NEWSLETTERS QTR. 2 - 2011

Coming Soon: IDV’s Visual Command Center for Your Physical Security Team

IDV will soon be offering off-the-shelf solutions to address organizations’ recurring pain points in areas like sales, marketing, supply chain, risk assessment, asset performance, asset tracking, case management, and more. In this article I want to highlight a very common one for Visual Fusion users: Physical Security Visualization.

The Problem:

We’ve been in over a dozen different physical security command centers and the managers all echo the same problem: “I have over a dozen critical systems to monitor, and they’re all on separate screens. I have no consolidated view of everything that’s happening.”

Our customers are managing numerous isolated and non-scalable security data sources—video cameras, access control systems, incident reporting systems, building and vehicle locations, floor plans, traveler information, relevant process and response documentation, external event feeds, news, weather, etc.—but they lack a central visualization to bring them together for coordinated analysis and response. Instead, they’re undertaking a huge manual coordination process in the heat of the moment…rife with inefficiencies, lags in decision making, delays in action, and avoidable mistakes.

The Solution:

The Visual Command Center (VCC) from IDV Solutions solves this critical, pervasive problem. At the core of this solution, Visual Fusion consolidates all the data sources, and enables advanced tasks like alerting, data filtering, and analysis via maps, timelines, and analytics. When a crisis occurs, like an earthquake half way around the world from HQ, the security team can immediately review the affected area, plus nearby assets and personnel, traveling VIPs, and related news in the same view. The team can quickly analyze the impact, exposure, and risk the event creates.

The Visual Command Center (VCC) from IDV Solutions can consolidate data like camera feeds, card readers, building and vehicle locations, floor plans, traveler information, and more in a single view.

Not just for crisis management

The real-time collaboration enabled by the VCC also increases day-to-day efficiency in a number of areas. For example:

• Event management: For VIP visits, conferences, store openings, etc., the VCC gives managers the ability to plot routes, define areas, check local traffic cameras, and display weather forecasts.
• Incident response: VCC users can quickly access floor plans and share them with team members or external responders using mobile devices.

With everyone operating from the same picture, awareness improves, response times shrink, and operational efficiencies increase—a big win for VCC users.

When a crisis is in progress, the VCC lets you instantly view assets and personnel, traveling VIPs, and related news in the affected area, to evaluate the impact on your organization.

Data sources included

The VCC comes complete with numerous data sources like:

• global news and disasters
• current & predictive weather services
• US traffic cameras
• local transportation
• local police/fire/medical locations
• crime data
• political boundaries
• demographics data

In addition, the VCC supplies placeholders for common content like buildings, floor plans, physical assets, personnel, and vehicles. The average security team member can easily replace these with your organization’s data, then plot and categorize incidents or other content, analyze the data to allocate resources, send and respond to alerts, kick off workflows, access information from a mobile device, and more.

A necessary component

As the field of Physical Security Information Management evolves, “PSIM Visualization” will become increasingly necessary. VCC helps to insure safety, mitigate risk, and protect the continuity of operations. It turns data into comprehensive, actionable security intelligence--putting it in context, making it more accessible, understandable, and relevant--to drive better, more informed decisions.