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How PIAM and access control add commercial value
The benefits of integrating
business systems
Employees, visitors and suppliers all need access to an organisation’s buildings or networks, but how much access does each person need? And who determines and monitors the access levels?
Typically, various departments are involved in these decisions, including HR, facilities management, IT and security. Often, each has their own system operating independently of the others – but this is inefficient and can lead to mistakes.
For optimum efficiency and security, it’s vital that all an organisation’s systems and departments are aligned. And this should include Physical Identity & Access Management (PIAM), which focuses on integrating processes relating to physical access control – for example identity, card and visitor management.
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Synchronise to save time and limit risk
When a new employee joins an organisation, there are usually several standard procedures. For example:• HR enters their details in their database – the personnel
information system (PIS).• Facilities management adds relevant data to their da-
tabase – the facilities management information system (FMIS).
• IT arranges identification and authorisation for accessing the network.
• Security issues an access pass.
If the departments involved work independently, it means that when an employee’s status changes the systems don’t update simultaneously. That’s not only inefficient it can incre-ase risk. Take, for example, an employee leaving the organi-sation. Ideally, you want their access rights to be revoked as soon as their contract ends to prevent a security threat.
To ensure such tasks happen automatically, it’s crucial to in-tegrate PIAM processes into your wider business processes.
Bring access control in line
Today, it’s becoming more widespread for HR, facilities management and IT departments to work together and link their systems. So, for example, an employee can use their company ID card to print and copy on designated machines or pay in the company restaurant. When it comes to security in general and access control in particular, however, there’s less synchronisation.
Organisations often still enter and manage access control rights in a separate database that doesn’t link with their other databases. This is a big oversight because linking access con-trol and PIAM to other systems and processes can offer great value in a variety of ways. And means you can use access control for far more than just opening and closing doors.
Link access control with HR When integrating access control, it’s a good idea to use your HR database (PIS) as the basis for physical identity and access management (PIAM). It’s the HR department’s res-ponsibility to keep employee information up-to-date so their database should be accurate. The details it usually holds include:• Name and address.• Start and end dates of the employment contract.• The job role, department and cost centre.• ID documents such as passports.
Once this centrally managed information is linked to your PIAM processes and access control system, you can use it to manage physical access rights too. For example, when the HR database is updated to show that an employee has moved to a new role, their access rights update automatically. So they now have access to the areas relevant to their new position instead of their previous one.
More automation, efficiency & security
When access control and PIAM are aligned with your organi-sation’s other systems and processes, the benefits don’t just include automatic updates. It makes procedures more con-sistent, processes more efficient and security more secure.
It can improve hospitality, for example, as the receptionist knows when a contractor or visitor is expected and who they’ve come to see. So the process of welcoming and regis-tering them can be much smoother and more professional and you can maintain a high level of security.
A link to access control also lets catering staff see how many people are in the building that day so they can adjust the amount of food they prepare. Your property manager can use access information to analyse and manage how your buil-dings are used. And you can even take advantage of a flexible working strategy by closing underused areas temporarily to save on lighting, air conditioning and cleaning. The opportuni-ties are endless.
The other key benefit of your systems being integrated is that data only has to be entered or updated once. This boosts effi-ciency significantly – some organisations report a timesaving of over 30%. It also means data entry is less error-prone and so more secure.
Security for life
As we’ve seen above, access control and PIAM can add value to your organisation in a range of ways. You can use it, and the information it generates, strategically to boost not just security but productivity, creativity and performance, and even happiness and fulfilment.
The latter is particularly important for us because we believe security isn’t just about technology – it’s about people and how they live their lives each day. And about helping them make the most of life and work.
A central role for security management
So when you’re looking at access control and PIAM, it’s important to consider how they can support other business processes and systems and, most importantly, the people using them. How can security management work in tandem with HR, facilities and IT management to maximise and syn-chronise each system your organisation uses?
• Identity and access management (IAM) establishes processes and systems that manage who can access IT systems and applications and what they’re entitled to do with them.
• Physical identity & access management (PIAM) establishes and integrates processes relating to physical access. Examples include identity, workflow, card and visitor management.
• Facilities management information system (FMIS) manages information and processes relating to how buildings and facilities are used.
• Personnel information system (PIS) manages information about employees and is often called a human resource management (HRM) system.
IAM, PIAM, FSIM, PIS what does it all mean?
Widespread benefits across departments
The main advantage of integrating PIAM with other business processes and systems is that everyone uses one single database to record, manage and use information. This prevents data being entered twice, and offers a variety of benefits for different people in your business, including those outlined below.
Facilities/property manager:• Reduced human error, which leads to significant time
saved (up to 30%).• No need to learn a new FMIS system – you can use your
existing one.
Security manager:• Higher security levels thanks to orderly, single-source
information and reduced errors. • A single, central overview provides valuable information,
but you can still apply local rules.
IT manager:• Systems are linked rather than duplicated to reduce
complexity. • Even if there are multiple sites, you work from one central
database.
HR manager:• Your personnel information system is the lead system,
so people always have the correct permissions for their current role.
• It’s easy to follow an audit trail as you’re working from a single source.
Want to know more?
We’re happy to talk through how integrating your systems could benefit your organisation specifically. Just get in touch with one of our advisers.
Daryn FlynnBusiness Development
Oliver LaceyBusiness Development
www.nedapsecurity.com
