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Securing the Treasury

The National Treasury is responsible for managing South Africa’s national government finances. This highly sensitive national keypoint not only hosts a large number of employees, but also receives a fairly high volume of visitors on a daily basis. Access control is critical to the security of the facility, but was subjected to the normal problems associated with traditional access cards – buddy clocking, sharing of cards and the lack of anti-passback.

Management of assets was inadequate and high-risk data areas were being placed under threat by the existing system. ADI Global Distribution was approached by the National Treasury to design an access control and asset tracking system that would ensure that the theft of company and personal belongings would be eliminated and that access to sensitive areas was secured.

ADI required a subcontractor to provide a systems integration service based on unlocking the National Treasury’s requirements, as well as selecting and applying the correct solutions. ADI wrote the specifications for the project and EOH SBT (Security and Building Technology) was selected to undertake the 12-month implementation of the upgrade.

The departments most invested in the project were IT, human resources and security. The IT department were primarily concerned with logical access to rights and privileges as well as potential access to and theft of sensitive data. The HR department required full integration into the Treasury’s payroll system and the security department needed to ensure that this national keypoint was fully secured. The facilities department needed to gain control over asset tracking and matching.

The plan of action was to integrate the access control into the IT department’s Access Directory as well as into HR’s SAP and Oracle systems. The security department stipulated that anti-passback, video on alarm and customised events were to form part of their solution, while the facilities team needed to be able to identify Treasury and employee assets, track their movement in the building and match them to their owner at each of the checkpoints.

Asset tracking for mobile devices

This latter issue has escalated since mobile technology, such as smart devices and laptops, has become so popular with employees. The new system was required to immediately pick up a signal from the RFID chip placed on mobile assets, when passing through any of the entry or exit points within the building.

Prior to the selection of a total security solution, EOH and ADI conducted shootouts between various products, in the presence of both the IT and security managers. By using ADI’s global Honeywell solution footprint, the team was able to address all of the issues raised by the National Treasury.

A major challenge faced by the ADI and EOH team was the change in key personnel in the throes of the project implementation. This necessitated educating the new Treasury team on the advantages and goals of the system. “While hardware and software play a critical role in the success of any project, in this instance process and change management were equally important to acceptance of the solution,” says EOH SBT sales manager, Wayne Schneeberger.

A basket of Honeywell products was complemented by Visonic Elpas asset tracking solutions, a variety of Axis CCTV cameras and RFID chips. All solutions were applied according to EOH’s stringent ISO 9001 charter and the project was coordinated by EOH SBT project manager, Neil Scholtz, with progress checks made on a weekly basis. An SLA, outlining a planned maintenance programme, was implemented to ensure that the client was cognisant of the project progress at all stages. Feedback received from the National Treasury underlines the success of the project and the complete achievement of the primary and secondary goals outlined in the original project specification.

Schneeberger emphasises that clients should ensure that the technology solution they select matches their requirements. In addition, the system should be embedded into their business processes to ensure acceptance and sustainability.

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