While physical security professionals have suspected a shift toward increased involvement of the IT department in physical access control, recent research has shown this to be true. A recent survey of more than 1,500 IT Managers, Directors, and staff, as well as Chief Information and Chief Technology Officers, found that IT departments are now more involved than ever in an organization’s physical access control decisions and implementation.

According to the survey, more than half (55%) of respondents reported IT as primarily responsible or having shared responsibility for access control within their organization. As a result, IT leaders are tasked with spearheading not only the protection of their company’s network- and cybersecurity-related initiatives – but also those set forth by the Physical Security department to protect employees, visitors, and assets from internal and external threats. Similarly, the study showed that the IT department will increasingly play a role in physical security to influence technology decisions (76%) through the integration of access control within the ecosystem (72%), implementation of access control technology (59%), and through the management of access control systems (39%).

Along with the added responsibility to help implement security solutions alongside IT-related projects, IT leaders are also increasingly responsible for budgeting decisions within physical security. According to the survey, more than 85% of respondents reported that IT was involved in decisions regarding physical access control technology investments. Have you asked the question: Do you know who is in your building? Do you know who is on your network? Do you have the budget to protect it? Can we identify who is on our team?

If you are concerned about physical access in addition to computer and network security at your facility, ADVANTIDGE encourages you to start the conversation with turnkey solutions that typically cost less than $200 per user. Be confident and have a plan before you become the next news headline.