Media Coverage

Commissionaires B.C. secures $2.5-million contract at Kelowna airport

(as published online at Canadian Security Magazine on March 27, 2012) Excerpt

Commissionaires B.C. has won a contract to provide security services at the Kelowna International Airport.

The contract takes effect April 1, 2012, and lasts three years. The City of Kelowna has the option of extending it for an additional two years.

“A number of security companies participated in the competitive process, so I am very proud of our team, not only for the effort put forth to complete the bid, but also for their contribution overall to safety and security at Kelowna International Airport, ” says Brian Garvie, director, client services interior, at Commissionaires B.C. “I think that the successful bid really speaks to our history and quality of service, and we look forward to building on our relationship with the airport and the city.”

The contract, which Commissionaires B.C. has held for more than 20 years, will engage 30 officers, who will be responsible for the security of the terminal building, parking lots, property and perimeter, mobile patrols, traffic flow and bylaw enforcement. They will also monitor security systems, respond to emergencies and perform other security-related duties.

› To read the full article…

Is Your Cloud Provider Secure?

(as published online at Security Systems News on February 15, 2012) Excerpt

TechSec panelists urge due diligence but say risk still resides with the customer.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—Security companies questioning the safety of moving their data to the cloud can greatly reduce the risks by doing their homework about service providers and “practicing what they preach” about encrypting, a panel of experts told attendees Feb. 8 at the eighth annual TechSec conference.

Chris Peckham, senior VP and chief technology officer for Kratos/HBE, moderated the session, titled “Is Your Cloud Provider Secure?” Panelists were Morgan Hertel, VP and general manager for Mace CS; Brian McIlravey, co-CEO of PPM 2000, a manufacturer of incident reporting and investigation management software; and Yong-Gon Chon, VP and chief technology officer for SecureInfo Corp., a provider of cybersecurity services.

McIlravey said there was a lot of distrust in the security industry about the cloud, much of it unfounded.

“The security is far greater than open data systems,” he said. “The enterprise-class cloud is very secure. Third parties that hold data take it very seriously—we don’t want it accessed any more than you do.”

› To read the full article…

London's Numbers Game

(as published in the September 2011 issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

When Corey Hill makes a submission to the city council of London, Ont., for a video system at a playing field or for high security locking at an arena, he can never be sure whether councillors will say yes. But both he and the councillors know he can justify his request.

A few years ago, the City’s security division came up with a sophisticated calculation that tells them exactly what level of security is appropriate to each of London’s 300-plus properties.

“It’s a general security vulnerability tool,” says Hill, the City’s corporate security manager. “And it’s a city-wide process. So each facility benefits from it. It is a consistent and defendable process to make recommendations for what security should be.”

To do an assessment, security managers start by looking at key features of the facility: the building’s value, the value of its assets, crime rates in the area, whether workers are ever there alone. Then they factor in the facility’s incident history. Every incident at a City property is tracked and recorded in the incident reporting software Perspective, made by Edmonton-based PPM 2000.

› To read the full article…

City of Calgary's Central Hub

(as published in the February/March 2011 issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

CSO Owen Key deploys security system providing one view of incidents.

When Owen Key arrived at the City of Calgary six years ago, the security department was more reactive than proactive.

Much of the department's time was spent conducting investigations and the physical security of municipal buildings was managed locally at each site, with aging equipment and nothing in place to connect the dots for a clear picture of the City's security posture.

Fast-forward to today and centralization is the word. Key proudly shows off his new control center, which monitors all facilities on a networked surveillance system. The department has conducted throrough risk assessments involving 700 locations and the City has been able to reduce the number of incidents at the main municipal complex by as much as 82 percent in two years.

› To read the full article…

Commissionaires BC Adopts Incident Reporting from PPM 2000

(as published in the February/March 2011 issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

Commissionaires BC is using mobile technology in its efforts to secure the city of Kelowna’s parks, city property and yards.

At the end of last year the company installed computer laptops in all of its patrol cars, allowing them to run a software program to collect and analyze information on the spot. They can look at a single incident or the big picture to spot trends and assess risk.

Prior to the mobile program, hand-written reports were prepared at the end of a long day, which could sometimes be difficult to read for clients. Now wireless Internet is used to connect to the system and reports are prepared on laptops, directly from the vehicle.

However, the real power of the software program is the ability it gives Commissionaires to mine data in order to spot trends and address them right away.

› To read the full article…

Brivo ACS WebService Integrated with PPM 2000

(as published online at www.sptnews.ca on January 4, 2011) Excerpt

Brivo Systems and PPM 2000 Inc., have integrated Brivo’s ACS WebService and PPM’s Perspective Incident Reporting & Investigation Management software.

The integration between the two SaaS-based solutions means that select access control events can now be passed to an incident reporting system for documentation, analysis, and follow-up.

The Brivo access control system records activity for every access-related event and transmits specific events to the Perspective incident reporting system. Once this data is acquired, Perspective uses established business rules to flag patterns or specific events and automatically create incident reports. Such incidents are documented real-time and notifications can be sent to senior management and investigators.

› To read the full article…

By The Numbers

(as published in the June 2010 issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

“If you put up a new fence and cameras to improve perimeter security, how do you know if it’s accomplishing what you intended it to do? Most would say if you’re keeping the bad guys out, it’s working, right? But what if you were asked to demonstrate exactly how effective the system has been? Or, to illustrate exactly how many incidents were occurring before the fence went up? What was the impact after the fence went in? Have there been any incidents since the fence and cameras were put in place?…”

› To read the full article…

Trending Sky Miles

(as published in the July 2009 issue of Security Director News) Excerpt

ATLANTA-Managing security and investigations at the world's largest airline presents more than a few challenges. One is managing the high number of incidents that can happen on a daily basis, which include credit card fraud, policy violations, bomb scares and passenger altercations. Then, all of these events must be recorded and accounted for to be able to effectively investigate, suggest solutions and ensure compliance.

Delta Air Lines recently rolled out an incident management solution that assists the corporate security team - composed of several different teams including investigations, Operations Control Center Security Desk, compliance, and passenger misconduct and workplace violence - with tracking, analyzing and reporting incident activity across its divisions. The team uses PPM 2000's Perspective to track 230 incidents per month, equating to nearly 3,000 events annually. Delta is also using add-ons to the core system to be able to analyze and link events and develop trending.

› To read the full article…

Microsoft Global System Aids Worker Rescue

(as published online at www.pcworld.com on April 22, 2009) Excerpt

It's late November 2008 and antigovernment protestors have taken over Bangkok's airport. Thousands of travelers from around the world are literally stranded and fear a violent clash between pro- and antigovernment demonstrators.

Just after reports of the problems at the airport surface, Brian Tuskan, senior director of Microsoft Global Security, gets a message on his Windows Mobile phone alerting him that 30 employees who had travelled to Thailand for business are now stuck. It's his job to make sure that Microsoft workers remain safe.

“Our goal was to run incident management in case things went south,” Tuskan said of the Bangkok situation.

It sounds far-fetched, like a scene from an action movie, but Microsoft ultimately hired a firm that specializes in whisking people out of such dangerous situations. They managed to fly the workers out of the country from a military airport in Bangkok, within four days. The commercial airport didn't end up opening for a week after the protestors closed it down, and even then it wasn't fully operational, requiring some visitors to stay put even longer.

The quick response from Microsoft was due in part to an integrated global security operations center that Tuskan helped build. Without that system in place, his team might not have realized that company employees were at risk.

› To read the full article…

Everyone’s in Security for Direct Energy’s CSO

(as published in the March 2009 Issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

Rob Weir counts everyone in Direct Energy as a crucial component in overall security of the company. From the day they start work at the gas company, employees are made aware that if they see something unusual or suspicious they should report it. And whether it’s a security matter or not, Weir wants people to think they can call on security to help with the problem.

“Corporate security interacts with all the business units and we want them to know that we have better insight into who to call for help and say look I know we know we need to contact somebody so let’s contact security. It may be an HR issue or something somebody doesn’t know what to do with. It’s not about thinking outside the box; it’s about thinking inside the circle of everyone in the company,” he says. “In corporate security we’re not just securing our facilities and employees and properties, we’re also securing the brand and that includes our employees and their families as well.”

Weir is a big fan of PPM 2000’s Perspective Premium for reporting—all incidents in the company flow through there and employees are educated to report incidents through the company intranet and they then flow through Perspective.

› To read the full article…

On the Right Track

(as published in the Winter 2009 Issue of Security Matters Magazine) Excerpt

With PPM 2000’s incident reporting and investigation management software, companies can spot potential security risks and take steps to prevent them.

Have you ever installed a security measure, such as a camera or an alarm system, only to wonder how it can be used to analyze the prevention of further security-related incidents? Well, if you answered yes to this question then you may want to look at PPM 2000, an Edmonton, Alta.-based company that designs incident reporting and investigation management software solutions for corporate security professionals. Essentially, PPM 2000’s software allows companies to examine single incidents or look at the big picture to spot trends, assess risk and manage performance.

› To read the full article…

Scoring with Event Statistics

(as published in the November 2008 Issue of Canadian Security Magazine) Excerpt

When it’s game night in Edmonton and the Oilers are playing the Calgary Flames, Dave Suffern knows it’s going to be a busier night than usual.

It doesn’t take special software or statistical analysis to know this, but what reporting tools can help him with is in determining where the trouble spots are likely to flare up and what entry points illegal drugs might be coming from. With 16,500 fans at the Rexall Place, he can use all the help he can get.

Suffern, major event security manager for Northlands, the body that manages five entertainment and sports venues in Edmonton, knows he’ll have more activity going on in the stands when the Flames are in town—more than any other team—and staffs his security team accordingly for those nights. Knowing exactly where in the building he needs to place personnel has become easier thanks in part to incident reporting and investigation management software from Edmonton-based PPM 2000, which was put in place two years ago.

› To read the full article…