Physical Security(Balancing Security Needs & Business Requirements)

Client Environment

The site was a high-rise mixed-use building located in an urban commercial area, with controlled access points. The tower housed tenants with international presence, visitors, and service providers at different times of the day.

Security Challenge

The challenge is to balance a sound security strategy with the organization’s operational needs and to avoid any negative psychological impact on people and the culture affected by the security program. In other words, it was to separate the back-of-house environment (restricted zone), the office environment (private zone), and the restaurant zone (semi-public zone) within a single high-rise that shares the same vertical transportation facility using a balanced security approach with minimal changes to the look and feel of the environment.

Carverisk Approach

Carverisk assessed the overall asset protection strategy of the high-rise building, along with the organization’s objectives, to understand how the office, back-of-house, and restaurant environments needed to operate, and identified the risks and requirements for each environment.

Key Findings

The security assessment identified that the proposed restaurant use introduced a different access and movement profile from the original office design of the high-rise building.

Our findings include:

• Each zone required a different security approach based on its environment and use
• Clear demarcation was required between the 3 environments
• A different access strategy was required to separate office tenants, restaurant customers, and restaurant staff
• Customer movement had to be managed without compromising the private office zone
• Lift usage required review to avoid mixing public customer access with controlled tenant access

Recommendations

Carverisk proposed a combination of process, guard force support, and technology solutions to deliver a security design that supported each environment within the tower.

Outcome

We delivered a solution that balanced security requirements with business needs by controlling access and clearly separating each zone. Each user group could access its designated area without compromising the overall asset protection program.

The restaurant operated at full capacity, while staff movement between operational areas remained within a restricted zone under continuous supervision and access control.

The office zone was not affected by restaurant customer or staff movement and remained secure.

Lessons Learned

Security should enable business, not obstruct it.

Confidentiality Note

For public release, we did not disclose the actual name of the facility or any sensitive operational security details that took place behind the scenes.