Overview

Automated and standardized processes in alarm management save a lot of time, effort, and costs. That is why Swiss Post started operating a new alarm management system about two years ago: With evalink, Swiss Post defines and automatically forwards verified alarms to intervention forces. As a provider of the fully managed, highly automated, and flexibly expandable alarm management platform evalink, Sitasys is the right partner to support the ongoing digitalization of Swiss Post. By 2023, all 800 Swiss post offices will be migrated to evalink.

Challenges

The landscape of post offices operated by Swiss Post is very dynamic, and the network with its self-operated post offices is subject to constant change. Accordingly, new locations, contacts, calendars, and workflows must be created or deleted frequently. Alarm systems in newly opened post offices need to be commissioned quickly to protect them effectively against burglary from the very first minute. Message lists that determine who is to be contacted in the event of an alarm must also be always kept up to date.

To successfully tackle these dynamics, Swiss Post must depend on a flexible alarming system. However, since data maintenance was the responsibility of the external control center, Swiss Post could only make data changes by filling out Excel files and sending them to the control center via e-mail. The control center then, in turn, had to file them correctly. Manual work like that is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. In addition, each change implied a significant administrative and control effort for Swiss Post.

Since part of Swiss Post’s security processes were stored with an external security service provider and could only be viewed on request and exclusively as a PDF, it was difficult for Swiss Post to standardize processes. The external and manual processing of Swiss Post also proved to be cumbersome in the event of an alarm. In addition, the interventions unnecessarily triggered by false alarms caused high costs. The internal administrative effort and the expensive services of the external control centers also generated disproportionately high costs.

The digitalization of its processes is a strategic priority for Swiss Post. However, external security service providers were often limited in providing the necessary support in this matter. To avoid physical receivers causing additional costs in their acquisition and maintenance, alarms were to be made available in a virtualized form towards digitalization.

Solution

Automated standard processes significantly simplify the procedures when an incident occurs. For this reason, a few standard processes have been defined. In these workflows, Swiss Post can define which steps of the alarm verification are to be performed. In the event of a real alarm, object-specific information is thus automatically forwarded to the respective contacts and intervention units: Key holders of the post offices are informed via SMS, e-mail, or VoIP calls, and intervention forces are dispatched in real-time. In addition to VoIP alerts, the same information can be sent via SMS, e-mail, etc.

evalink provides Swiss Post with an alarm management system to design and guarantee security at minimal cost and effort. evalink can be obtained in a subscription model that requires no initial investment but provides a great deal of flexibility, control, and easier access to innovations.

The many integration options for video management, access control, or even building automation via its evalink marketplace open further possibilities for integrated security solutions for Swiss Post. In addition to virtual alarm management and call management, which Swiss Post already uses, this allows Swiss Post to network and expand its alarm management system with integrations such as video management systems and access control, if desired.

Results

Flexibility in a dynamic environment

evalink is as dynamic as the branch network of Swiss Post. Thanks to evalink, Swiss Post can now make changes to message lists or contact data independently, at any time, and quickly, in a simple and precise manner. With evalink, Swiss Post no longer depends on a control center to do this for it but always retains control over the correctness of the stored information. This not only saves coordination time but also increases the independence of Swiss Post.

Simplified processes through standardization

Standardized processes create reliable results. Thanks to evalink, Swiss Post now has access to its security processes at any time, which are presented visually in a simple way that everyone can understand. Using automated and standardized workflows, Swiss Post unburdens its employees and benefits from time savings.

Certified quality 

Compliance with quality standards plays a central role for Swiss Post. evalink can guarantee this through multiple certifications. "Without evalink, it would be difficult to find a compatible alternative that could provide similar security certificates as required by Swiss Post," says the person responsible for the technical security of Swiss Post’s post office network.

Significant cost savings 

The advanced automation and analytics capabilities of evalink reliably ensure that intervention teams are not dispatched without an alarm being reliably verified first. In addition to the savings resulting from the reduced administrative effort, Swiss Post has significantly reduced its alarm handling costs since the start of the project, thanks to evalink.

Future-proof alarm management

Instead of the traditional alarming via a control center, which is still a standard in Switzerland today, evalink enables Swiss Post to implement a largely automated alarm management solution. With evalink, Swiss Post relies on a guaranteed future-proof alarming solution.