Global Cardholder Management

Multi-site cardholder and credential synchronization

Deploying a security and safety system includes more than just installing hardware and software, especially in large multi-site deployments where upgrades and maintenance can be complicated, time consuming and resource intensive. With the Security Center, we’ve taken the concept of a security system’s lifecycle, from installation to maintenance and updates, to the next level. Customer feedback and a review of every day security operations have given light to a product where maintenance and deployment is just as important as a rich set of user features such as viewing video, visitor management, and license plate matching, among others.

Global Cardholder Management is an enterprise-class feature that enables organizations to centrally manage and configure cardholders, cardholder groups, credentials, badge templates, and more. New cardholders and credentials will be synchronized to all participating sites, no matter their location. Moreover, new or existing cardholders and credentials can be added or modified remotely, which will then be synchronized to the central site and all other participating sites. Changes in one geographic location can therefore be propagated to all other locations.

The end result is a truly global system where you only need to enter cardholders and their information once in the system. Once synchronized to other remote systems, cardholders will automatically inherit access to these other locations. Global Cardholder Management also allows you to work with a single credential or card that can be used anywhere in the world. As such, managing multiple credentials per cardholder is no longer required, drastically improving your efficiency in managing employees with access to multiple sites. You can also create badge templates in your central office and send them to various locations, ensuring the same badge printing format is used throughout your organization.

Overview of the Security Center's Global Cardholder Management feature for Synergis systems. Click to view a larger version.

Global Cardholder Management Architecture Overview

In a typical setup, a number of remote sites with independent Synergis access control installed will be linked over an IP network to a central site, e.g. your organization’s headquarters or main office. Each remote site will have a Global Cardholder Synchronizer enabled which ensures there is information flowing between sites. Cardholder information and custom fields, cardholder groups, badge templates, and credentials will be synchronized by the synchronization mechanism; it is automatic and seamless.

Key Functionalities and Benefits of Global Cardholder Management

There are a number of functionalities and benefits available when you activate the Global Cardholder Management feature.

• Centralized configuration of cardholders across dozens or hundreds of sites.
• Cardholder information only needs to be entered once, either locally or remotely.
• Remote configuration changes will propagate to the central site and other participating remote sites.
• Single corporate card solution where employees can use one card to access all of your facilities.
• Automated synchronization between central and regional sites.
• Create standard badge templates which can be circulated to all sites to ensure consistency
• Regional or remote sites can maintain local autonomy in parallel with central activities

Independence of Local or Regional Operations

While the Security Center offers centralized cardholder and credential management, it nonetheless supports the independence of remote security operations. Security and IT departments in remote sites are able to monitor their local access and video systems and make local configuration changes in parallel with any centralized management conducted at the Federation site (e.g. corporate headquarters). This is further assurance that when communications between a remote site and the Federation is disrupted, remote operators can continue to work on their local systems as usual.