Mark Rowe discusses access control and more with the security manager of the building that hosted the latest ASIS quarterly seminar.
What better way to report on an access control system than to experience it’ Once I had worked out how to push the revolving door of the public entrance of Inmarsat, I found myself in reception. I looked for signage. A sign pointed to the ASIS spring seminar. I looked in that direction. A member of staff in a blazer, slacks and white shirt asked if he could help, and escorted me to the ASIS desk, where ASIS UK admin manager Jude Awdry checked my name against a list. I was there, so I was given a swipe card and delegate card with my name – mine for the day. Smooth and prompt service for those with authorised entry, that at the same time does the job of securing the site from unauthorised people.
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Later in the day I explained to John Cooper, Inmarsat Security and Business Continuity Manager, how the access control system left me a satisfied customer. He explained that conferences – of up to 400 people – are not unusual in the building. ‘You must have a template on how you are going to deal with it, so you can fall back on the procedure.’ Those attending the ASIS UK spring seminar were left in no doubt about the use of security passes – the procedure was laid out on the back of the programme posted to attendees, beneath the ‘where to find us’ map and the ‘actions in the event of a fire alarm activation’ from Maurice Champion, Inmarsat Health and Safety Officer. A sheet of paper with the five-point security pass list was waiting for ASIS attendees again, on their seminar room desks.
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The Inmarsat – short for International Maritime Satellites – headquarters stand at 99 City Road in London EC1, next to Old Street Tube station. Inmarsat own the building, and have tenants – ranging from lawyers on the eighth floor to a diplomat to the proverbial dot-com company with young staff. Tenants pay for security among other services such as cleaning. John said: ‘The tenants have their guests, Inmarsat have their guests, so it needs to be controlled, but not overly controlled. It’s very relaxed, as you can see, but if you don’t have a badge on, you would be challenged, which is right and proper.’ In dealing with the tenants, John said, he does have to be diplomatic, customer-facing, while putting his point across strongly enough. It takes tact, too, to ensure that the tenants of the building accept one another enough to rub shoulders with one another, which is not the same as socialising with one another. The security department, then, must not show favouritism to anyone. That fairness to all tenants – with tenants in return having to keep to their security responsibilities – must start at reception. Whoever reports to the reception desk, a visitor or guest of a tenant, that person must be escorted from reception by the tenant, wear the access control-ID while they are in the building and be escorted back to the reception. No ‘see you’ at the lift which gives the visitor or guest the opportunity to get lost or roam.
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John said: ‘Invariably, the front of house reception security are the first to become aware of any issues.’ A call to John might not be strictly-security-related but what he calls ‘customer-facing’, requiring him to handle a dispute between (say) someone on switchboard and a client who has a complaint. There the need is to not be overbearing, and not to cause a situation yourself. John sees it not so much as pure security management, but making a secure environment for all concerned, without being officious, and without making people feel uncomfortable or unwelcome: ‘Getting that right has been one of my major tasks.’
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John, an Inmarsat employee, reports to the head of facilities Richard Rayner day-to-day, and operationally can report to the vice-president, managing director and chief executive officer on security and business continuity matters. Inmarsat and the tenants share ID. If the tenant suffers a break-in or is holding a conference, they call John. As for a conference, John will ask to meet the organiser a couple of days in advance, and explain the building rules. Someone from the conference should be at the front desk with details of who is expected; that is, a representative of the organisers must accept some responsibility for the event. If any conference attendee were to leave the seminar area, they would be picked up in the ‘security envelope’. Your ID pass is programmed for the duration of the event only, and allows you to swipe you card at the turnstile (a Speedstile from Gunnebo) once, and to swipe it again to re-enter the building; no more. The reception team, trained by John, regularly get letters of thanks from outsiders praising them for their polite service. But that does not mean they are a soft touch. No cold callers. The security officers, in blazers and slacks, are around – to watch for tail-gating; and to help – even to open the door of the seminar room during a coffee break. John said: ‘No-one gets in my building unless they are accepted or they are wanted.’
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Inmarsat recently had its CCTV upgraded to digital recording, ‘which is excellent’, John reported. The firm monitors Old Street Tube station’s CCTV with links to British Transport Police. John works closely with the Met, City of London Police and the Diplomatic Protection Group.
What of the business continuity half of his title’ BC indeed makes up half of his job, he said. ‘We are a satellite company; we have sateillites up in orbit.’ As a provider of a live service – making possible, for instance, rescue by land, sea and air – if anything happens to the headquarters, the service has to continue. Hence Inmarsat has a 24-7 mimic site for satellite operation; and a ‘hot site’ (in the January 2002 issue, Brian Hancock, Security Adviser at Guinness, explained that ‘hot site’ is another building, off-site,dedicated for an immediate use of yours). Some 15 divisional co-ordinators are responsible for making sure their division’s BC plans are updated; John writes the tests and scenarios to make sure the plans are fresh. John does not carry out BC for the tenants; that is, John can do BC for them but it does not form part of the terms of reference. What of the security aspects of an evacuation, and invacuation – returning to an evacuated building’ In a genuine emergency, the building is handed over to the emergency services. A false alarm would be picked up quickly, John says, because of the procedure of floor reports from fire wardens – whether they see flames or smoke, for example. Thus security staff can build a picture of how genuine a fire alarm is. If the fire alarm is genuine, the emergency services must be called in, and the building is cleared until it is declared clear. Then the security staff, fire marshals and maintenance staff make sure that fire doors are locked so that access can only be through the main reception. And before a re-occupation of the building, those members of staff and marshals responsible must check lifts, for example, are functioning.
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What of John’s background. He is ex-Coldstream Guards (1971-86) ‘and very proud of it’. Briefly, he served as a prison officer, and did not like it; he has worked as a security officer. On leaving the Army, he worked at Credit Suisse Boston for eight years, in security and building safety. There he took the NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) health and safety certificate. In his time at Credit Suisse he helped in the move from Oxford Street to Canary Wharf. Seeing that project from building core stage onwards helped him in knowing what is expected in a building. He joined LIFE (London International Financial Futures) as a consultant and finished there as one of the security co-ordinators. Then for two and a half years he worked for Ford as a Y2K consultant – helping to ensure that Ford Europe doors were Y2K-resilient – and started at Inmarsat in October 2000. Thanks to that career progression, John understands where health and safety is coming from, and what it sets out to achieve: ‘Health and safety and security do go hand in hand.’
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John’s job does not end at the revolving doors. People may come in from the street after a road accident or a mugging; reception will ring for an ambulance. Nor does Inmarsat wash its hands of staff security once they are out of the building:
– John has arranged for more lighting outside the building;
– patrols outside have ensured that the building is free of graffiti;
– and staff have been trained in sensible use of mobile phones, because phone-snatches are a problem. It’s OK to use them in the lift lobby; not so on the street.
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That man in blazer and slacks who pointed me in the right direction at reception was one of the contract guarding staff from Profile Security. A security uniform has to command a degree of respect, and people with a query have to know who to put a question to. On the same subject, the security officer has to be respectful to customers without being over-zealous. John said of uniform: ‘They look like security officers. I did make a conscious decision as to what I wanted them to look like. I wanted them to look different from the normal population, but at the same time not unapproachable. It has got to be soft – I know it sounds silly; but the days of regimental security are gone. They have got to be service providers. I do interview each guard that we have, and they are given three days’ training here witha written test of everything they do and I do interview them after that if they have been successful, or if they have failed. And I work with the guarding company to make sure the security staff we have here are good.’
