INSIGHTS
Roger Williams University is an independent liberal arts university located on 140 acres of New England coastline in Bristol, Rhode Island. In an effort to become more efficient with time consuming and costly key management and security access assignments, the university worked with Johnson Controls to implement an identity management solution. By integrating existing but disparate systems, physical security access assignments were automated using a role-based policy engine deployed by Johnson Controls. This resulted in reduced operational costs, avoided the need for additional staffing and improved customer satisfaction.
Johnson Controls Conveys Complete Security System to UK Art University
Date: 2011/05/06
Source: Johnson Controls
Efficient and accurate access control is equally important in the academic buildings. These buildings house rooms like computer labs, video editing suites, a multimedia room and green-screen room, all of which are controlled electronically. “Imagine the key management of these facilities to accommodate the very diverse access needs of our students or the added cost to have personnel monitor the buildings. The identity management system allows us to provide electronic access automatically based on enrollment records, eliminating the need to manually program the security system. This is especially beneficial when you consider thousands of students, whose needs can frequently change as they add or drop classes or need intermittent access to resources. The system makes these changes much more immediate and efficient,” Pangborn said.
The university can also create authorized groups within the system for people such as contractors who will be on campus for a specific period of time. A credential is issued, specific access points and date ranges are assigned, and when the time expires the system automatically restricts access. “We are also considering allowing individual departments to manage access control. For example, the housing department could manage student moves or lockouts without having to get the security staff involved,” Dallaire said.
“The project has been successful and students see this as positive security move, but we are still in the early stages. There is potential for further database integrations such as human resources, accounting and housing among others, and for additional enhancements such as event management, Pangborn said. “As we continue to look for ways to operate more efficiently, our job is to assemble the right players, like Johnson Controls and determine which projects make the most sense.”