With the numerous cloud-based security products available for companies, maintaining office security has never been easier or cheaper. Depending on your company’s size, compliance considerations, and general security needs, there are a range of options you can deploy to keep employees and company data secure at every business size. So, how should your company design your system for maximum efficiency and security.
Your company’s security setup should cover three major areas: physical access, video monitoring, and guest management. In order to find the right fit for your business size, security levels can be broken down by relaxed, strict, and locked down.
Physical Security Systems
Physical access control involves controlling which employees have access to certain rooms or areas within your companies offices or facilities. A cloud-based access control system will enable your IT or operations team to give out key cards or mobile keys that have designated access privileges.
Video monitoring systems (VMS) can range from simply putting up a couple of smart cameras around the office to deploying a more advanced more advanced options like a full-service VMS. That way, your team would have the ability to customize video monitoring. Video enables you to review any security events, detect motion, and serves as a crime deterrent.
Visitor management often entails some sort of guest check-in system and can also include guest badging or credentialing. Visitor management systems can also be as simple as having a log-book at the front desk, to taking pictures and signing NDAs via an iPad or security check-in area.
Office Security Configurations
Relaxed (Under 200 Employees)
Physical Access Control: Using an easy-to-manage, cloud-based security system like Genea to give mobile credentials to team members for easy provisioning and employee access to the office.
Visitor Management: Set up a visitor management app (like Genea) running on an iPad to keep a record of visitors to the office and notify the guest’s host when their visitor has arrived. No need to Sign NDAs, take pictures or anything that advanced.
Video Monitoring: Set up a couple smart cameras to monitor the main entrances of the office and stairwell entrances. We recommend paying the monthly fee for 30 days of video monitoring for best security practices.
Strict (200-500 Employees in non-healthcare or fintech industries)
Physical Access control: When you start to get above 200 employees, it’s helpful to set up a user provisioning integration like Okta. As people are hired or leave your company, their access is automatically provisioning and deprovisioned. It’s important to properly setup access rules based on the organizational unit of the employee and to use your identity management system to deprovision employees instantly upon termination. You also need to make sure the doors are locked at all times and that employees badge in for access.
Visitor Management: At this level, visitor management is not an optional system it has become required. Proper visitor management will need a digital sign in system that has NDA signing, picture taking and badge printing capabilities. It is important to track all your guests for auditing and security purposes.
Video Management: When your company has hundreds of employees, a video monitoring system needs to be in place. Make sure you have cameras monitoring all entrances and integrate it with your access control system to associate access control events with your video logs.
Locked Down (500+ Employees)
At this level, all security systems move from optional to required. Security systems are paramount to mitigate the risks to employee safety and proprietary knowledge.
Physical Access Control: Integrating your access control system with your identity management system is essential. The integration will need to be designed to ensure that organizational units from your identity management system are mapped to access groups in your access control system to automate the provisioning/deprovisioning process. Contractors and other non-W2 employees must also be included in your access control system.
Visitor Management System: Proper visitor management requires a digital sign in system that has NDA signing, picture taking, and badge printing capabilities. It’s important to track all your guests for auditing and security purposes. You’ll also need to ensure all guests are accompanied by their host when they leave the reception area.
Video Management: Make sure you have an integrated access control and VMS. Additionally, we recommend leveraging your VMS’s motion tracking capabilities during non-business hours and integrate the notifications using tools like Slack.
Are you ready to transform your access control system? Schedule a demo below to get started.
