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Securing Neotel

Neotel opts for an integrated security platform.

At Neotel’s head office in Midrand there is a very strong focus on risk and safety. IDtek was invited to make suggestions to Neotel to achieve the optimum solution design and layout for an effective access control, fire and intruder solution.

The management team required a reliable integrated security platform to minimise the effects of unauthorised access, theft of physical and intellectual property, damage to property and danger to people.

Essentially the team sought to achieve the following benefits:

1. Deter, monitor and record unauthorised activities, such as intruders that may lead to losses and liabilities.

2. Raise alerts on detection of such activity, enabling the relevant response.

3. A visible deterrent to criminal or unauthorised activities.

4. Proof of crime to aid in identification of criminals and as evidence in court.

Together with IDtek, Neotel decided on a solution that comprised components of biometric (fingerprint) access control. The overall intelligent security concept was designed primarily by Jerry Naidoo, head of security risk management and was implemented by IDtek Solutions.

The brief was for a high-tech security solution. IDtek Solutions was chosen for its price competitiveness and for having assisted with a fingerprint access control solution at Barloworld corporate head offices in Sandton and PPC Jupiter plant in Germiston. IDtek’s recent installations also included certain logistical superhubs in KZN and Isando, where biometrics where installed on the back of a full Honeywell EBI platform with surveillance, fire, intruder and time and attendance.

The objective was a solution that integrates all the security electronics into a single intelligent system.

The access control system has been installed on the IXP400 platform to allow for various benefits:

1. The system allows for automatic communication between the different components in the field. For instance, the administrator could prescribe that a user is only granted access based upon certain conditions. A user could be required to present their card at certain other doors before arriving at a prescribed location.

2. Where there are areas of extreme sensitivity and no single user is allowed in any specific location alone then the system could prescribe certain supervisory privileges to users.

3. The system allows for Random Search, a useful feature to have at the gate where the requirement may arise to search employees' vehicles for items not authorised for removal.

4. Zone counting and muster stations can be created in the event of a fire/bomb scare.

5. Denied Transaction Alarms – eg, blacklisted employees.

6. Special actions per user and access card. For instance – the Administrator could program that certain cards become panic cards and each card reader doubles as a panic station on the intruder component of the platform.

7. All activity in the software can be viewed using a web based reporting facility.

8. An SMS message can be loaded to initiate an action or to result from an action.

The solution can later be integrated with building automation to allow for more efficient incident management – eg, in the event of a fire or bomb scare. Or integrated with HVAC and lighting such that in the event a user leaves the facility their airconditioner is turned off. Or in the event of an alarm certain lighting can be triggered.

Furthermore, the transactions from the access control can be used to manage and monitor human resources and even for attendance calculations for the purposes of calculating wages.

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