Superior Software for UW Credit Union
ICT’s Protege GX was chosen over 20+ security systems by UW Credit Union based on its superior software performance.
UW Credit Union is a federally insured financial institution serving the needs of its members through world-class technology systems. In a quest to find the best access control and security system on the market to replace their aging Verex system, UW Credit Union looked at more than 20 providers over a six-month period. The hardware on the walls mattered little in comparison to software that they would use to secure the branches.
The client wanted a proven, centralized system for each of the branches, and they needed the system to perform exactly as required, with the ability to integrate seamlessly out-of-the-box with a range of third party systems.
It quickly became apparent after our initial conversations that ICT met these requirements and had a strong product offering,” says UW Credit Union’s Andre Poehnelt.
Intelligent, intuitive software
Focusing much of its evaluation on the software side of the products under review, UW Credit Union found that “ICT’s software provided us with integration into our Active Directory environment, multiple options for configuration, and a great amount of detailed information in regards to system status and events”, according to Andre.
The company was also keen to take advantage of Protege GX’s licensed customizable Visitor Management software.
High-quality user experience
According to Andre, one of the key challenges UW Credit Union wished to address with a new system was “ease of management”. User experience (UX) ranks highly in today’s access control and security market and is directly linked to customer satisfaction. Fortunately, UX has always been at the core of system design at ICT, and rates as the key measure of the success of a system.
High level integration
Also high on UW Credit Union’s list of requirements was a system’s proven ability to integrate seamlessly with third-party systems with respect to both software and hardware.
Active Directory
Protege GX integrates with the Credit Union’s Active Directory environment, enabling operators to log in automatically to Protege GX using Windows credentials and providing centralized authentication and the convenience of single sign-on.
Video Management
Protege GX integrates seamlessly with the video management system used by the Credit Union, to control cameras and view live and historical video footage.
Inovonics Wireless Devices
ICT’s Inovonics Wireless Receiver Module is designed to facilitate integration between Protege GX and wireless Inovonics devices. It contains the Inovonics EN4200 Echostream receiver which translates incoming Inovonics signals so that they are understood by Protege Controllers.
Transitioning with ease
UW Credit Union ran a one-month trial installation of Protege GX at a single branch, then transitioned to an aggressive cutover schedule to minimize the amount of time running multiple systems. This meant plenty of ‘on the hoof’ learning for operators around configuration and programming but as Andre notes, “The staff at ICT were very responsive and helpful addressing issues that came up, and ensuring that the end result was what we wanted.”
