Physical security is messy. We know this due to the tremendous number of manual processes that go into protecting people, places, and assets. We also know that security spend is hard to come by, with executives wanting to see a tangible return on their security investment. Luckily, the digital transformation of physical security operations offers deploying organizations the efficiencies and ROI required of modern security.

Not sure what such a digital transformation looks like or where to get started?

In this blog we answer all of the essential questions when it comes to the digital transformation of today’s physical security world and how to implement the automated and data-driven solutions inherent of this transformation.

What Is the Digital Transformation of Physical Security?

For as advanced as technology has become across all sectors, many of today’s security processes still rely on manual inputs to perform their function. Take for example access control systems that require manual access permission changes, SOC operations that require laborious responses to false alarms, and time-consuming physical access audits. Moreover, these systems and processes tend to operate in silos, disconnected from other business systems. To reduce the labor and costs associated with such manual tasks, physical security requires a digital transformation of its own. 

Put simply, the digital transformation of physical security is automation itself. 

While manual processes may be the detriment of physical security, the good news is that security systems and devices produce large amounts of usable data. Using AI and machine learning, innovative software platforms can mine and aggregate such data under a unified platform, both reducing inefficiencies associated with manual tasks and helping security teams understand how and where to use this newly found intelligence. Automating operations in this way effectively optimizes front and back-end operations to improve an organization’s overall physical security awareness, effectiveness, and ability to transform security operations from reactive to proactive solutions.

Why Does Physical Security Need to be Automated? 

Manual processes are intrinsically time and labor inefficient, which also means they are cost-inefficient.  People are by far the most expensive investment within a Security Operating Center (SOC) considering recruitment costs, salaries, benefits, and continued training costs. In large system deployments, security personnel is also prone to oversights and mistakes. In an industry where time is money and simple mistakes can have detrimental consequences, process errors can cost a company millions. 

Automated solutions allow organizations to make the most of the labor resources that they have.  For example, instead of operators chasing down false alarms, automated solutions aggregate both historical and live data from physical security devices to mathematically reduce false alarms. In this way, SOC operations can reduce the time between detection and response, prevent alarm fatigue, and enable operators to spend their time proactively resolving real alarms. The over-arching idea here is that you can do more while saving money. 

Where Is Automation Best Applied?

While the introduction of automation can improve efficiencies at all levels, enterprise operations have the most to gain. It is here where manual processes are often repeated many times across multiple locations, while one piece of software can spread the benefits of automation across an enterprise. Imagine a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of thousands of employees and their associated identities. Managing access rights for all of these identities is tedious and introduces compounded opportunities for error. With data-driven automation, this company could automate a majority of their access provisioning processes for the entire company with just a few simple clicks, thus saving time and money thousands of times over.

When Should I Start My Own Digital Transformation?

Now is the best time to begin implementing automated processes within your security operations. With the number of IoT devices used in security-based installs growing, so are the sources of available data, making it easier than ever to undergo your digital transformation. You have the data available to you, so why not start now? 

Furthermore, a steady decrease in job growth, widespread adoption of hybrid and work-from-home models, and recent economic outlooks are all playing a role in a shrinking labor pool. Automation allows security teams to effectively deploy labor to mission-critical tasks while reigning in the need for employees to complete tedious, time-consuming tasks. 

How Do I Start My Own Digital Transformation?

Undergoing a digital transformation of your security operations is not a binary affair, it’s a journey. Begin by reporting better insights from the data that you already have. Make it more visible, more apparent, and easier for executives to understand and make decisions from.  With that in place, empower more people to get access to the data and insights directly. So, rather than having to ask IT for data, your security team (and colleagues such as HR, facilities, etc.) can access insights independently but with the same security and governance. It is this productivity that paves the way for the optimization of security processes.

Who Can Help Me?

As the physical security industry’s first data-driven automation platform, Vector Flow is dedicated to using machine learning and automation to launch the digital transformation of physical security operations. Our advanced platform essentially converts raw physical security data from multiple sources into intelligent insights to reduce operational costs and deliver business results for security organizations. Vector Flow’s suite of applications leverages out-of-box playbooks to automate physical security processes such as automating on/off-boarding with physical access recommendations, automating physical access compliance audits with audit recommendations, finding and addressing hidden insider threats, eliminating false/nuisance alarms at SOCs, and more!

Register today for our live webinar, Digital Transformation & Automation in Today’s Physical Security World, Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 1 pm EST. You’ll learn how to fully automate physical access assignment and badging, how insider threat risk can be eliminated by utilizing data and proactive notification, and how automation helps organizations drive down operational costs while increasing security awareness. 

Can’t Wait? Contact Vector Flow today! We have a team of experts who can help you walk through your own unique data-driven security journey.