With the worst of the COVID pandemic’s impact behind us, most would agree that the security industry was transformed by the interlude, as were most other elements in our society. But what will be the lasting impact on the security market – positive or negative? We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Is post-pandemic security more effective than pre-pandemic security? How?
Security systems must always be highly effective, so the likes of a pandemic shouldn’t make any difference to how well they work. However, during the COVID pandemic (and as we still deal with its effects), the focus of systems design and implementation has changed to deliver more “touchless” access control. For example, the provision of data on building occupancy has improved to enable better and more sustainable management of the built environment. It’s not that there have been any huge technological innovations that have been driven by the pandemic, but more that already existing functionalities have been employed to better manage the fallout from it. The pandemic has however changed and is changing, the workplace and our interactions with the built environment, with a heightened awareness of personal safety. Savvy security providers already have worthy options in place to support this, it’s just a case of deploying the technology most suitably.
During the pandemic, physical security rapidly evolved from being seen as a tool for mitigating risk, to playing a much more significant role in organisations’ digital transformation. In a recent survey of over 2000 security professionals conducted by Genetec, more than two-thirds (69%) of respondents described physical security and related data as “mission-critical.” Organisations are increasingly using the data gathered by their physical security systems to not only increase situational awareness but also improve overall business efficiency, foster good collaboration and accurate communication between stakeholders, and improve productivity and asset optimization. The shift to a remote workforce has also caused us to think beyond protecting the traditional perimeter. As a result, we’re seeing a focus on making identity the new perimeter, and an increase in zero-trust networking implementations. It is becoming clear that physical security technology is becoming a strategic asset that enables organisations to transform and improve their business processes to achieve operational resilience through integrated risk management.