A Reflection on Symmetry™
By AMAG Technology, President, Matt Barnette
Over the past 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of watching the Symmetry product line grow and evolve, and I am both impressed and amazed at its breadth and feature set. As 2014 comes to a close, I am taking a moment to reflect on the product and some examples of how it has helped our customers protect their employees, customers, students and visitors.
One of the great things about Symmetry is that it scales seamlessly from very small to very large systems. Small business owners can purchase Symmetry Business software for only $99.00 plus an inexpensive two-door PoE controller! Users can harness the rich feature set inexpensively, while investing for the future. For example, BCIT, a post-secondary school in Vancouver, Canada, installed Symmetry with a dozen readers in 2000, and now, after its most recent upgrade, Symmetry secures over 600 doors!
We are gradually expanding our sales of our own Symmetry Video Management System as organizations understand the benefits of cost and security response advantages of selecting a single fully integrated solution. A real world example is a major commercial data center operator which uses over 5,000 cameras with Symmetry video. Choosing Symmetry access control and video management met their corporate strategy objective of selecting one manufacturer for both their access control and video needs, and to provide a powerful security management system that could grow with them over time. For over seven years, Symmetry has delivered a fluid, streamlined security system that is installed in 32 data centers across 15 countries – and it continues to grow every year!
Fairly recently we introduced our OneFacility hosted solution which provides a new set of sophisticated security software for our customers. One of the world’s largest banks uses OneFacility to provide a comprehensive risk and vulnerability assessment for their facilities, and uses it to report, track and analyze over 50,000 incidents per year to make it a safer place to work and conduct business. The OneFacility emergency preparedness system manages emergency response team training and recertification, and simplifies emergency procedures with maps and easy to implement processes in the event of an emergency. The automated system keeps employees safe and the bank compliant with OSHA regulations.
In conjunction with OneFacility, Symmetry provides that same bank with credential authentication and compliance while integrating several disparate systems into one security platform that covers 9,000 sites and 17,000 card readers. The disparate systems are managed by OneFacility as the upgrade to the Symmetry SR Retrofit solution is implemented. The bank can upgrade to Symmetry as time and budget permit, yet remain in compliance with a full security system in place.
At AMAG, we are always looking for innovative ways to evolve our products to meet your changing needs. As a result, Symmetry V8 supports the ONVIF Profile S plug-in, providing more IP camera options to our customers than ever before – including AMAG’s new Symmetry HD Camera line.
Our new OneFacility Virtual Command Center offers a seamless geographic understanding of security-related events through maps to determine potential impact on business operations. This geospatial technology offers end users a better understanding and speeds response to threats.
As the year ends, I reflect on how the Symmetry Security Management System has made a big impact on the safety and security of so many lives and businesses. Growth through new products, such as V8, the EN-2DBC and Symmetry HD camera line, and features such as ONVIF compatibility and Virtual Command Center, demonstrate AMAG’s commitment to providing state-of-the-art, unified security solutions for our customers. While I am proud of our 2014 accomplishments, more work is ahead of us as we always strive to provide product excellence and exceptional customer service.
