Effective Active Shooter Response Starts with Integrated Campus Solutions
Maximize the efficiency and emergency preparedness of your campus with an all-in-one platform.
Siemens solutions work with other popular vendors' security systems.
Partnerships Enhance Emergency Preparedness
So what’s the best way to guarantee that your campus is integrated and prepared for emergencies like active shooters? A big part of it is partnering with the right company. A commitment to connectivity can be found in all of the solutions from Siemens. The company’s access control, mass notification, PSIM and video management systems are designed to work within wider security systems.
“We have a variety of solutions that complement every facet of an institution’s overall security strategy,” Heaton says. “We know schools have already invested in some of these technologies, so our systems are open architecture and allow for integration of disparate systems. That way you can utilize solutions you already have, because it’s all about layered solutions and training.”
The individual systems are an important step, but vendors can sometimes get tunnel vision when a school consults with them about a specific security system. Heaton says Siemens starts by working with its clients to understand their security problem and then develops a well-defined objective to help ensure their investments will truly meet that objective.
“Security decisions are too often made in a vacuum,” he says. “We want our partners to know the value of the technology and how it will help them be more efficient, not just in emergency situations but during day-to-day operations.”
The best way to maximize your return on investment and ensure a successful security project is to avoid patchwork solutions and get a system that eliminates redundancies rather than creating them.
“We have the hardware systems but Siemens core focus is on software, on the complex, integrated software that drives building management and security systems,” Heaton says. “We provide a total campus solution.”
Siemens software can pull in systems from other brands and serve as the head end to integrate disparate solutions. Once an operations center has the ability to access every system on campus, police, security and emergency managers have the tools they need to prepare and respond to active shooters and other emergencies.
Siemens Makes Integration Easy
As beneficial as all of that is, getting higher ups to understand these advantages can still be a challenge. Komola says Siemens can help with that process as well.
“We work with school officials at every level,” Komola says. “We can go with the security people on campus or the technology people and help with presentations on how these products work and talk about how other colleges and schools have implemented it. We want administrators to understand how much more efficient these tools can make a campus.”
Siemens also walks its partners through the implementation process. Training
is offered online or on-site, and guidance is provided as schools craft policies around the new technologies.
“We want our customers to develop the most effective security plans possible,” Komola says. “It can be an awful lot of administrative work to keep policies up to date. We understand that so we work with schools on every step of the process.”
The schools that Siemens has worked with have discovered huge savings through decreased labor costs and efficiencies. But, most importantly, administrators can walk around their campus knowing they’ve invested in a system that will mitigate the damage caused by an active shooter.
“A lot of these campuses are open, so having that connectivity is imperative,” Komola says. “Especially in this day in age, the safety of the community is what matters most.”
For more information on how Siemens can help improve safety and security on your campus, visit www.usa.siemens.com/means-business.
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