Re-posted with permission from Campus Safety Magazine and edited.
This is the conclusion of our story these past few weeks on how to get what you need from your security systems integrators with help from the ISG.
Security in the Age of COVID-19
You would be hard pressed to conjure a more impactful event to have instantaneously altered workplace and campus environments than the coronavirus pandemic. As the new normal continues to form in the months ahead and beyond, end users — with assistance from reseller partners — are hastily trialing thermal skin temperature cameras, frictionless access control, among other tech-based COVID-19 mitigations.
Yet some end users are taking a pass on these tools and relying on other mitigations. The University of Florida is scheduled to welcome students back to the campus in Gainesville for the fall semester beginning Aug. 31. Joseph Souza, director of security at the University of Florida, explains the decision was made not to deploy additional technologies as part of the campus’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Thermal temperature detection was considered and evaluated; however, the devices were deemed cost prohibitive due the quantity needed. It’s also a new technology that isn’t fully proven to its successfulness, Souza says. Many security systems integrators agree.
“UF has done a great job as a university bringing our emergency operations team together to address all aspects of COVID-19 response. We also have a comprehensive screen, test and protect program which all staff, faculty and students are going through as they have returned to campus,” he says.
That doesn’t mean the university won’t be leveraging technology as part of its coronavirus response. Existing electronic security systems are being called into action.
“We will have more use of line crossing-people counting to limit the number of occupants in buildings. Also, robust access control reports will track unique accesses, time of access to help look for unauthorized activity or to tailor cleaning activities based on pedestrian traffic,” he says.
Souza adds, “In a university setting, public safety is paramount. It’s a little more challenging to keep an open campus secure, so we rely more on technology to augment and enhance security, like during the COVID-19 crisis.”
The pandemic has created a corporate imperative to reimagine risk and security, as well as strengthen collaboration across the business, explains Bob Hayes, managing director of the Security Executive Council, a research and advisory firm that specializes in corporate security risk mitigation solutions. What worked pre-COVID — or what may have been in planning and design stages — is irrelevant in a post-COVID word, he says.
“People ask, ‘Why do I have to reimagine it?’ Because all your conditions just changed. Your culture changed. Your circumstances have changed. You absolutely have to rethink what you are doing and why,” Hayes stresses. “If you had a physical security installation at a big headquarters getting ready to go in, I would say put it on hold. Too much has changed. That project might not be relevant in three months.”
To Hayes’s point: Consider a facility that was forced to permanently close 50% of its offices following the lockdown; managers are now going to have very different risks and issues than they did prior to the closures. Moving forward a seamless alignment between security practitioners and security vendors will be imperative in the new normal, he says.
“At the end of the day you have got to go back and you start with a new reality assessment. What is the new normal going to look like? Define the risks and the desired outcomes,” Hayes advises. “Combine that with research and look at the collective knowledge and examine and align for unified risks, and make sure that you are in line with your executives and their sponsorship and everybody understands what you are doing.”
Get Solutions & Advice from Your Local Expert
The ISG offers a wide range of solutions that can improve your school or business’s safety and security. We can work alongside your current security systems integrators, or in lieu of them, to get the job done right.
In fact, whether you manage a K-12 school, a college or university, a healthcare facility, government agency or a corporate campus, we have safety and security solutions and services that will satisfy all of your identification, credential management and access control needs.
Original article written by Rodney Bosch for Security Sales & Integration
