Snohomish County PUD's Challenge

Snohomish County PUD is a very large organization. Maintaining over 5,800 miles of distribution line, the PUD provides public power (and some water) to Snohomish County and Camano Island, Washington. This makes them the second largest publicly owned utility in the Pacific Northwest and the 12th largest in the nation.

The PUD provided protection to more than a dozen remote sites through the use of electronic access control, limited video surveillance, intrusion detection, and alarm/panic button monitoring through a central security center. Unfortunately, each system operated independently of one another, with no single solution to integrate them into a whole system. As new government regulations began to request more out of the PUD organizations throughout the Nation, Snohomish County PUD knew the feature set of their current system could not continue to meet their needs.

In order to proactively solve any regulatory conflict, the PUD engaged ASG to assist in the design and implementation of a single security architecture that would allow for the integration of their access control, intrusion detection, and video surveillance systems.

Learn how ASG helped SnoPUD use a standardized security solution to manage a variety of local and remote security needs.

Spokane Transit Authority

When the project began, a proprietary Video Management System (VMS) was selected based on the manufacturer’s reputation and STA’s existing network infrastructure and procurement history. While the original VMS chosen claimed the features STA desired, upon implementation of the product, STA quickly discovered that the platform did not integrate with the features of its preferred cameras. Specifically, the VMS did not support the camera’s motion capture capabilities in a way that would align with the desired method of monitoring video, a vital feature for the surveillance system.

STA was faced with a dilemma. The original technology chosen did not align with the processes in place within the organization and would prevent STA’s people from using the technology in ways they relied upon.

This dilemma created a difficult choice: keep implementing the chosen technology and find a way to work around the limitation by changing the organization’s processes, or discard the current technology choice and pick another technology that would better integrate with the existing processes and technology. To compound the problem, Spokane was soon to host the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships (and the selection of the Olympic team). As the primary transportation provider for the event and with their downtown facility, The Plaza, being used as a key transportation hub, having an operational video surveillance to system to support security was critical for this 10 day event.

This case study will showcase how ASG was able to incorporate Spokane Transit Authority's importance of aligning their people, processes, and technology to create organizational value.

Download the case studies to learn how ASG helped these organizations improve their security challenges.