As pandemic response management conversations have become a part of everyone’s daily life, business leaders are pressed to figure out how to successfully mitigate risks of an outbreak in their facilities. Physical security of facilities has made major advancements since days of signing in at a front desk to visit someone, and punching a time card before a shift. It is now more common for businesses and residential buildings, that security guards have been replaced by electronic badging systems and surveillance cameras. Employers are now able to quickly pull reports and use the records from these systems to enforce access controls where appropriate, and to discover how individuals had recently moved around within their facilities in the event of a problem. Businesses all over the world rely upon technology for physical and virtual security.
Enter Covid-19. Now the conversation of physical security is different. Not only are all of the previous concerns still relevant, now executives are also interested in managing contact tracing and enforcing social distancing. Contact tracing within facilities is a concept that the world appears to agree is needed, but there are multitudes of varying opinions on how to accomplish this as reliably as possible without violating the individual’s reasonable expectations of privacy. Human thermal imaging technology is becoming a topic of discussion while preparing workplaces to managing outbreaks of COVID-19.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a very viable potential means for business leaders to manage this conundrum. Bluetooth Low Energy is a form of wireless communication designed especially for short-range communication. Functioning similar to Wi-Fi in that it allows devices to communicate with each other over a short distance while requiring minimal power and bandwidth to do so, BLE technology can prove invaluable in your business’ approach to contact tracing. Due to its low power consumption, a single BLE chip is typically powered for multiple years on one battery.
How does this work as part of a unique Pandemic Response Solution? With proper integration to existing operations, the BLE unit will generate encoded short distance communications when within proximity of another BLE unit. These codes are anonymized and sent to a central server. Using Synnergie’s heuristic algorithms along with the anonymous data generated by the BLE units, triangulation of facility access points and contact tracing becomes simplified and easy to manage without compromising individual privacy or creating onerous processes or long lines at your facility entrances. Policies can be defined to find the right fit for your business, determining time limits for data collection on proximity – for example, when has a person been within six feet of another person for more than 5 minutes? These parameters can be adjusted to stay up to date with the most current guidelines for safety. Policies can also be determined as relates to how long data is to be retained. Algorithms will be implemented to allow your business to determine how individuals may properly be identified and contact-traced, notifying potential exposed individuals and referring for testing in the event of a positive infection of an employee.
The best part is that all of this can be done without compromising employee privacy as protected by HIPPA, FINRA, GDPR, you name it. BLE data is fully encrypted and can be tied to a system of employee ID which only HR departments are able to decode. This assures your employees that they can trust how their data is being gathered, and what it is being used for. The same cannot be said for certain other solutions.
As Pandemic Response Solutions evolve within the marketplace, Synnergie is set apart in that we have decades of proven technological integration expertise. As thought leaders in the modern landscape, we not only understand the nuances of today’s demands, we also understand the requirements of legacy systems of all types. Most importantly, we understand that the answer to the concerns of today is not likely to be one-size-fits-all. We understand that your business’ pandemic response plan is an important part of a safe return to the workplace. We understand that outbreak management is now a key factor in business continuity, Whether or not implementation of BLE makes sense for your business, we are eager to help your company find the right solution.
