Openpath And Cisco Partner To Target Opportunities In The Digitization Of Building Security

Openpath And Cisco Partner To Target Opportunities In The Digitization Of Building Security

On February 04, 2021, Openpath announced an extended partnership with Cisco Meraki to jointly deliver cloud-based security and access control solutions. Under the partnership, Openpath will integrate its access control capabilities with Meraki's video management systems (VMS) and network security management solution. Together, Openpath and Cisco are targeting IT and facilities management (FM) executives at enterprise corporations, who are looking to modernize their security management processes.

The two vendors are looking to enable smarter security management in buildings through remote monitoring and providing on-site teams with granular insights into security risks. The combined solution will bring together data on door opens from Openpath's access control readers and video footage from the Meraki VMS, to provide staff with a rich view into their building's security status. The solution can deliver visibility into multiple sites from the same dashboard, enabling comprehensive monitoring by remote and centralized teams. The collaboration will also incorporate features of the Openpath mobile app. Security staff can map user movements through a property by tracking when and where occupants use Openpath's touchless access control functionality. Security guards can also locate an occupant's spatial co-ordinates by tracking signals from Bluetooth Low Energy technology in the phone.

Verdantix finds this to be a timely partnership that addresses the growing interest amongst commercial building occupiers to update their physical security systems. According to our 2020 survey, around one fifth of facility management executives are planning to invest more into commercial software to support their access control and security management processes (see infographic below). Investing into this process can reduce costs by enabling staff to rely on remote monitoring for multi-site management, so that security events can be analysed before staff are sent to inspect or resolve an issue physically. The University of Virginia, for example, has deployed the combined Cisco Meraki and Openpath solution to secure research facilities at its Biocomplexity Institute, as this allows them to monitor multiple sites with just one or two staff members from a single location. This will deliver significant value both during COVID lockdowns and beyond the pandemic as firms redouble their efforts to control costs until an economic recovery is evident.

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