Valassis Saves Costs and Time with Siemens Remote Access Management Solution
Valassis is a leading media and marketing services company.The company is one of the largest distributors/processors of coupons in the world. Founded in 1970, Valassis is primarily a business to business company that helps its customers reach mi llions of consumers every day through products including:
Valassis also has a consumer brand, RedPlum, which offers coupons via mail, newspapers and online.
In addition, Valassis partners with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the U.S. Postal Service, to distribute pictures of missing children as part of its “HaveYou Seen Me?®” picture program to over 60 million households through weekly newspaper distribution and 90 percent of U.S. homes via shared mail. Of the more than 2,000 children featured through the program, 1,100 have been recovered through photo distribution programs like this and other efforts.
To continue keeping its 7,000 employees safe and maintain continuity in its security operations, the company engaged Siemens Industry, Inc., Security Solutions, to implement a Remote Access Management (RAM) solution.
Client objectives
Valassis was looking for ways to reduce costs, yet keep employees and operations safe and secure and maintain and even increase efficiency. The company managed an in-house Security Operations Center located in Windsor, Conn. The SOC was staffed by five full time employees, plus two part time backups.
The staff was responsible for managing access to 21 of the company’s facilities and monitoring alarms for their operations, which are spread out across the United States. Many of the company’s plants operate on different schedules, making it necessary to staff the SOC 24 hours a day,7 days a week. The administration involved in managing these resources was time consuming.
Cost containment was a factor, as well. Valassis was looking for a way to minimize the costs incurred with servicing and maintaining their access control and monitoring installations.
Siemens solutions
Siemens implemented a Remote Access Management solution for Valassis. The solution included:
Managing the access control head end, including cardholder and change management
Alarm monitoring and management
Solution optimization, including running reports on unused cards and managing the cardholder database
Badge production for 21 of the company’s sites
Tailored solution of securely administering the system by connecting to their on-site servers through a dedicated workstation at the Central Monitoring Station
The access control solutions enabled Siemens to reduce the amount of management needed to manage the staff and physical space where the SOC was located.
Valassis also has a service agreement with Siemens to ensure regular and timely updates and maintenance. This helps the company manage their security budget more effectively, and eliminate unplanned service costs throughout the year.
Client results
Through the RAM solution Valassis was able to save approximately $270,000 annually in salary and benefits alone. Factoring in the equipment and supplies needed to maintain the system, Valassis is saving significant costs. Additionally, Siemens helped save the company timea nd resources through access control management. Siemens worked with Valassis to retool the processes and procedures for active alarms to ensure more accurate and timely responses.
In addition, the companies partnered on redeveloping access control procedures to more quickly manage change and ensure excellent service to Valassis employees.
The RAM solution has allowed Valassis to focus on their core business and eliminate elements of their security operation that do not impact bottom line.