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Systems integrators and PSIM

Darren Chalmers-Stevens

When public sector, corporate enterprise and national government organisations prepare to implement physical security information management (PSIM) software, many rely on a systems integrator (SI) or consultant to help. Engagement with these experienced professionals can provide the skill set required to facilitate a smooth implementation. Once aware of an organisation’s security challenges, they can help to ensure that enhancements to the PSIM platform are made to best address their specific security challenges.

The SI, in turn, often depends on their PSIM partner and industry seasoned consultants to help during the implementation since they often don’t maintain the full array of multi-disciplined staff in-house required to deliver PSIM projects. Together, PSIM vendors and SIs combine their knowledge and expertise in physical security technologies, situation management, security policy and compliance to provide organisations with a complete situation awareness and management solution to effectively manage any security, business-related or emergency situation in realtime – across any industry. The key is finding the right PSIM vendor and SI/consultant partnership.

What to look for in a PSIM vendor

The right PSIM vendor should:

* Be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the specific subsystems involved in a customer’s environment.

* Possess a thorough library of existing subsystem integrations and a demonstrated capability to quickly develop others as needed.

* Provide a true open environment that is not limited to any specific hardware device or system.

* Have a comprehensive set of tools, checklists and guidelines to assist in the PSIM planning and deployment process.

* Provide examples of previous and successful PSIM deployments within a similar industry and environment so that an organisation can make on-site visits and gain insight from end users regarding what worked, what didn’t work and what an organisation should keep in mind when getting ready to roll out a PSIM deployment.

* 100% Web based (operator and administration) to deliver content to anyone anywhere securely.

* Have an experienced global team of sales, engineering and technical support staff to ensure high-quality deployments of their product and support post deployment.

* Provide availability and adequate support for your operations around the world if your business or organisation operates globally.

* Have a strong financial backing. Be completely independent to the market and not produce competing security technologies such as NVR or access control hardware to ensure an agnostic view on best of breed.

What to look for in an SI/consultant

The right SI/consultant should:

* Demonstrate a thorough understanding of PSIM solutions and the benefits provided to end users.

* Have experienced staff who have received training and certification with the specific PSIM product.

* Pick a SI/consultant who has chosen to specialise on one PSIM company. These will be the experts and help make your vision a reality; too often SI/consultants are generic and support multiple technologies, which often results in lack of depth of understanding across the PSIM technologies. For a risk adverse approach choose one that specialises to get the best results.

* Demonstrate past successful PSIM project experience.

* Have backgrounds of varying disciplines including security management consulting, security systems engineering, network design and engineering, software development, database integration and project management.

* Demonstrate the ability for ongoing technical support/consultation of the PSIM solution after initial deployment.

* Happy customers and references.

Best-in-class security possible with strong combo

Organisations seeking to deploy PSIM should review the recommended criteria to help insure a successful implementation. The selected companies will also need to provide the necessary ongoing technical support required to maintain, customise and grow the solution with the end user’s organisational needs. Over time, a security SI will become capable of deploying a PSIM solution on its own.

However, leading SIs also invest in their partnership with the PSIM vendor. In a strong relationship, the SI will be able to continually benefit from the solution provider’s counsel long after technical needs are met and then extend that guidance to the end users by way of better customer service and support.

As these organisations continue to invest in various security solutions, PSIM software will be the unified platform that SIs use to accelerate the use and integration of additional technology. For these reasons, selecting the right combination of a PSIM solution provider and security SI will be critical to enabling your organisation to effectively manage any security, business-related or emergency situation in real-time.

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