printer friendly version

Cohesive, consistent security

Multinationals have some unique challenges when it comes to security.

With multiple facilities across different regions, countries and continents running disparate systems, it is difficult to ensure the organisation’s security policy is effectively and consistently enforced. This can have serious consequences.

Explains Neil Cameron, GM of Johnson Controls Systems & Service Africa: “When disparate systems are implemented within the operations of multinationals, with each country or region administering their own systems and granting access to facilities and data according to their own criteria, challenges begin to surface. With no single person or body controlling security, the matter of enforcing a consistent companywide security policy becomes very complex, leaving the company vulnerable to fraud, liability and loss of assets and, in some cases, putting the health and wellbeing of staff at risk.”

Neil Cameron

For instance, he notes, fraud can be committed if a person leaves an organisation without having his access card blocked and if his status and corresponding access authorisations are not updated and revoked. This is a common oversight enabling the ex-employee to continue to enter various company facilities and gain access to sensitive information or equipment – an exceptionally unwise lapse if this person has taken a position with the competition. Another particularly relevant example, he adds, has to do with meeting health and safety requirements.

“In the petrochemicals industry, for example, one company denies its personnel access to certain facilities if they have not refreshed their safety knowledge by watching a 30-minute video on the topic every three months. Allowing a single person into such a facility without the relevant training puts the lives of many at risk. To control physical access with confidence, security staff need to be able to access the relevant database or systems to check compliance. The same applies to HR or IT access.”

There are a number of arguments against the use of multiple systems: they are costly to install and maintain, service and keep up to date. Yet once the investment has been made, organisations need to extract maximum value from them. In doing so, they need to deal with issues relating to the age and sophistication of these systems – they may not be IP-based, have enough memory or have the control logic to enable integration, automation or the inclusion of policy-based decision logic.

Says Cameron: “By including an intelligent enterprise integration layer, security cohesion across global operations can be achieved.”

A number of Johnson Controls customers run a single intelligent access management system at all their operations. The benefits do not lie in the standardisation and consolidation of solutions, however.

Explains Cameron: “It is critical to install a solution that integrates to key enterprise systems - the larger ERP systems such as SAP, as well as third-party systems. This will allow, for example, within 20 minutes of an employee being assigned new tasks, receiving a promotion, or leaving the employ of the company, all facility, HR and IT access can be disabled or altered, and payroll information can be updated.”

The benefits are significant. Says Cameron: “Not only can all access to facilities and data be managed more accurately and timeously, but with centralised administration security systems would be easier and cheaper to maintain and operate. In addition, data entry duplication and human error is minimised. In effect, it ensures there is a single security system that an entire region or global operations base can depend on, and be forced to adhere to.”

The Johnson Controls P2000 access control system integrates to third-party local systems using standard XML and API interfaces. Says Cameron: “Organisations simply predefine interfaces to systems or databases and the actions that must be executed when key information is entered into these systems.”

Share this article:

Further reading: