How PSIMs Help SOC Teams Protect Multi-Building Campuses

Among the many challenges facing multi-building campus security teams is a cacophony of alerts coming from disparate systems protecting the people and assets of tenants with often widely varying protection needs. 

Typically, security integrators employ standard sets of devices to secure commonly used areas. For example, parking garages employ video surveillance and blue-light emergency stations, while building lobbies may add access control turnstiles and visitor management systems. The security tasks often are complicated by the individual tenant with a need to support lesser-used technologies such as biometrics, RFID, GPS, weapons detection and more. 

Over time, it’s easy to imagine the crush of data inundating a security operations center (SOC). The “noise” generated by these systems can mask serious events, leading to delayed responses or missing activities entirely. 

'Cutting Through the Noise'

About 15 years ago, the first physical security information management (PSIM) software was introduced to analyze and filter data from multiple systems. The early PSIMs were an improvement over then-current operations, which typically involved monitoring siloed systems, each with separate interfaces. However, the original PSIMs grew less effective as technology progressed and more highly complex security devices entered the marketplace. 

The next generation of PSIM software is faster and can handle virtually all devices used on larger building campuses. These platforms focus on cutting through the noise, filtering and analyzing incoming data to present the most urgent events on a single screen and the relevant information SOC team members need to resolve issues. 

Today’s PSIM technology leverages the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model to provide a simple way for teams to get started using a more agile, feature-rich way to meet the complex security needs of a multi-building campus and its tenants. Facility executives don’t worry about software updates or scalability as a site’s needs change with technology sold on a subscription basis. And with the service being cloud-based, on-premises servers are not required. 

Utilizing open standards, PSIM platforms are vendor-neutral and integrate with existing best-of-breed systems for easy start-up. SOC team members have the tools required for faster responses to emergencies as next-gen PSIMs provide live video from the nearest camera streams, call lists, simple mapping tools, and more with each notification. The platforms also display standard operating procedures to ensure a consistent team response. The simplicity and versatility of the cloud enable security teams to develop complicated rules quickly. 

Share Live Video and Audio 

During an event, PSIMs involve the entire security team, allowing patrolling guards to receive and share live video and audio from their smartphones, helping to keep everyone constantly updated. Automated PSIM tasks, such as report generation and sending notifications to project managers and tenants, enable the SOC team to concentrate on responding quickly to events. The platform automatically records each team member’s actions for an after-event performance review. The collected data provides team leaders with the metrics needed to eliminate bottlenecks and improve response times. 

The automation used by next-gen PSIMs helps SOC members focus on essential tasks by eliminating more than 90% of false alarms caused by non-threatening events such as a stray animal running across the campus at night. 

The versatile next-gen PSIM platforms allow property management and tenant executives on out-of-office assignments to gain valuable information from diverse non-security sources such as news and weather reports and risk alerts. 

It takes about a week to have a PSIM fully up and running on a typical building complex. SOC operators learn the system in hours. 

There is no reason for a large multi-building campus to delay deploying valuable security systems due to added stress put upon the security team. An intelligent next-generation PSIM platform prioritizes disparate systems input while enabling faster response time and better team coordination to protect tenants, visitors and property management staff.