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| The new system allows administration of all facilities to be done remotely from a single site |
One Touch Direct, headquartered in Tampa, FL provides expert direct marketing program development and call center solutions in both the B2B and consumer market segments. The company provides. The One Touch Direct mission is to increase their clients’ revenue by acquiring new customers as well as increasing revenue from existing customers. The One Touch Direct focus on results is reflected in their by their inclusion of a pay-for-performance component in their client contracts, meaning that they share the risk of performance with their clients. These services on an outsourced basis for large clients in the wireless, telecommunications, cable, internet, financial services, entertainment and other industries, essentially serving as their clients’ first point of contact for the clients’ customers.
Project requirements
The success of their business model continues to drive their growth. Starting in a single site in Tampa, FL in 1998 One Touch Direct has grown to 3 sites in Tampa and one in St. Catherines, ON, Canada and now is home to over 2,000 employees.
According to Larry Lavin, Director of Client Services at One Touch Direct, “We have significant investments in both facilities and personnel. Our IT server rooms are equipped with top-of-the-line equipment and we pride ourselves in people development at all levels of our organisation.”
Faced with the requirement in early 2011 to provide physical security in two of the company’s new facilities, Mr. Lavin’s conducted a thorough evaluation of alternatives. “We had two basic criteria in mind when we looked at access control alternatives,” says Mr. Lavin. “We wanted to ensure that all of our access security needs were met or exceeded, and we wanted to make the most economically viable decision as well. We ended up with significant cost savings over alternatives with ISONAS and we did in fact get a much better system than the alternatives when we went with the ISONAS PowerNet system.”
When the project kicked off the company had 3 facilities with 3 different access control systems; all older style panel based systems with different data base systems. Reporting was difficult and basic administration of user adds, drops and permissions was uncoordinated. With 2,000 employees turnover is inevitable so the disjointed administration caused by the disparate systems presented a significant problem.
"I was able to put a new system from ISONAS in for just $12,000, about half of which was for locksmith and lock strike costs", says Larry Lavin, Director of Client Services at One Touch Direct |
The Canadian facility included a move from an older facility which already had an older Sonitrol system. Quotes for moving the older panel based system ranged from $28,000 to $32,000for just 9 doors. “I was able to put a new system from ISONAS in for just $12,000, about half of which was for locksmith and lock strike costs,” says Mr. Lavin.
Similar savings were realised in one of the Florida-based facilities where quotes for an upgraded panel-based system averaged around $13,000. “Our cost for that facility was just under $5,000 with ISONAS, including locks, panic bars and locksmith fees. So for the two facilities instead of incurring costs of $43,000 we spent about $17,000 — a savings of almost 50% for a much more robust system. We will be converting our other two facilities in Tampa to ISONAS as well.”
Implementation of new system
The new system allows administration of all facilities to be done remotely from a single site if desired, but local control can also be given to each site’s administrative personnel.
The ISONAS system easily handles some special requirements for One Touch Direct as well. For example the IT server rooms have customer required compliance issues which necessitate time stamped entry and exit logs for personnel accessing those facilities. These are accomplished electronically with the ISONAS system. Additionally, in the IT rooms temperature sensors can be monitored through the ISONAS system, and various alerts can be directed to other systems or individuals if out-of-standard conditions are detected.
Savings from a somewhat unique requirement are also realised. Certain supervisors’ credentials are authorised with “first entry” permissions, meaning that a supervisor must be first into a building at certain times of the day. This prevents accidental setting off of entry alarms by non-supervisory individuals who are not provided with entry alarm codes. “We used to receive $500 fines for false alarm events, which are now completely eliminated,” according to Mr. Lavin. “It is also quite convenient to be able to power motion sensors off the ISONAS system as well.”
“Our desire to upgrade our access security at a reasonable price was not just met but exceeded. Administration for a large and constantly changing user base is easy, accurate and efficient. We can easily expand one door at a time if we so desire and the potential of integration with other security oriented systems such as our temperature sensors or video in the future is a definite plus.”
