NC4 - Experts & Thought Leaders

Everbridge, Inc., the global provider of critical event management (CEM) and enterprise safety software applications to help keep people safe and businesses running, announced the acquisition of NC4, a global provider of threat intelligence solutions that empower businesses, government organizations, and communities to assess and disseminate risk data and information to manage and mitigate the impact of critical events. The combination of NC4’s real-time threat intelligence and analyst teams with Everbridge’s existing Global Intelligence Operations Center (GIOC) analysts and market-leading CEM platform creates the industry’s only end-to-end threat assessment and incident communications and management platform for reducing the impact of internal and external threats to people and assets. Together, NC4 and Everbridge are providing the most comprehensive solution for enterprises and government agencies to reduce the ‘time to know’ that a critical event has occurred through to remediation, all from a single pane of glass. Expands the overall situational awareness This acquisition dramatically expands the overall situational awareness Everbridge will provide to organizations"“With NC4, we are adding the industry leader in threat intelligence, making Everbridge one of the largest providers of data for enterprise security and operations in the world,” said David Meredith, CEO of Everbridge. “NC4 offers the most comprehensive threat data in the industry and this acquisition dramatically expands the overall situational awareness Everbridge will provide to organizations, from incident identification to response, mitigation or ultimately, avoidance and prevention.” NC4 combines thousands of the most trustworthy data sources with an experienced team of analysts creating the industry’s leading source of verified data and hyper local threat intelligence. NC4 generates more than 27,000 geo-targeted alerts and nearly 700 incident reports each day for many of the world’s largest businesses, global organizations and government agencies, including over 100 of the FORTUNE 500. AI-Enabled incident collection “Verified sources and analysis eliminate the noise and enable us to generate the most impactful information while eliminating false positives,” said Karl Kotalik, President and CEO of NC4. The acquisition includes the NC4 Risk Center solution and NC4’s E Team Emergency Operations Center software “It takes the best of both worlds, machine learning and AI-enabled incident collection and human analysis, to generate the most meaningful intelligence. Everbridge’s market-leading platform, the breadth of its offerings, and the experience of its global team made for a natural fit with NC4. We look forward to aligning with the market leader to jointly provide organizations with unprecedented visibility into the threats and incidents that can impact people and business.” Innovative solutions for critical event management NC4 has offices in El Segundo, California, Merrifield, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. Together, Everbridge and NC4 form a global team of over 950 employees dedicated to delivering innovative, differentiated solutions for critical event management. The acquisition includes the NC4 Risk Center solution and the NC4 brand, as well as NC4’s E Team Emergency Operations Center software solution. The other NC4 products, including Celerium solutions for cyber security and Street Smart for law enforcement, will continue with the current owner. The aggregate consideration paid by Everbridge was approximately $83 million in cash and Everbridge stock. While the largest business component has been closed, additional components are not expected to be closed until the end of the third quarter. The acquisition, upon completion, is expected to be accretive to Everbridge’s non-GAAP financial results within twelve months, and Everbridge will provide further financial details after completion of the entire transaction. 

Immix Command Center software platform allows Sanofi to manage their cascading security environment Customer Boston-based biotechnology company, Genzyme is an organization dedicated to the research of rare genetic-related diseases. Acquired by French global healthcare giant Sanofi in 2011, Genzyme has made the security of its physical and intellectual assets a priority since the 1990s, and was among the first companies to define security as a process that encompasses enterprise risk, supply chain, insurance and liability, IT and physical security, and competitive technical information. After Sanofi's acquisition of Genzyme, the Boston subsidiary's security leadership became a model for the organization and therefore, was tasked with implementing security integration throughout the global enterprise. Streamlining Security Across The Globe Sanofi, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, decided to tackle one of the most common problems still facing a large number or organizations around the world today — how to go about integrating and streamlining a multitude of different security systems and sensors into one, easy-to-use interface. After careful consideration, Sanofi opted to implement SureView Systems’ Immix Command Center software platform as a way to not only easily incorporate information from a multitude of physical locations into their global security command center, but also provide an enhanced form of monitoring that would make the jobs of operators much more manageable. According to Bhavesh Patel, Senior Director of Security Operations and Technology at Sanofi, the company had as many as 32 disparate access control and video systems in North America. Following the deployment of the Immix platform, however, the security team at Sanofi worked to consolidate these and other physical security systems in use at the company’s numerous facilities, which include office buildings, laboratories and manufacturing plants. Sanofi actively monitors more than 150 locations from their Security Service Center, which range from buildings that house as few as three employees to office complexes where nearly 4,000 people work each day. Myriad Of Security Technologies Given the company’s large geographic footprint, Sanofi also has a myriad of security technologies in place including surveillance cameras and even more access control points that had been integrated into Honeywell’s Pro-Watch software. Additionally, Sanofi leverages NC4’s real-time threat alerting system, as well as tracking technology from FreightWatch. Rather than launch headfirst into trying to bring all of these various systems into the Immix platform at one time, Patel said that the company has taken “baby steps” in rolling each of them out so as not to overwhelm their Security Service Center (SSC) Analyst. “With Immix, there are multiple integration points coming into the system, as well as numerous sensors to help you make a decision as soon as you get that information” Auto-handling A Difference Maker Perhaps the most beneficial feature of Immix that Sanofi and its security personnel have seen the biggest return-on-investment (ROI) from is the auto-handling capabilities. Whereas in the past an email alert would come into an operator and they would have to open it to gauge its potential impact to the organization, email alerts are now filtered through Immix to enable users to quickly determine which emails need immediate attention and which do not. If something does require attention, Immix will automatically pull up any relevant security systems in the area of the alarm, such as surveillance cameras, and provide the operator with directions about what steps to take next. “Without Immix you would receive an email, you have to make sure you have your email client open, then you have to look at it and process whether it has an impact or not. If there is an impact, you have to pull up video or anything else you need to look at, versus now where everything is done automatically,” explained Patel. “Immix, based on the rules we’ve set says, you don’t need to look at this email because you set this for auto-forward, but the one you need to look at is here and I’m going to show you the email, where it is on the map and then I’m going to pull up the video for you.” This allowed us to reduce approximately 20% of the alarms and 5 to 10 minutes from one of our system. Reduce The Amount Of Time In addition, Immix has helped Sanofi reduce the amount of time it takes to train operators in their command center because they are using a single, unified interface as opposed to managing multiple interfaces for all of the systems they monitor. The ability to add predetermined steps for operators to follow during various security events has also enabled operators to become more efficient in performing their duties. “Obviously, if you are able to process steps across individuals alarms, it reduces the training time and also allows you to provide consistent service,” added Patel. “We have seen a reduction in the time it takes to manage alarms because the integrated components are pulled together in the same interface. With these disparate systems, we spent a lot of time training people to make sure they were managed correctly.” On average, we have reduced the amount of time it takes to train our operators from between 16 to 24 hours overall since we only have to train on one system. "The training around response has become much easier, so from an operator’s perspective, Immix has been a great asset" Patel said that they have also received a significant amount of positive feedback from their operators since the Immix platform was deployed. Mostly, this is due to the fact that Immix has simplified the management of its entire security technology network and subsequently, eliminated the need to learn and become proficient with multiple platforms. “Things that were not setup procedurally before, now they are setup in Immix and it is consistent. Immix allows us to manage our cascading security environment,” said Patel. “If an alarm does not get resolved at a site level, it automatically gets forwarded to our global Security Service Center so we do not have to have multiple procedures for the same alarm. The training around response has become much easier, so from an operator’s perspective, Immix has been a great asset.” Immix Stands Out From The Crowd According to Patel, what differentiates Immix from a traditional physical security information management (PSIM) system is that it provides end users with more than just a hodgepodge of converged data. Because of all of its moving parts, a PSIM platform is nearly impossible to implement to its full potential, however, Immix brings multiple areas of a security program together into one solution not just to provide information but to actually help the end user take action. “With Immix, there are multiple integration points coming into the system, as well as numerous sensors to help you make a decision as soon as you get that information,” explained Patel. “Immix is more of an enhanced monitoring tool than just a physical information system.” According to Patel, Sanofi has already integrated security systems at all of its North American facilities into Immix and they are currently looking to expand it to all of their international sites as well.