By Stephan Sutor

Collaboration is critical, and often an under appreciated aspect of organizational operations. Yet many, if not most, organizations today still rely on fragmented systems and siloed communication. This can slow down response time and lead to operational inefficiencies. 

At Genetec™, we first turned our attention to this problem when our customers began asking for different things, like a dispatching or incident reporting solution. We listened to our customers — and then offered an even better solution – Genetec Operations Center.

The Beginning Of Operations Center

Security teams are responsible for a wide range of tasks, from managing alarms, patrols, and investigations, to planning installation projects, inspecting safety equipment, and training personnel. Over time, many organizations have accumulated a hodgepodge of databases, spreadsheets, and systems. They use them to communicate, create and share reports, and keep track of activities and equipment. Some teams still rely on paper-and-pen processes too. These methods are time-consuming, error-prone, and make it difficult to share information and coordinate efforts. 

For example, at Brigham Young University, when dispatchers began their day they had to log into as many as six different systems to be able to loop in different divisions and departments they needed to reach. With so many disconnected applications, dispatchers often had to copy and paste data from one place to another, especially when creating reports. This was time-consuming and could potentially introduce errors.

But the pain points didn’t stop there. Most of the tools used to manage work were located within the security operations center (SOC). Officers in the field were equipped with radios, which prevented them from being able to create incidents while on patrol, and they had to return to their desks to report activities.

That’s where we saw the real opportunity: to create a system that allows the entire security team and collaborators from other departments to be on the same page in real-time, at all times. The result is Genetec Operations Center, a work management system designed specifically for security teams. 

A solution that supports teams to do more with less

Security teams are often under pressure to do more with less while maintaining the highest standards. We have found that by improving organizational collaboration and communication, our customers are far more productive. 

Common tasks and responsibilities of Operations Center for security include managing patrols and preventative maintenance or responding to security or maintenance events. Operations Center can also track equipment and assets. Most work management systems don’t consider resources, so applications like lifecycle management aren’t possible.

Within the system, you can also digitize your standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide operators. For example, if there’s a report of a missing child, the person who logs the report can alert all operators, and share the SOP as a checklist of what to do next. Everything is guided, so nothing is overlooked or forgotten. 

When the child is found, all operators know immediately. To create the incident response report, the system can pull all the key data points and automatically generate a full report, including what happened and details about the response, including photos and other attachments. 

A framework for tracking, managing, and handling

Supporting security officers to make decisions and resolve problems quickly benefits the whole team. This is only possible when everyone is in close communication with each other. This is where a Kanban framework provides a solution.

Kanban is a well-established work management approach that originally came from the manufacturing world. It was developed in the 1940s to empower workers on the factory floor. Instead of waiting for top-down directives to solve problems they saw on the floor, workers could easily collaborate to find a solution. Kanban has been adapted successfully to many industries, from IT to healthcare in the past decades, but not yet for security.

We saw this approach would make sense for the security industry and adapted it to meet our customers’ needs. For example, we built secure, blockchain databases that ensure trustworthy audit trails. Operations Center is also unified with our Security Center platform, so data from cameras, sensors, or other connected systems are linked to a task in the system. The information can be sent to another user with one click. 

Collaboration plus independence

Our customers often report that they appreciate the collaboration and independence offered by Operations Center. While those two terms may seem a bit opposite, our work management system for security enables deep, real-time collaboration between different teams with individual goals. Also, people from different organizations can securely collaborate on work. System integrators can work in real-time with the end user’s technical teams, and contracted security officers can be dispatched to alarms.

Even though everyone is using the same tool, they don’t have to use it in the same way. It’s designed to be easy to add new categories or fields, customize reports, add SOPs and automations, and much more. Teams can customize Operations Center to show the data that matters to them and mirror how they work. Yet, all the data shared by different users comes from the same system and can flow into a single report. 

Operations Center isn’t a solution that requires a year to plan, learn, and implement. Teams never have to wait for IT or a consultant to make changes to suit their workflows. Users select the best template to start for their task and they can change or expand on the fly. Our in-app training tools help users grow their proficiency over time

Top Benefits of Operations Center

The simple ability to see what needs to be done, what’s in process, and what has been completed – whether at the SOC or in the field – and quickly respond, has been game-changing for our customers. Here are some of the top operational enhancements.

• Communication improves because all team members know what tasks are in progress,  their progress, and what jobs are left to do. They can also share updates and alerts to keep each other informed or request help from colleagues.
• Collaboration is strengthened because every team member contributes to overall success rather than just executing an isolated task.
• Teams save time through built-in reporting tools that automate activity logs and compliance audits.  
• Overall operational efficiency improves as tasks are assigned to the people with the correct capabilities, knowledge, and tools, and they have the information they need readily available.
• Teams improve workflows through automations. This can be as simple as setting reminders to complete routine tasks, generating reports, or automatically alerting team leads when requests are added. 

• Work ticketing and asset management features enable teams to optimize resource use. They can seamlessly manage requests from other departments and assign them internally or to third-party contractors. 
• Mobile apps can also provide field officers with extra support by improving situational awareness, communication, and on-the-go access to standard operating procedures.

As more customers come on board, we look forward to learning about their needs and helping them push toward operations excellence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephan R. Sutor – Product Group Director, Operations Center  

Stephan co-founded KiwiSecurity in 2008, a company that specialized in video analytics software, bridging security and privacy, which was later acquired by Genetec.

Joining the Genetec R&D team and collaborating with key customers, Stephan was able to push the boundaries of the Genetec product portfolio and drive innovation in regards operational efficiency, which led to creation of a new team and product, Genetec Operations Center, which he leads today.   

He has a master’s degree in computer graphics and digital image processing from the Vienna University of Technology, as well as a PhD in Information Processing Science from the University of Oulu, Finland, for his work on large-scale video surveillance systems.

Source: genetec.com