Advancis: More Security With an Integrated Threat Management System
Advancis launched its PSIM (Physical Security Information Management) WinGuard almost 30 years ago and is now one of the global market leaders in this field. Current crisis situations, including those in and on the border with Europe, have increased awareness of the need to protect critical infrastructure and have highlighted new challenges in the control room, but also opportunities.
By: Günter Landa, CEO, Advancis Austria; E-mail: info@advancis.at
The war in Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict, the storming of the Capitol in Washington, the sabotage of gas pipelines and the Covid pandemic have shown us how fragile supply chains and the security of supply of central goods in our lives such as energy, water, medicines and food are. The protection of critical infrastructure, or KRITIS for short, has been on everyone’s lips not only since the introduction of the EU umbrella law.
Of course, critical infrastructure companies were and are already extensively monitored by technical systems. However, problems often arise when it comes to implementing comprehensive measures in the event of an emergency: What happens, for example, if there is a fire in the engine room of a combined heat and power plant at night, while at the same time a fence alarm is reported at the side entrance around a kilometer away, but the security control center is only manned by one person in charge?
A reliable solution
An open integration platform for hazard management, such as WinGuard from Advancis, offers a reliable solution. Instead of concentrating on many different systems such as video or fence monitoring, fire alarm systems and access control, security personnel can navigate through a uniform user interface and clearly identify which messages are critical alarms. All technical systems are connected to the platform via interfaces for uniform control. In the event of an incident, clear procedural instructions tailored to the individual company are provided for the operator. They have to work through individual predefined action steps one after the other so that they always have an overview and can resolve the situation as quickly and safely as possible. At the same time, all systems connected to the integration platform interact automatically.
Centralization of the complex processes
In our example of a simultaneous fire alarm and fence alarm, this means that the cameras in the machine room are first automatically activated in the user interface via the connected video surveillance system. This allows the operator to check whether there is actually a fire and whether measures need to be initiated. If so, he confirms this via the dynamic instructions – fire doors then close automatically, the lighting is switched on, an announcement to evacuate the building is made over the loudspeaker system, the plant fire department is informed, etc.
A direct link to emergency control systems is easily possible, ensuring rapid and coordinated intervention by the emergency services. With regard to the fence alarm received at the same time, the mobile security service and plant security are automatically informed via a message on mobile devices, and locks and gates are closed by the system.
In short: WinGuard is an open integration platform that significantly simplifies and centralizes the complex processes in a control centre, which helps to resolve dangerous situations quickly and safely.
