Physical access control systems (PACS) are a cornerstone of security operations, providing an affordable and effective means of controlling physical access and egress to facilities, and various areas within them.
But if controlling access is all your PACS system is doing for your facility, you are missing out on a valuable and powerful source of physical security and business intelligence data.
PACS have become increasingly more intelligent driven by continued advancements in both hardware and software to deliver more features, capabilities, reporting, and integration with the latest video and biometrics solutions. Best in class PACS solutions are transcending physical security and emerging as a valuable data source, which further increases their value proposition, particularly when supporting applications such as health safety and workforce management.
There are very sophisticated software solutions designed specifically to shift the emphasis of PACS from access control to access management, but these solutions are designed for large scale deployments, and can be very expensive and time-intensive to implement. This generally precludes small and medium sized organizations with dozens or even thousands of enrolled individuals from leveraging this rich source of data to enhance operations.
Pre-Emptive PACS Functionality
Fortunately, there is a solution for small and medium-sized organizations, and chances are, it’s already at your fingertips!
Sielox’s Pinnacle™ Access Control Platform is an advanced PACS solution that already includes highly sophisticated pre-emptive intelligence – ideal for mainstream applications – that doesn’t require third party overlays or additional expensive software. Advanced filtering inherently provides most, if not all, the data intelligence physical security professionals require to improve security and business operations with extreme accuracy, performance, and cost-efficiency.
PACS filters are akin to machine learning patterns employed in expensive access management software, providing users with real-time data on virtually every aspect of controlled access and egress activity, as well as system status. These filters effectively transform traditional reactive access control solutions into pre-emptive, proactive solutions by identifying anomalies, suspicious activities, system failures, and other potential threats, and issuing alerts in real-time.
The Power of Pre-emptive PACS
Since PACS solutions with advanced pre-emptive filters can be used alone or in any combination, they can be applied to automatically detect, track, and analyze a wide range of events caused by any combination of enrolled individuals’ access history, and/or the performance of specific access devices. This provides users with a new and powerful management tool to identify and correlate historical events for forensic investigations, as well as the ability to detect anomalies in access behavior that may lead to potential insider or external threats so pre-emptive action can be taken.
In general, the greater the variety and specialization of filters a PACS provides, the greater the range of data it can secure for different applications. These filters can be grouped into four general categories:
- Device Management filters can automatically monitor access-related devices. This not only ensures that physical access/egress security protocols are maintained, it also detects and reports anomalous activities related to device performance, including access events that may indicate potential threats.
- PACS Alarm and Event Management filters improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your security operations, and can help to dramatically reduce costs, fatigue, and distractions associated with false alarms. Security personnel can focus on real events of interest instead of investigating false alarms, or even worse, ignoring what they believe to be a false alarm that may actually be a potentially harmful security breach.
- Physical Identity Access Management PACS filters help organizations keep track of individuals and their access to facilities and secured areas. Various levels of programming permissions can be set on an individualized basis to maintain tight controls over secure and sensitive areas within a facility.
- PACS Workforce and Risk Management filters have become increasingly important tools for organizations as employees continue to return to work with hybrid and flexible work hours. These filters help keep track of employees for security, human resources, health safety and compliance reasons.
Pre-emptive PACS for Small and Medium Business
PACS systems with advanced pre-emptive filtering capabilities are ideal for small and medium businesses. Already in place in many such organizations, they stand ready to propel access control to a higher level of access management, allowing users to leverage new sources of data for a comprehensive range of applications. Let your access control system step up from being a reactive to proactive solution with pre-emptive capabilities by identifying anomalies, suspicious activities, system failures and other potential threats in real-time.
Contact us today to learn more about putting Pinnacle to work for you!