Investing in Security: Why It Must Be a Priority for Educational Institutions

Create a smarter, more secure campus with a unified security solution, not traditional siloed tools

If you work in academia in a security, administrative, or decision-making capacity, you know that campus security is a complicated endeavor. At your school or university, the security team may have their hands full keeping intruders out, preventing unpleasant and potentially dangerous scenarios, and protecting staff and students. Traditional security systems cannot help fill these gaps.

These old-fashioned tools and technologies make it harder for security personnel to monitor campus activities and respond quickly to illegal or dangerous activities. Such solutions are even less effective at helping personnel spot intrusions, enforce parking rules, control access to restricted areas, and investigate critical incidents.
In short, traditional systems are not the solution to physical security challenges on modern-day campuses.

So what is?

The answer: cutting-edge education-specific security solutions and a unified physical security platform that integrates these solutions in a seamless manner. 

Threats to Educational Institutions are Evolving – But Security Systems are Not Keeping Pace

Educational institutions are as vulnerable to security threats and incidents as any other public place. These incidents affect learning and create an unsafe environment where people cannot thrive. Most institutions are aware of these threats and have implemented tools to protect their facilities and people.

However, a majority of these “legacy” systems are inadequate to keep up with or mitigate many security threats and risks. Most of these tools were designed to be functionally isolated from other tools rather than integrating and working with them. Consequently, they cannot provide a full picture about the campus’ security environment and its potential gaps. In addition, older tools lack analytical capabilities, so they cannot predict threats or support proactive action. They also cannot provide the actionable insights and guidance that security teams require to react quickly to unexpected events and minimize damage. The bottomline: traditional security tools cannot provide uninterrupted, proactive, or comprehensive security that today’s campuses need.

If your security team is struggling to implement appropriate security measures to secure the whole campus from different kinds of threats, you need to think beyond traditional systems. You must adopt modern, well-integrated tools that strengthen campus security and simplify security operations. And the key to integrated tools and a robust security infrastructure is an intuitive command-and-control physical security platform.

Modern Campus Security Challenges Need Modern Security Solutions

Can you confidently say that your security team has an eye on every part of the campus?

Can they quickly react to a critical incident that could potentially compromise human safety?

Can they ensure that there are no gaps in your security infrastructure?

And can they identify and understand important trends from data and use these insights to better secure the campus?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, you may be using older security tools that: i) are isolated from other tools,) are not data-driven, iii) cannot respond to unexpected threats, and iv) add unnecessary complexity to the security infrastructure without necessarily increasing its capabilities.

To keep up with modern security challenges, your security personnel must be more aware of them. And awareness begins by getting a 360-degree view of the entire campus, monitoring campus activities 24x7, and managing access to restricted or sensitive areas. After awareness comes ease of security management. As threats increase and your campus becomes more complex (like a small city maybe!), you need a way to centralize security operations and simplify activities like campus monitoring, access management and control, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and collaboration between field and desk operators.

You also need to integrate all the tools and technologies in your security infrastructure. Here’s where an expert security systems integrator like MVP Tech – Convergint MEA can be a valuable partner. We can design a security platform that’s customized for your institution and tailored for its threat landscape. Moreover, we will ensure that the platform is scalable, allowing you to easily upgrade your security infrastructure for future security challenges – that too without making huge capital investments. All in all, the right security platform and partner can provide long-term security benefits for your evolving campus – as well as greater peace of mind for students, staff, management, and security teams.

Are You Prioritizing Security On Your Campus?

Investing in top-notch security measures will help you create a learning environment where students and teachers can thrive. On the other hand, not investing in these measures will make your institution vulnerable to all kinds of security challenges and concerns.

Don’t make this mistake. Prioritize your institution's safety now. Join our webinar 'Future-Proofing Campus Security' to understand why and to discover one of the best unified physical security platforms available today – Genetec Security Center.

Willing to know more about campus Security?