Large campus communication center and security system integration, consolidation, and re-engineering

The continuing requirement for corporate right sizing demand's businesses ensure their security structure minimizes costs while maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. In large campus organizations with a security protective force and multiple security systems, the advance of security systems technologies and telecommunication technologies enable massive reduction in the manpower required to monitor the command and control of the systems through the consolidation of resources, the automation and integration of the security systems, and process re-engineering. This paper presents a business case and user experience in the development and implementation of a centralized Communication Center (ComCenter) within a large geographically dispersed multiple building multi-campus organization. The centralized ComCenter replaces three large geographically located Communication Centers and several small monitoring locations throughout the metropolitan area. Through process reengineering, the protective force required to monitor the process is reduced in half, a decrease of more than forty-nine (49) man years of effort. The consolidation replaced multiple independent intrusion detection systems with a single system. The ComCenter has three identical integrated operator consoles with access to the Intrusion Detection System, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system, Emergency Services (911), Radio Communications, Access Control, and National Crime Information Center information. The command and control of each of the security systems is provided within a computing platform using graphical user interfaces. The ComCenter process monitors greater than five (5) million square feet of corporate space and facilities using greater than 4,000 individual intrusion detection devices and greater than 300 CCTV cameras. The CCTV camera monitoring and control is provided on the operator console screen and allows forwarding via a worldwide video teleconferencing system. The effects of the large scale re-engineering and consolidation effort upon the vendors, the security force, and the organization's security infrastructure shall be presented.