IFSEC Global sits down with Tom Bradley, Technical Director at SureView, to better understand how its hosted PSIM solution, SureView Ops, can support security professionals in reducing response times and manage multiple systems in one platform.
Tom Bradley, Technical Director, SureView
IFSEC Global (IG): Can you tell us a little more about what SureView Operations is?
Tom Bradley (TB): We’ve been designing open-response platforms for security command centres for 20 years now. Last year we developed SureView Operations (Ops) as the first, hosted PSIM (Physical Security Information Management) system in the business. Our software has always been open, easy-to-use, and this unique platform makes it simple to get started with minimal risk. It allows teams to process events faster and more consistently by integrating multiple systems, alarms, and cameras into one, uniform, view.
IG: Which security professionals are likely to benefit most from the platform and why?
TB: Anyone who runs a security command centre and needs to integrate multiple systems or prepare for operational growth and change, would get huge value from SureView Ops. We work with global technology companies, commercial enterprises, governments and public entities.
Our software is easy to use and can be learned in a few hours. It really does make almost any type of operation run more easily and is proven to improve response times — which we know is one of the most important metrics for security. In short, it can dramatically improve security outcomes for just about any entity.
IG: Why do you believe there’s a growing appreciation of cloud-based solutions in this space? What business types or sizes are SaaS solutions most applicable for, in your view?
TB: A lot of our recent clients are organisations that are experiencing rapid growth and change all at once. They can be big or small, but what they have in common is the volume of alarms and the amount of information available to these teams is overwhelming. They are protecting more locations, teams, and assets that are spread across the globe, and what they need is simple and flexible ways to respond quickly and consistently to these diverse situations. They don’t have the time to embark on large complex and costly projects.
Solutions like SureView Ops allows these teams to be up and running very quickly without the need for additional IT infrastructure or long-term capital commitments.
IG: Have you got any case study examples of customers that have used the system so far, and what has their feedback been like?
TB: Yes, we have had a lot of excellent feedback. You can see some of our recent case studies on our website. For example, we recently helped an event security company set up a command centre for a multi-day music festival in under 30-days. We also helped a global technology company that was growing rapidly to improve their response time by 92%, even though during that same time their alarm count had gone up sixfold.
IG: Is it based on open protocols? If so, does SureView Ops sit on standard protocols?
TB: SureView has always operated an independent, open, platform. We’ve designed Ops to take advantage of standard protocols using our universal plugins: RTSP and ONVIF for video streaming, SMTP (Email) and SMS for alarms. In many cases this eliminates the need to utilise a dedicated system-to-system integration – customers can quickly and easily connect their existing security devices using these common protocols without any technical hurdles to overcome.
For large deployments customers can leverage our extensive library of ‘off-the-shelf’ native integrations with systems as diverse as video, access control, alarms, IoT, mass notification, business risk and incident management systems. These native integrations provide advanced features to synchronise information between SureView and these platforms.
IG: Where do you see the future of unified security management platforms going?
TB: I think the next big technological leap to really take advantage of is that of Data AI for predictive analytics. Unified systems, like SureView Ops, by their nature contain huge amounts of audit information, alarm histories, operations statistics, geospatial data and so on. If we can use all this data to make better decisions, we will be able to identify trends and patterns in these large data sets and react accordingly.
For instance, it could identify an incoming alarm as a rare occurrence at a particular building at a certain time of day. Tagging this as an anomaly, the system automatically escalates the priority of this alarm, bringing it to the operator’s attention. What’s great about this type of analysis is that it can then be used to make real-time predictions. We just never know what’s around the corner so it’s an interesting challenge to try and stay one-step ahead!
Find out more about SureView Ops.
Connect 2021 is your first major opportunity to come together with the security industry online from 1-30 June!
The month-long online event will give attendees the opportunity to make up for lost time by browsing security solutions, connecting with suppliers and accessing thought-leadership content - all from the comfort of your own home or workplace!
