Plumbago Business and Logistics Park is located 5 km north of O.R. Tambo International Airport, with ready access to the upgraded R21. Incorporating well-known tenants such as DB Schenker, takealot.com, DHL Logistics and John Deere, the park is specifically designed to cater for logistics, freight forwarding, and light industrial corporate companies seeking to strategically locate their business and capitalise on the park’s exposure and access.
Spread over approximately 100 hectares of serviced land, within an award-winning landscaped environment, the park is home to companies with billions of Rands worth of stock. Security is critical to ensure that theft is eliminated.
The solution’s design centres on 24-hour monitoring which is achieved through an integrated access control and surveillance system. With a high overhead canopy, the substantial gatehouse is designed to accommodate large delivery vehicles, ensuring smooth traffic flow. The gatehouse also plays host to the security control room from where the secured perimeter of the park and the gatehouse area is monitored on a 24-hour basis.
Kelly McLintock, MD of UTM Group, explains that the estate is still under construction and therefore a large influx of contractors, as well as regular visitors to the existing tenants, is commonplace. The access control system originally installed at Plumbago has now been upgraded to cope with the estate’s growing security and access requirements.
After winning the tender to upgrade the existing system, UTM Group began the process of designing a system that would ensure that all visitors to the site would be carefully tracked from their point of entry, through their destination and back out the exit point. No diversion from stated destinations is tolerated. The solution applies to four entry and four exit lanes.
From entry to exit
The access control system comprises two turnstiles, as well as PT-GUEST a visitor access management software (a PowellTronics solution) linked to Impro IXP400 access control software, four Morpho Access Sagem OMA520 biometric readers and eight Impro multi-discipline readers, two handheld touch screen scanners and a WiFi network. In addition, the access control system is integrated with a number of Axis CCTV surveillance cameras deployed to provide either facial snapshots or general security overview footage.
McLintock explains that as a visitor arrives, their driver’s licence and the vehicle’s registration disc are scanned by the handheld scanners and the data is then linked to an access card which is barcoded. The visitor is then asked which site they would be visiting and the guard captures the information by selecting the specific tenant on the scanner list. This then binds all the relevant information, such as driver’s and vehicle details as well as which tenant they will be visiting, to the card. The card is then scanned by the visitor on the multi-discipline reader which results in the opening of the boom. A snapshot photograph of the visitor is also automatically captured into the system.
On completion of the visit to the estate, the visitor approaches the exit booms where once again they scan the barcoded card. This opens a drop box into which they drop the card and the boom once again opens and the localised cameras provide a facial and overview snap shot of the visitor. This information is captured into the Impro IXP 400 SQL database.
Reporting and control
The system generates reports on predetermined parameters including the total visitors entered the estate each day, week and month, which of these visitors were contractors, as well as how many visitors each tenant received. This information allows estate management to facilitate traffic flow management, enhanced security and optimised parking.
In addition, system users can set time limits on contractors, effectively banning them from entering the property by deactivating their profile in the biometric readers via the ImproNet. The anti-passback ensures the contractors have entered the estate via legal methods; if they have not scanned in they cannot leave. This feature means that no unauthorised contractors can enter or leave the estate.
Installation began in April 2014 and the system has been online for some time as a standalone system, with refinement and integration of workflow processes being implemented on an ongoing basis to bring the system and its tenants in line with the bylaws of the estate and to ensure the security of the estate is not compromised through the entrance and exit points lock. The estate management is very happy with the solution provided by UTM Group, with the stated objective of controlling contractors and visitors into the estate being paramount, and achieved on refinement of the workflows.
McLintock points out that his advice to any client considering the installation of an integrated access control system would be to understand and define their requirements in the planning stages of an estate by doing a risk assessment, taking into consideration all possible scenarios for best practice solutions as well as working with a partner that has a track record and an understanding of the specific requirements. An understanding the specific estate’s needs can avoid unnecessary losses, tenant aggravation and ultimately, eliminate the additional cost of acquiring a more stable and sustainable solution that delivers a secure estate to the tenants.
For more information contact Kelly Mclintock kelly@utmgroup.co.za. For estate enquires on Plumbago business park visit www.plumbagopark.co.z or contact Graeme Green graemeg@jtross.co.za
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