Combining Corporate-Wide Security

When Minneapolis-based Ceridian, the second largest payroll processor in the United States, implemented its move to a new, company-owned headquarters, company officials prioritized parking ramp security, life safety and corporate-wide access control.

Life safety

Ceridian’s new five-story, 260,000-square-foot headquarters utilizes a security and life-safety system that integrates a broad range of security options: subsystems for access control, intrusion detection, fire alarm/life safety and closed-circuit television (CCTV), as well as digital badging, intercom, paging and sound. Individual systems are linked to a common database and conveniently displayed.

Security had to be arranged for internal, entrance and exit doors and for a sizable parking ramp. Security concerns—intruders in the building, minor thefts and assaults—had been escalating in the old headquarters. Consequently, the goal was to design the new building to avoid such problems from the start.

CCTV and access

Parking-ramp security arrangements included fixed cameras at entrances and complete pan, tilt and zoom coverage of each corridor of the ramp. Camera coverage was carefully checked to ensure that there were no blind spots, and emergency call boxes were also provided. The CCTV is monitored around the clock.

Building-wide, some 20 doors are provided with access control. Ceridian subscribes to a philosophy of an open work environment to encourage shared work arrangements and collaboration. This is carried out within the new corporate headquarters, where only a few high-vulnerability areas like the local-area network (LAN) room, telecommunications closets and payroll operations are not accessible to every employee.

The building is fully sprinklered and protected with a fire-detection/voice-evacuation system that is integrated with the security system. Application-specific smoke detectors are highly resistant to false alarms—a major consideration for Ceridian’s security group, which had formerly been plagued with unwanted alarms. Laser-beam smoke detectors at two levels monitor the building’s five-story atrium. To add visual information to the signals and intelligence provided by the detectors, the life-safety system is tied into the CCTV network.

Remote locations

A major consideration in the selection of the system was its ability to provide remote networking control, simultaneously monitoring multiple assets through a portal. Access control for all major U.S. sites is managed from corporate headquarters through the integrated security and life-safety system. Well before the move, the headquarters security group began bringing the eight remote locations on-line. The first remote location—Boston—was started up in 1999.

The networking program was one of the most complex tasks in the installation. The Minneapolis LAN was Ethernet-based, two New Jersey sites were token ring and the rest utilize dial-up connections.

As a convenience, the dial-up sites can also be disconnected for stand-alone operation. Local panels store information until their memories are full, then they are reconnected for updating and maintenance.

In the future, the security group would like to monitor all smoke and fire alarms from the central Minneapolis location, just as it presently does with access control. Also on the wish list is substituting digital recording for tape as the technology matures.

Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.