Erickson Senior Living, which houses more than 28,000 residents in 21 communities across the U.S., has modernized and standardized its physical security systems across 16 of its communities with Genetec Security Center. The new platform enables the company to better protect residents, visitors and communities, and deliver a modern, streamlined resident experience, as threats and technologies evolve. 

Established in 1983, Erickson Senior Living over the years had deployed a mix of video surveillance and access control systems from different providers, making it difficult for corporate teams to get a global view of operations and security, and hard for them to maintain. Also, as these proprietary, isolated systems aged, they were unable to support newer technologies that enhanced safety and simplified processes for residents. 

To modernize their approach, Erickson developed a standardized model for security deployments across all communities, basing it on Genetec Security Center. The unified platform enables them to manage video, access control and license plate recognition across communities with a single user interface. Its open architecture also enables them to continue using existing cameras and other equipment as well as add future innovations as they emerge. The 16 communities they have converted include 350 cameras, 600 door readers and more than 1,500 wireless locks. The remaining five communities are planned to be completed in 2023.

 “Since investing in Genetec Security Center, we’re now building a more consistent approach to security across all our sites, which has made such a huge difference to our operations,” said Alex Seymour, senior business analyst at Erickson Senior Living. “The unified platform gives us the flexibility to keep evolving and growing as we explore new, innovative applications and launch more communities. It’s much easier to customize our deployment to meet our growing security needs.”

Using Security Center, teams across the communities can now easily monitor alarms and quickly pull up video recordings during investigations. They also retrieve access control reports showing all door activity, cardholder activity, and in some cases, linking activity to a camera view as well, so they can immediately understand what happened. Standardizing on a single platform also makes it easier for corporate security team members to review incidents or investigate operational snags without leaving their offices.

Residents can use their access control cards to purchase meals and pay for items in community shops. Security Center has also eliminated the need for gate fobs to enter or exit the property. Strategically placed Genetec AutoVu automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras recognize resident vehicles and grant them entry or exit. Resident license plates are all stored within the AutoVu system in Security Center and linked to resident profiles, which simplifies activation and deactivation of rights. Erickson plans to deploy more ALPR across communities to monitor parking usage and visitors and use that data to improve parking facilities and inform investigations.

The new unified platform has also enabled the company to swap out physical keys on resident apartments for new ASSA ABLOY wireless locks in newer communities. Now, residents use an access control card to enter their units, on-site amenities and other secured areas. 

The new wireless locks also helped modernize a critical community service: resident welfare check-ins. Previously, a security officer would walk through buildings every morning, visually verifying that residents had opened their door, allowing a latch to drop to indicate they were up, and knocking on doors of those who hadn’t to make sure all was well. Now, Security Center automatically sends a report daily to security teams showing which units’ doors haven’t been opened yet. They’ll then compare that to a list of unoccupied units to see which residents require a welfare check. Instead of walking every hallway, they can go directly to units that require further checking.

Looking ahead, Erickson’s security roadmap includes everything from adding map and mobile capabilities to exploring hybrid cloud options for added storage and redundancy. They’re also currently integrating an intelligent key system within Security Center and adding people counting analytics and perimeter detection at newer gateless communities.