Physical security teams in healthcare, higher-education or commercial enterprise settings deal with incidents on a daily basis. While most incidents are considered small and routine – like a fender bender in the parking lot, at times they can be much more significant, like an attempted robbery or assault. For all these cases, the physical security team will record the details in an incident management system so that the data can be archived for legal reasons, for example to protect the hospital in the event of a lawsuit or criminal prosecution, or to provide insight so as to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Incident management software has traditionally been used for exactly that purpose: recording details of an incident once the incident has occurred (post incident). However, as the demand and systems have grown, software capabilities have evolved to now manage the entire incident as it happens, from the notification of an incident, to the response (or dispatch) through to the final reporting. These additional capabilities are mainly facilitated through a number of integrations that are now available with incident management systems.

The same can be said about access control or video management systems. While they are still often used for their traditional capabilities, such as granting access to employees through secured doors or recording video for playback in case of an investigation, integrations have brought additional capabilities to these systems as well.

C•CURE 9000 access control systems from Software House and victor video management systems from American Dynamics, both part of Tyco Security Products’ offerings, are global leaders in the access control and video surveillance markets and are deployed in many of the leading enterprises across the globe, including some of the largest healthcare and educational facilities worldwide. These platforms have now grown to include integrations with several types of both security and non-security related systems, such as: Elevator dispatch systems, Emergency communication systems, Time and attendance or payroll systems and even Incident Management systems, to name a few.

The benefits of integrating your incident management system with C•CURE 9000 and victor VMS are clear as they can provide essential data to help in the notification, dispatch and reporting of incidents.

Consider the following examples:

• An ex-employee is attempting to re-enter the hospital pharmacy using his unreturned access card. C•CURE 9000 will notify the security team immediately through its event monitoring screen and send the event data to the incident management system for dispatch of security staff. The security team can confirm the identity of the suspect through the victor video system and track his movements as well. Once the suspect is apprehended, an incident report is created that includes all the essential data:

a. The exact time the incident began.

b. Actions taken by the security staff.

c. How quickly the dispatch staff reached the scene.

d. Video images of the scene as it unfolded.

• An important piece of equipment has disappeared from a storage room. Investigation using the incident management system reveals the last employee that entered the storage room using access control data and recorded video data also reveals images of the perpetrator carrying the equipment down a hall towards an exit and then into a parked car. The same access card is then used to exit the parking area. A comprehensive report is made available for authorities to use for possible prosecution, including:

a. Details of suspected employee identity.

b. Time of entry and exit for the employee.

c. Video images of the incident.

Of course, seamlessly and bi-directionally sharing information from disparate systems also greatly improves security staff efficiency. Where the security team used to have to search through many different systems to put together a comprehensive report for an incident, they can now pull the data they need from one single source.

D3 Security Management Systems Inc. as well as Resolver Inc. are leading incident management software developers and their products are used various types of applications. They are also approved members of the Connected Partner Program from Tyco Security Products, through their integration with Software House C•CURE 9000 and victor VMS.

“An event or alarm reported through the integrated access control and/or video system is often what starts the incident management process. Our customers extract a ton of ROI simply by not having to re-enter the information manually each time there is a dispatch response.  At the other end of the spectrum, the more advanced customers will even push out a dispatch automatically, to the closest available officer, based on his or her GPS position, in seconds and with zero human intervention” says Gary O’Connor, Director of Strategic Alliances at D3 Security.

“Integration with the onsite access control and video system has become a key part of an effective incident management system. Having data from both those systems helps our software optimize the dispatch of security guards as well as provide accuracy in the automation process of the overall security system”, says Brian McIlravey, EVP Corporate Security & Command Center Applications at Resolver.

C•CURE 9000 from Software House and victor video management systems from American Dynamics also present the additional benefit of having the capability to send data from their integrated sub- systems through to the incident management platform. For example, a PowerSeries Neo alarm panel from DSC, integrated to the C•CURE 9000 system will provide even more data that can be used in monitoring and investigation by security staff.

For more information about the C•CURE 9000 from Software House and victor video management software from American Dynamics as well the approved list of integrated partner products, please contact us at tspconnect@tycoint.com or visit the Compatibility Matrix.