In large enterprises today, personnel on the corporate security, legal due diligence and risk management teams often work in silos. But if you were to draw a Venn diagram over the work these people do and the tasks that they perform in their day-to-day, you’d see a lot of overlap.
Sitting at the intersection of that Venn diagram are a series of questions. What am I dealing with? Who am I dealing with? And how will their potential actions impact my company? These answers are usually found in a set of tools that aren’t integrated, thus resulting in siloed data and an amalgamation of disparate technologies.
The fact is that these corporate functions are interconnected. The tools they use should be as well. An emerging class of new technology facilitates integrated research in a centralized system of record to put information in the hands of the people who need it fast – whether it’s to prevent a workplace violence incident, conduct research on a POI, or triage an incident.
Breaking Down Silos to Enhance Insight
A system of record for security teams can drive alignment, consolidation, and even transformation within an enterprise by breaking down those traditional silos and enhancing operational efficiency. There are a few ways centralized, connected, and integrated research tools can support these efforts for security teams:
Insider Threat Prevention: Few threats can be as pernicious as those posed by an insider – for the misappropriation of money, the theft of intellectual property, or even workplace violence, to name a few. Human resources teams need to collaborate with their counterparts in security to coordinate investigations quickly and thoroughly. It’s even better if HR’s system and data can be integrated with the security’s team’s research tool to couple real-time and historical public records data with employee incident tracking and status. Both HR and security also keep a pulse on the emotional climate of an organization, and its community. That may mean keeping an eye out for increases in crime, drug abuse trends, and the economic climate of the community. When signs of emotional or financial stress are present, that may indicate elevated risk.
Executive Protection: The security and well-being of an organization's leaders is critical, especially with travel back in full swing and hybrid work here to stay. Centralized, integrated research tools can offer several advantages. On the proactive monitoring front, they can generate real-time and historical intelligence that includes rapid identity resolution for suspicious individuals, or reputational threats posed by associates. Executive protection teams can also partner with risk management teams to develop in-depth travel planning and pre-travel risk reports.
Due Diligence: In the world of mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and strategic vendors, every detail matters. Researchers and investigators in this field are often tasked with uncovering hidden reputational and financial risks, conducting market intelligence and stakeholder analysis, building risk and due diligence reports, and diving deep into litigation records. These teams often draw on experts from a number of fields, including law, finance, law enforcement, and private investigation. When these teams have the most comprehensive research tools at their disposal, they can accelerate strategic decision-making across the board.
Real-time security and operations: The global security operations center (GSOC), is a major nerve center of many organizations. It coordinates responses to major incidents, from natural disasters to protests, to other threats to the normal operation of the business. It also helps to establish situational awareness and eliminate noisy signals. As a result, professionals in the GSOC interact with colleagues in communications, logistics, human resources, and so much more. They need access to real-time alerts, visualization of threats, and additional research resources to provide context to those situations and threats.
Turning Data into Stories and Insights
A single piece of data is just that -- raw information. It is siloed, and often devoid of meaning.
But when we bring additional pieces of information together, we begin to see the outlines of a broader story.
A successful corporate security strategy relies on information, and it relies on researchers and investigators across several corporate functions to gather and analyze it. The emerging systems of record can transform the research process for investigators, going from a single data point to a broader, contextualized story in minutes. Harnessing this shared insight and breaking down these silos empowers organizations to respond more effectively and proactively to potential threats and opportunities.
Manish Mehta serves as the Chief Product Officer at Ontic where he is responsible for the company’s product strategy and market execution of best-in-class software used by Fortune 500 and developing enterprises. Mehta has driven disruptive innovations in the software industry for over 30 years from the earliest days of B2C eCommerce at scale, the adoption of social media across all major departments within a large enterprise, to the development of a big data platform and infrastructure to support digital marketing across global industries.
