees send a print job to the printer down the hall — and how often they get distracted by another task or person and forget to collect that print job.
Smart cards allow offices to manage printing costs by creating rules. For example, a job can spool to a printer, but the printer will not start printing until a smart card shows the person who sent the job is in the room.
Integrating with Access Control and Time and Attendance
Access control technology can help logistics companies meet regulations and deliver on commitments when integrated with human resources solutions. After Sept. 11, new shipping regulations mandated strict “chain or possession” tracking. Any container not accounted for correctly must be hand-searched at customs before proceeding on its journey.
In order to manually track contact between containers and employees, one North American port realized it would need employees at work 30 minutes longer than usual every day. The 5,000 port employees did not mind the overtime, but management knew it would be a crippling expense.
To avoid overtime costs, the port invested in an access control solution that integrated with its existing human resources management system and automated the chain of possession tracking. The port now operates at the same productivity as before the new regulations — without added labor costs or critical delays at customs.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Ultimately, security and facility managers must convince colleagues and decision-makers of the business benefits of integration. In a time when departments often battle for limited resources, securing support from all necessary personnel and working toward the same goal is key.
This gives contractors an opportunity to partner with a technology leader and position themselves as an integration provider that can help develop return-on-investment models to share internally. Once the business case is made, integration is too compelling to ignore.
About the Author
Mike Taylor is vice president of marketing for Honeywell Building Solutions. In this role, he manages strategy, marketing, product management and training for service offerings to the commercial buildings market. Mike has been with Honeywell for more than 25 years, and has held a variety of sales, marketing and general management positions — overseeing multi-million dollar field offices, and launching new products and services. Mike has a bachelor’s degree in industrial distribution from Texas A&M University
