Webinar: Top 3 Physical Security Trends: The 2018 Vision for Building Security

On Monday, March. 19, as part of the SIA Webinar series, a webinar titled “Top 3 Physical Security Trends: The 2018 Vision for Building Security” covered the latest benchmark data and provided actionable guidance for your 2018 security strategy.

Speakers Martin Weiss (Brivo) and Troy Riedel (Brivo) covered the following topics:
• Insights into technology adoption and market trends
• Benchmarks, Trends and Best Practices Survey highlights
• Best practices for evolving your physical security platform

Benchmarks, Trends and Best Practices Survey highlights

Who participated in the survey?

Over 900 security leaders in the US, 53 percent managing security for more than 5 locations with over 50 employees per location.

Security Leaders’ Key Pain Points

Over 27 percent of security leaders found that security breaches were the number one pain point, with cross-departmental collaboration, and executive buy-in coming in second and third.

Respondent feedback included:
• Lack of company -wide alignment
• Compliance challenges
• Security, convenience, customer service tradeoffs

Top Physical Security Goals

Over 40 percent of respondents replied that their top security goal for 2018 was to integrate physical security systems, followed by integrating security systems with other cross-functional areas, and using physical security data.

Adoption and Evaluation of New Security Technology

When respondents were asked if they were currently adopting advanced technology to improve business security and operations, over 70 percent replied that they were.

Best Practices to Evaluate New Security Solutions

The best practices to evaluate new security solutions include formulating analysis, understanding technological trends, cross-departmental collaboration, and having a strong security provider relationship.

Lack of Budget is Top Barrier to Technology Adoption

According to the survey, respondents feel like they don’t have enough budget to invest in physical security technology. One respondent replied that, Getting the diverse teams to understand, participate, and take operations to the next level through technology,” creates a barrier.

Integration

Two Security Systems is Prevalent

When asked how far advanced respondents were in security integration, 74 percent responded that they have already integrated 2 security systems, while 26 percent replied that they run physical security tools in separate systems.

Locally Managed Systems Are Widespread

Over 64 percent of respondents still manage their security tools in a separate platform. Thirty-five percent replied that a centralized integrated system manages all locations. Forty percent replied that partial system integration is locally managed, and 24 percent replied that there is no system integration and that it is locally managed.

Impact of Building Automation

Facility, property management and HR systems are the top of integration requirements among security leaders. Thirty-five percent of respondents replied that they do not want to integrate.

Data Insight

When respondents were asked how they are currently using the data in their systems, 49 percent of respondents said they were primarily used for tracking event data. When asked what some of the key challenges with data insight were, 35 percent of respondents stated they were not getting actionable insight, while over 28 percent replied that they get too much data and over 24 percent replied that they don’t get enough data. Respondents need to be able to rapidly find data “in the haystack” and convert to actionable data, capture the holistic physical security picture in metrics, and they need better analytical tools.

Cloud-Enabled Technology Solutions

The primary use of cloud is IT infrastructure support. Secondary uses of cloud technology for organizations include IR structure, physical security, and finance. The top three cloud benefits are productivity, convenience and scalability. Over 46 percent of respondents agreed that increased staff productivity by reducing on premise server maintenance is perceived as the top benefit of cloud-based access control.

Justifying New Physical Security Technology

The major barrier to the adoption of new physical security technology is lack of budget. How to justify budget:
1. Free-up staff and increase productivity
2. ROI or TCO analysis
3. Reduced operational cost
4. Mobility ease/convenience benefits

In summary:

• Security system integration is a top 2018 goal
• Actionable event data can help reduce security breach exposure
• 2018 will be a big year for adoption of new cloud technologies
• ROI and TCO budget justification remains a key requirement