There are two truisms that exist for today’s enterprise organizations:

First, enterprise operations are growing more invested in their company’s security practices by the day. According to the PSA Certified 2023 Security Report, three-quarters (75%) of businesses report that security has become a bigger business priority in the last 12 months, and they are spending on average 15.3% more in security-related areas in 2023 compared to 2022.

The second is that many if not all modern enterprise organizations are looking for ways to better manage a workforce. This holds especially true post-pandemic where many businesses are challenged with employees returning to the office either full-time or in a hybrid mode.

To meet truism #1, many organizations turn to physical access control systems (PACS) to protect their company from both physical and cyber security threats. What they don’t know is, is that with a PACS already in place, they are able to better accomplish truism #2, utilizing the data that already exists within their PACS system to manage their workforce. This is made possible through the process of PACS data standardization – and it’s easier than you’d think.

Problem: Though the deployment of a PACS dramatically increases security controls within an organization, this is only true if the PACS itself is managed properly. This includes keeping data such as identities, access permissions, and device health information as up-to-date and accurate as possible. Failure to do so will result in unstandardized PACS data which threatens organizations with the very risks the PACS was designed to prevent.

Many physical security challenges are rooted in unstandardized PACS data, giving rise to security gaps that may go unnoticed without technological intervention. For example, if an employee was let go at one of the branches at a large, multinational corporation, their access would need to be revoked. But perhaps the administrator charged with making the change within the access control system itself never received the email notifying them of the employee’s termination. Or they meant to get to it today but were sidetracked by other tasks. In this case, the ex-employee with active access credentials now poses a huge security risk, one likely to go unnoticed next to thousands of employees and their associated permissions.

Consider this also when working with various PACS systems spread across multiple locations. One franchise location may use one brand of access controller, other locations, and another. Not only does managing these systems holistically become a challenge, but also does not allow for many of the benefits of PACS data standardization such as insider threat detection, automated badge provisioning during on/off boarding, watchlists, and much more.

Solution: Vector Flow’s data-driven platform simplifies and streamlines the path to PACS data standardization. Our Physical Identity and Access Management (PIAM) App revolutionizes physical security automation by gathering PACS data from disparate systems and aggregating it to deliver reliable, data-driven recommendations and analytics that can be used for enhanced physical security and workforce management. It also allows administrators to manage the entire workforce from a single pane dashboard, consolidating insights across all facilities and ensuring access policies are consistently and accurately enforced.

Here’s what our PIAM App looks like in practice:

• Automatically enables the right physical access at the right time. This includes maximizing Day 1 productivity with automated provisioning upon onboarding.
• Delivers appropriate physical access to balance worker productivity and security. Too much access introduces serious security risks, while too little access costs money in an unproductive workforce.
• Automatically adjusts access as identities change in attributes such as roles, departments, locations or when leaving the organization.
• Third-party identities can be synchronized from an HR system, Visitor Management system, or other authoritative source or directly enrolled in Vector Flow, allowing non-employees to provide their own data and interact directly with security.

Think of Vector Flow’s PIAM App as the brain for all existing PACS systems. It doesn’t replace PACS, just makes them smarter. By standardizing and streamlining PACS data, our platform empowers businesses to seamlessly balance security and productivity, adapt to evolving workforce needs, and mitigate risks associated with unstandardized data.

Click here to learn more about our complete Physical Workforce Identity Management Suite or watch our Corporate Campuses offering.

The Future of PIAM

The security industry has come a long way since the advent of PACS and legacy PIAM solutions. However, there is still much to be discovered in terms of data-automation as it relates to security. PIAM 2.0 sets new benchmarks in identity and visitor management, compliance, facility operations and occupancy management, emergency management and mustering, threat intelligence, SOC operations, and so much more. Such capabilities are already defining how companies are addressing digital transformation, so it becomes a more natural extension of those procedures and applications already in use today. PIAM 2.0 also underscores the growing imperative for enterprises to make use of data that is already available to them to facilitate higher levels of security, safety and efficiency. Imagine that this is just the beginning of PIAM 2.0. Contact us here to learn more.