Four Security Facilities Operations Centers (SFOC) help coordinate security for global Internet solutions provider Cisco, which has hundred of facilities around the world. The newly built, state-of-the-art SFOC at San José, USA, has been designed with the latest technology and is staffed by hand-picked, specially trained security officers from Securitas.
The officers monitor alarms, provide emergency response and offer support to Cisco’s worldwide facilities from the center. The center houses 24/7 operations for monitoring local alarms and emergency response coordination in San José and campuses throughout the United States, Latin America and Canada. Securitas also provides physical security solutions for Cisco’s facilities in the U.S., Canada and Latin America through its National Account Management structure.
In all, Cisco has four Security Facility Operations Centers around the world: one at San José, California, one at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, one in Sydney, Australia, and one in London. Each operations center is a stand-alone facility that is responsible for alarm monitoring for a geographic section of Cisco’s global operations.
Not far from the SFOC in San José is the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), where all personnel can be gathered for crisis management. “The SFOC is able to exchange information with this room and push and pull data to them as well. So we’re using Securitas in a multiple ways throughout Cisco,” says Debbie Quintana, Cisco’s Global Security Facilities Operations Center Manager.
Global monitoring
“Traditionally, these types of operations centers have focused on response – monitoring alarms and responding to alarms,” she continues. “We’re pushing the envelope to be able to provide additional services such as weather monitoring, local and political issues that may need our attention, and we have designed this facility to be able to provide us with a broad scope view of what is happening throughout the globe.
”The technology utilized to monitor alarms, emergencies and the Cisco phone system shares the same platform. This enables Quintana to pull up a camera in Beijing or monitor an alarm in Australia if needed. Via the network, Cisco is able to pull video footage, monitor alarms, and make phone calls to or from any location around the world. In a major emergency, the system can also roll over from one SFOC location to another as necessary.
The San José SFOC is manned by four Securitas operators. “Each of the operators on duty has four monitors. All receive the same alarm, CCTV and video signals. The operators’ responsibility is to verify the incident or signal and then escalate as necessary,” explains Securitas Supervisor Gerald Quemuel.
About 80–90 percent of calls to the SFOC are from the San José campus, and there can be everything from 911 calls to generic questions.
“It can get really busy here during a crisis. A tool that works really well is the on-screen mobile tracker. It allows us to see where our mobile patrol officers are at any given time, so if we do have an alarm call, we can send the officer who is closest,” adds Quemuel.
Customer service attitude
Quemel says that security officers at the center are less likely to be recruited for their security background than for their strong customer service focus. They need to be friendly, good communicators and good team members – and know when to get serious. Focus and temperament are critical.
The training program that Cisco and Securitas provide includes classroom training, on-line training, and up to 12 drills per week on a variety of situations.
“We have built a very robust training program to ensure that the SFOC officers know very quickly what their role is in terms of emergency situations,” Quintana says. “In addition to medical emergencies, we have fire alarms, and they need to know what to do instinctively and quickly.
“The training program that we have here, as we partner with Securitas, is designed to ensure that the operators understand that they are dealing with someone’s life and that it is critical to be able to respond to and know exactly what to do within a split second. We’re very, very proud and very confident in our officers' ability to provide that service.”