Frontline’s sales and marketing director Peter Goodenough introduced the event by looking back on the last 14 years – the amount of time since Frontline received its first order – and the immeasurable changes that have taken place in the world in that time.
Goodenough said that, today, the security industry has greater levels of legislation and accountability, prices have been squeezed and FM companies and contractors call the shots.
“Some companies have disappeared or morphed into others,” he explained, “but Frontline and Tyco have flourished. Our flexibility has allowed us to change as the world has changed. We must all listen, influence, adapt and change because the next 14 years are likely to be far more interesting.”
Access control and event management
The next speaker was Alan Riegler, Tyco Security Products’ sales director for the UK and Ireland. He gave an overview of C-Cure 9000, the company’s access control and event management platform.
According to Tyco: “C-CURE 9000 delivers the best of access control while empowering customers to converge their physical and logical security systems.”
Riegler explained that C-Cure 9000 followed the success of its C-Cure 800 product. “C-Cure 800 continues to be developed today,” he said, “but C-Cure 9000 will be the basis for our solutions moving into the future.
“It has been developed with the Microsoft .NET platform in mind and it’s implementing an SQL database. It can deliver a system which provides you, the end user, with a platform for the future of your operations.
“Of course new technologies bring new opportunities. New technologies bring new challenges. And new technologies bring new risks.”
Risks and consequences critical
“In the current climate risks, and the consequences to business operations, have never been more critical,” said Riegler.
“Solutions need to allow the operator to control and manage situations both locally and remotely, and solutions need to pre-empt situations before they happen in order to allow for prevention.
“Clarity is especially important when an operator is monitoring remotely and is not necessarily familiar with the location that they’re monitoring.
“Detailed information must be made available quickly and clearly in order for that operator to respond efficiently and effectively.
“Information now isn’t just about doors being locked and unlocked. We’re using other third party systems within the building, such as video, BMS, fire, intrusion, business management – the list goes on.
“C-Cure 9000 allows configuration unique to the individual operators. Specific front end screens can be created to ensure that the operator gets relevant information in the layout best suited to them.
“It’s the delivery of critical information quickly and clearly at all times which assists with the efficient and effective control of situations.”
Third party exchange
Riegler said: “9000 is using the SQL database, and now this is providing us with many options for the exchange of data with third party sources.
“On a simple level, integrating with HR systems allows single entry of data into the database which obviously provides less opportunity for errors and consistency throughout.
“Peter Kidd, who is the Frontline tech manager and is always quick to deliver me feedback on our solutions, informed me last week that our interface is, and I quote: “The best that he’s ever worked with”. I was very pleased to hear that.
“9000’s full administration audit capability ensures that the system administrator is always in control of their system.
“And with additional utilisation of third-party redundancy solutions we have a solution that provides total business continuity.
“I’m very pleased to say also that in Frontline we have a partner who is capable of delivering all of these solutions.
“The third party integration process is very important to us. We are now working with more and more integrators and manufacturers with regards to integration.
“If you look on the Software House website [www.swhouse.com] you’ll see the Connected programme, and that shows the list of existing third-parties that we integrate with. It covers the full programme of works that we’ve got coming through.”
Greater levels of interoperability
Riegler continued: “9000 has led us into the future, and alongside that we have a video product called ‘victor’ which is our unified client. The important thing is that victor and C-Cure 9000 are from the same coding.
“So I can guarantee that Tyco Security Products will be delivering even greater levels of interoperability and integration into the future.
“From a hardware point of view, we have network panels, Power over Ethernet panels and rack-mounted panels. We have all the options in all of the sizes that allow the delivery of an efficient system from both the cost of hardware and install and purchase.
“IP readers and IP wireless readers are also being developed, and we are embracing those technologies.
“So for those of you who are used to using 800, 9000 is going to take you into a fantastic new world.
“The key thing here is that we are allowing you to deliver into your organisation greater return on investment.”
C-Cure Enterprise
“As a direct result of our substantial investment into research and development over the past 15 months, I’m very pleased to announce the arrival of C-Cure 9000 Enterprise,” said Riegler. “This is a multi-server distributed database for security management architecture.
“But what does it mean for you? It’s providing local operation and reliability while delivering global management and efficiency at all times.
“To an end user with multiple locations, C-Cure 9000 enterprise is the solution for you.”
David Harrison-Brown of Tyco went into more detail on the product’s development and technical features.
He was followed by Bob Martin of consultants RFM Solutions, who spoke about the way that end users have had to adapt to the changing market and technology.
Watch the video of his presentation below.