Connecting the business of security
Mark Stoop heads the Business Connexion division that provides physical security and time management solutions. He says, “We have come a long way since the days when it was considered cutting edge to link access control with time and attendance.
Nowadays, we have single solutions that govern our clients' formal policies concerning safety, health, environment, risk and quality or SHERQ. These include Business Connexion's unique offerings around the Synerion Direct Time & Attendance Suite, our own Access Validation Manager (AVM) and TEAM software and the world-class Impro Access Control solutions.
Expectations among end-users have also changed. Stoop says, “Most organisations today are looking for continuity across their business procedures. They want to achieve that continuity by integrating various elements of their workforce management functions. This might include process flow, data migration and all the different types of information that relate to their employees.”
In Stoop's experience, organisations have become more aware of the commercial advantages that can be achieved through unified solutions. “We have seen that by bringing together a host of different components from separate vendors, we are able to resolve diverse business challenges within a single solution. “Rather than being narrowly limited to providing the outcomes that are delivered by a specific product, an integrated approach enables us to focus our attention on understanding and addressing the overall needs of our clients.” This definitely differentiates Business Connexion from the typical 'box-dropping' clan.
Stoop regards integration as an essential component of the services offered by the individual vendors whose products are combined to produce an overall solution. “Integration is no longer a nice-to-have. It cannot be some DIY offering that the solution provider or end-user somehow has to figure out. It has got to come in the box, to be part of the product. It is vital that we understand how to take diverse products and applications and marry them successfully to provide a single, integrated solution that is client specific. It would be great if we could say one size fits all, but that is not the business reality.” Again, this unique ability by Business Connexion, a company renowned for its integration capabilities across all sectors of ICT, separates it from the standard market offerings.
According to Stoop, modern security managers are very much part of the drive to ensure that security solutions do more than apply the access control policies for employees. “It is about governing the site rules, set out within an organisation's policies, concerning SHERQ. This relates to everyone that comes and goes – contractors, visitors, hired labour as well as all the vehicles. Through integrated solutions, the security manager now has the ability to have full control of these policies, regardless of whether he has access to certain applications, such as SAP, to ensure these policies are enforced.” Business Connexion’s AVM suite is a user-defined configuration as not one company or site’s requirements are necessarily the same. By deploying our 'Framework' technology, we, at Business Connexion, can deliver exactly what the client requires, rapidly and correct, the first time.
Looking beyond physical access control, Stoop says that modern integrated solutions can also manage typical ERP issues, the validity of qualifications and accreditations, inductions, medicals and workman's compensation certificates – all in addition to handling the more obvious functions of attendance and payroll management.
