technology Dell and Lenel Grow Globally, Together CASE STUDY OnGuard Delivers Flexible Capabilities and Ability to Handle Eventualities That We Couldn t Even Yet Predict. At age 19, Michael Dell founded PC s Limited with $1,000 and a vision for how technology could be better manufactured and sold. By 1988, after just four years in business, Dell completed an IPO, raised $30 million, and soon introduced their first laptop (in 1989). This explosive growth created many challenges and because of the nature of their business, security and access control were two significant concerns to address comprehensively. Today s Dell is much more than a PC manufacturer. The company is a global leader in customer-centric solutions, delivering the tools that help businesses and organizations grow and thrive. Dell is now an end-to-end solutions provider and a true IT solutions partner offering a valuable, differentiated view of the enterprise. Returning to the Dell chronology, by 1998 two locations in Nashville, TN and Austin, TX comprised the extent of security needs. The security staff of two began to assemble some ad hoc, disparate access and analog video components to fill access and security needs of the moment. Over time, the solution evolved to Casi-Rusco access control and Nice-Vision CCTV as primary systems managed at several independent command and control centers. Fast forward to 2002. By this time, with 50+ facilities now worldwide, the array of security and access products had grown substantially, but were not able to be intelligently integrated. Lenel was able to provide a segmented enterprise system that allowed both a global and local administrative perspective, as well as an integrated access control and CCTV packaged solution.
2 CASE STUDY : Dell Searching for a smarter global solution During 2002, Dell set out in search of a more universal, truly global platform that could be centrally managed. We knew what we needed for capabilities and a feature set, but we also wanted a solution that had the flexibility and scale to grow and accommodate eventualities that we couldn t even yet predict, says Jeff Hearne, Director of Global Security Technology at Dell. Certain features were clearly mandatory. Central management of global access where every cardholder would have entry to every facility worldwide. Tight integration of access and digital video. Comprehensive integration with HR systems. Video and back-end environments that would meet the criteria of Dell s IT standards and could be managed by IT system partners. Because of these must-haves, the extensive and expansive capabilities of Lenel and OnGuard Enterprise filled the bill in a superior fashion to other solutions evaluated. Lenel was able to provide a segmented enterprise system that allowed both a global and local administrative perspective, as well as an integrated access control and CCTV packaged solution, notes Nathaniel Adamson, Global Administrator of Global Security Technology for Dell. Support and enterprise level management services were also critical, and Lenel s international scope and reputation helped us determine that OnGuard was our best choice. Later in 2002, the transition process to OnGuard Enterprise was initiated with conversion of existing sites, while simultaneously deploying OnGuard as the global standard for new Dell sites being established. The extensive and expansive capabilities of Lenel and OnGuard Enterprise filled the bill in a superior fashion to other solutions evaluated.
3 CASE STUDY : Dell OnGuard Enterprise at Dell today Fast forward once more to 2012. Here s what Hearne says about OnGuard today. We describe it as a globally functional enterprise class solution that meets or exceeds our needs in terms of providing access control functions, CCTV recording and review, badge credential management, and overall physical security mitigation that is capable of being managed by a highly centralized and limited-resource team. With over 100K employees and 250+ sites around the world, OnGuard Enterprise delivers extensive capabilities and advantages to Dell, protecting corporate office campuses, manufacturing sites, data, call and design centers, and fulfillment/production warehouses. And as Dell continues to evolve toward a G-SOC (Global Security Operations Center) model, they will continue to aggregate and integrate more services and capabilities into OnGuard. Dell s current OnGuard footprint is impressive, encompassing 150K+ active badge holders 500K+ archived badge holder records 5.5K+ proximity readers and associated door-control hardware 475+ OnGuard control panels Nearly 5K cameras across the globe 320+ Dell servers for video (running Lenel Network Video Recorder software) 85 Dell servers for the application, database, development, and virtual environment (running Lenel/OnGuard application/software) Nearly half a Petabyte of storage 1M+ system transactions per day Because of their huge array of facilities and requirements, Dell integrates a wide variety of security and access assets and peripherals with OnGuard, including Digital video By utilizing OnGuard for both access control and video, Dell achieves a natively integrated video solution that reduces compatibility issues and the operator learning curve. It also allows Dell to tie video events to access events without having to utilize or maintain custom APIs. Integrated alarm management Bosch receivers for integrating and monitoring burglar systems are in place across the world of Dell. OnGuard has pre-built configurations and integrations with these Bosch receivers. Smart cards and biometrics To plan ahead for future flexibility, we have begun to deploy smart cards HID iclass Multi-Functional cards to our employees as they are brought onboard, or as new cards are issued, Adamson says. We anticipate using both smart card technology and biometrics as we go forward to safeguard both federal business and internal datacenter locations.
4 CASE STUDY : Dell Fire alarm integration OnGuard serves here as a redundant fire monitoring system. Dell s fire service provider is the primary agent for fire-related equipment and monitoring requirements. Intelligent video The company takes advantage of standard OnGuard Intelligent Video functions, including motion detection, object left behind, and other practical features/notifications. Visitor management Dell has recently standardized on the OnGuard Visitor Manager Application to fulfill visitor-logging requirements, and it s now an integrated requirement of their access control solution. Enterprise architecture Adamson summarizes Dell s fully deployed enterprise access control system in this manner: One of Dell s core requirements for an access control system is providing every employee with access to every Dell facility. To accomplish this, Dell requires a truly global enterprise system that can replicate, or propagate, access to each employee at every building globally. This is a significant challenge considering Dell has approximately 150,000 cardholder records and that the typical access panel does not have enough memory to handle this. OnGuard has a system for accommodating this issue, known as Selective Cardholder Downloads, which allows us to facilitate this solution in a streamlined fashion. Future functionality via APIs Dell is investigating the use of IDV s Visual Command Center as a spatial visual reference for both OnGuard-provided data, as well as subscription-based intelligence as a part of its global security posture. Benefitting from Lenel s world of Global Services Dell extensively benefits from Lenel s Professional Services, At least once a week, according to Adamson. Professional Services utilized include Remote Managed Services (RMS), and Custom Solutions (CS). They ve also implemented four applications developed by the Custom Solutions group that is part of Lenel s Global Services capabilities Active directory integration Global user replication Data-Exchange for HR data Custom tables, triggers, and reports for contractor reporting Dell takes advantage of Global Education, with seven employees currently OnGuard-certified. Each person has attended one or more instructional courses at a Lenel training site. Ongoing certification is maintained through the Lenel Distance Learning program. Adamson also cites the advantages of Remote Managed Services as being critically important to Dell. RMS has proven to be invaluable to us many times, as it s been able to find and alert us to issues that traditional server monitoring applications have not, he states. With the assistance of our RMS Manager, we have been able to initiate specific problem monitoring to isolate and resolve problems we were otherwise unable to correct, until after the problem was manifested in a system failure. This has been highly instrumental in maintaining our system health and uptime.
Maximizing Lenel service and support expertise Because of scope and complexity of operations, Dell works closely with and relies on Lenel s service and support engineers, tech support team, and other experts. Dell has an assigned RMS Manager who oversees their enterprise system maintenance and provides statistics and recommendations for system sustainment, improvements and repairs. A typical first approach to problem resolution is to initiate a trouble ticket through the Lenel Technical Support website or telephone system. As Dell typically has complex problems, tickets are most often escalated up to Level 2 technicians and Dell s RMS Manager is also involved in troubleshooting and determining a solution. If the problem is specific to an RMS supported function, Dell contacts their RMS Manger directly. Thanks to their volume of interaction with service from Lenel, Dell appreciates initiatives where Lenel makes an extra effort to address and solve issues quickly. Lenel once sent a system engineer to us to examine our system performance and network functions to evaluate some of the replication problems we were experiencing, Adamson recalls. Having the engineer on site, able to observe, and help us get to the heart of the problem aided us in resolving the problem in a far more efficient manner. (Note: The results of this evaluation, and subsequent knowledge gained, will be integrated into the next release of OnGuard for the benefit of all of our customers.) Hearne seconds Adamson in placing great value on Dell s relationship with Lenel. Lenel has been exceptionally supportive of our growth, always taking our needs into account and addressing key issues in our enterprise space, he says. We view the Lenel team as partners in helping us move forward, not as just a vendor or supplier. Corollary benefits of OnGuard Security Suite components Dell has found that optimizing the OnGuard Area Access Manager has afforded them the flexibility to extend access granting and door management to teams outside of their Global Security organization. This delivers added value in the area of compliance, as Dell can now remove Dell Global Security (DGS) as the primary responsible party for insuring access rights to specific controlled areas. Local teams can now manage, and account for, each specific areas of responsibility. Bottom line: greater empowerment combined with cost savings and more streamlined operations. lenel.com (866) 788-5095 2013 Lenel Systems International, Inc. All rights reserved. Lenel and OnGuard are registered trademarks of Lenel Systems International, Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. CS_Dell_062613