Access to Partnerships
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- May 01, 2017
Everyone has a partnership in some form or fashion.
Usually, one partner supports the other, and the two
together make a strong and formidable bond. It works
that way in the security industry between any number
of manufacturers. In fact, we’ve published numerous
press releases over the years of companies touting their new found
relationships.
Partnerships are an extremely efficient way to keep the open
architecture alive and well in the industry, and most generally, end
users are the benefactors of the strength of a partnership. For 25
years, Mercury Security has been building products that are only
sold through partners. The core technology designed, developed and
manufactured by Mercury Security—access control panels, firmware
and the software that drives them—is accentuated and brought to
market by Mercury partners to help customers solve problems.
“End users should be asking for three things,” said Matt Barnette,
president of Mercury Security. “Cyber-secure products, interoperability
and open standards. These are the essential ingredients to flexible
systems that can stand the test of time. Security devices need to be
cyber secure. Period. Mercury and our partners are building more
functionality into the products to extend the capabilities of the system
making them more interoperable. An open platform that incorporates
industry open standards allows options. Minimizing the use
of any proprietary products allows customers to be assured they are
positioned for future growth as their requirements evolve and change.”
“By sanctioning these three features, customers can buy products
and services at a competitive price and never have to worry about
how to expand the system as their business grows. With the increasing
danger of cyberattacks, only selecting products that are constantly
being tested and upgraded is equally important. The manufacturers
that are being selected need to have a clear cyber policy and a protocol
that they can articulate to ensure end users are not opening
themselves up to a problem.”
Barnette was recently named president of Mercury Security, and
brought with him the ability to strengthen the partnerships already
established by Mercury for more than two decades and define a roadmap
to success with new potential partnerships. He does understand
what makes the access control market tick.
“We believe access control is the backbone of any security plan.
A good access control system provides the most fundamental security
need; the ability to lock and monitor a facility, protecting a customer’s
people, assets and intellectual property,” Barnette said. “With the
addition of video and audio to the access control platform, a customer
is empowered to control who can go where and when; they can also
see the activity live and recorded plus have the ability to communicate
bi-directionally. Without a strong access control product providing
the core, the implementation of these disparate products are less capable
and therefore bring customers diminished value.”
Access control has consistently been the most talked about security
issue and solution over the past 20-plus years, and the major
software vendors have continued to serve the market as it’s changed
over the years. Barnette inherited a number of software providers
that integrate with the Mercury hardware, including their top tier
partners: Lenel, Avigilon, Genetec, Honeywell, Open Options and
RS2 Technologies.
Historically, determining who is allowed to enter or exit a facility,
where they are allowed to exit or enter, and when they are allowed
to enter or exit was partially accomplished through keys and
locks. When a door was locked, only someone with a key could enter
through the door, depending on how the lock was configured. Mechanical
locks and keys did not allow restriction of the key holder to
specific times or dates. Mechanical locks and keys also did not provide
records of the key used on any specific door, and the keys could
be easily copied or transferred to an unauthorized person. When a
mechanical key was lost or the key holder was no longer authorized
to use the protected area, locks had to be re-keyed.
Electronic access control was initially introduced to solve these
limitations of mechanical locks and keys, where a wide range of credentials
can be now be used to replace mechanical keys. The electronic
access control system grants access to unlock a door based
on the credential presented, and the transaction is recorded. When
access is refused, the door remains locked and the attempted access
is recorded. The system will monitor the door and alarm if the door
is forced open or held open too long after being unlocked. This was
the basic function of physical access control systems in the beginning.
Today’s access control goes quite a bit deeper, now serving a broader
purpose as a hardware backbone, especially as systems are becoming
more connected.
The evolution from simply solving the issues of using mechanical
locks and keys with electronic access control was a giant step for the
industry. Access control is now on the cusp of yet another generational
leap of importance, as it is poised to serve as the foundation
for many interrelated, complementary security and building systems
in smarter buildings plus the IoT. An open access control model is
critical to this evolution in the access control market.
“Our goal is to brand the access control industry the same way
Intel branded the computer world, with ‘Mercury Inside,’” said Joe
Grillo, CEO of Access Control Related Entry (ACRE), the parent
company of Mercury Security. “Our intent with Mercury is to be
more visible to help the industry understand the importance of
open access control hardware in the overall holistic approach of
the security system. We also expect to continue addressing ongoing
trends, such as cybersecurity, wireless locks and the various abilities
of a panel.”
Because access control is linked so tightly with a software solution,
the inevitability is that there will be an evolution to the cloud, or
at least Denis Hébert, CEO of Feenics, a Mercury partner, believes
that to be the case.
“We owe the very latest technology available to the end user,”
Hébert said. “It seems the access control community is generally slow
in adopting new technology and solutions, but new trends are coming
or are available now, that will change the way we think about access
control. End users will pay by the month, and per door. End users
will also have access to the data bank and can change anything necessary
to make their access control system flow more smoothly. With a
Mercury panel installed at their facility, a customer can have a system
online in minutes.”
Because of its open architecture (platform), Mercury Security sees
the market placing a lot more value in hardware, so much so that they
are on track for a 50 percent growth rate through 2018. After several
years focusing on Bridge products for the retrofit market to include
Casi-Rusco, Infographics and Software House, this coming year is
a time of renewal for Mercury with a refresh of the current product
line. In addition, Mercury is working with other industry partners
like HID, Technology Industries, Otis and Vingtor-Stentofon to integrate
their products into the Mercury product ecosystem.
Looking forward to 2018, Mercury expects to introduce its Nex-
Gen panel architecture, which will offer advanced features never before
achieved in this industry—and in a new physical format. These
will be available to all partners. Among the goals and concerns that
Barnette expects to see in the near future are addressing higher security
in the physical access world, as it will become crucial for security
professionals to stay relevant in the IT world. Cybersecurity also is
something to think about constantly. Barnette said cyber is now engrained
in the Mercury culture as something to be reviewed with every
product enhancement. It will be critical to make cybersecurity a
top priority, through accountable policies and clear guidance on how
to optimize and protect access control systems. And, of course, there
is ongoing testing and training that every security company and enduser
organization should conduct. Barnette said that assessments by
outside laboratories are a good place to start, plus adding education
and internal testing by implementing security tools and scanners that
are widely available.
From a partner viewpoint, Chairman of Open Options Steve
Fisher said working as a Mercury access control partner allows him
to co-develop many new solutions and take ideas from concept to
fruition. He described access control somewhat like a pyramid where,
at the bottom of the pyramid, keys and locks still work, but as the
end user moves upward, they expect products and solutions to do
more and provide more security.
Fisher also pointed out that security consultants are a measuring
stick of where the access vertical needs to—and can—move toward.
Mercury Security spends significant time and energy working with
these industry experts to understand the varying requirements they
want to meet customer needs. Mercury partners like Open Options
then turn these products into feature-rich offerings for their channel.
When consultants base a design on the Mercury open architecture,
their customers have a choice of multiple software platforms and a
sense of confidence their investment will be sound.
“Access control is a huge segment of this industry,” Fisher said.
“We believe that open architecture is the message.”
Access control is not a mysterious part of the security industry,
and often goes unheralded. It is, however, the fundamental element
of a security plan that allows an end user to gain entry to almost
anything under certain parameters.
The idea of knowing who you are, where you are going and when
you are allowed to go there makes access control
one of the most important feature sets in the industry.
Just because you can’t see the software interacting
with the hardware doesn’t mean it’s not
working. On the contrary, it’s working perfectly.
This article originally appeared in the May 2017 issue of Security Today.