Virtual Police Provide Unique Solution
Mega wireless communications company seeks security solution
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Nov 03, 2014
If a customer can dream of a
security solution, integrator
Lance Rankin can do it. Rankin
and his Virtual Police team has
become a preferred vender to one of
the world’s largest wireless communications
and telecommunications
providers.
“We are 100-percent customer focused,”
Rankin said. “We would not
hesitate to take on a job because we
believe in the products that we represent.
We’re a ‘no contracts, no handcuffs’-
type of business. We have that
much confidence in the work we do.”
Rankin’s most recent job at a Texas
network equipment center meant
a switch out of access control and
camera systems. He said that the customer
was having significant security
problems, so they turned to Virtual
Police for a solution that would accommodate
their internal corporate
policy, the data center’s facility size
and corporate IT design.
The data center sits on 25 acres,
employs more than 2,000 people
and includes more than 200 doors
throughout the facility. Rankin introduced
KABA access systems and
Mobotix network cameras to secure
the facility.
“We’re the largest installer of
KABA systems,” said Rankin. “We
work with their engineers to ensure
we’re doing all the right things and
even some things we can think of to support our customers.
“About six years ago, we installed
several hundred door units at a site.
Since then, we have had to replace
only four door units. It wasn’t because
the units were defective; two of
them failed because of a wiring problem
with a power supply, and the
other two failed because a lightning
strike at the facility took out a whole
wing of electronic-type devices.”
As soon as Rankin and his team
of installers were pulled into this
data center project, they accessed the
customer’s situation, goals, policies
and needs. Once they understood
the scope of the project, they found
the right equipment then added their
own value to it. The net result was an
A+ grade from the end user.
The install included more than
250 MOBOTIX cameras, HID readers
on doors, iCLASS cards, and 14
KABA AM524 controllers with 100
door units, clustered together with
one cluster master. The access control
system is Linux-based so it allows
for customization.
“Our IT programmer is a Linux
enthusiast,” Rankin said. “With an
open source format operating system,
you can tie into central programming
and reporting functions. We wanted
to read data and push data, and with
this type of control, you can work the
system to get what you need. It allows
us, as the installer, to be creative and
the customer to be satisfied—they got
exactly what they want.”
The wireless company had a
unique need because the solution
provider needed to access the corporation’s
Active Directory. Virtual
Police tied into the Active Directory
to view approvals and permissions
of employees before assigning access
at the local level. Rankin said that it
is important to do this to keep the
wireless company in sync from the
corporate level to the local level.
Virtual Police is one of few integrators
in the country that has developed
a program that ties into a client’s
Active Directory. They also have
developed an interface to the KABAembedded
access control application
that allows them to provide clientspecific
data, such as finding out who
did not enter an access point within
the last 90 days.
The hub of the KABA system is
the Access Manager 524, which includes
an embedded access control
application. With this system, there
is no PC or servers to install. End
users execute system administration,
user setup and event viewing
via a standard web browser. To access
the application, users type the IP
address, log into the system and the application menu displays.
Virtual Police also created a custom
home page on the data center’s
internal network and installed it on
top-level manager’s computers. The
managers can pull up the Virtual Police
Launch Pad and click on areas or
reports that are of interest to them.
For example, they can select a door
and see the activity at the door, or
pick an employee and see every move
that person made. The managers also
can see the camera views from their
computer screens. All activity is kept
within the KABA database.
“It knows every card swiped, the
different access groups and who belongs
to them,” Rankin said. “This
system serves as the vehicle for setting
up custom days, and holiday and
access schedules.”
A woman-owned business, you
might not have heard of Virtual Police
before. Rankin likes it like this,
or, he said that they enjoy the notion
that they are a truly different kind of
integrator. Even though they have a
select few customers, Rankin said
that they go very deep with those
companies they do work with.
“We’re a small company, but we’re
very nimble,” Rankin said. “Competence
and customer satisfaction is
our winning combination.”
So, Rankin’s work continues. He
is happy to be a small integrator
and equally as happy to focus on the
needs of those he serves. His future
plans include expanding into Europe
with the KABA product and the data
center expansion.
This article originally appeared in the November 2014 issue of Security Today.