About the client
At the heart of Florida's high-tech corridor, the University of Central Florida (UCF) stands as a beacon of innovation and opportunity. Known for its sprawling campus and vibrant community, UCF is a launchpad for the leaders of tomorrow. As a metropolitan research university, it prides itself on its dedication to solving the pressing challenges of the future, fostering academic and operational excellence that resonates through every aspect of its environment.
UCF is distinguished by its robust commitment to innovative learning, discovery, and technology. With state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge resources, UCF provides a dynamic setting where students and faculty alike can pursue groundbreaking work in a safe and secure environment.
The university consistently explores methods to sustain its secure environment, recognizing that safety is a vital element in retaining students. Historically, its security infrastructure was made up of multiple, disparate systems, and access control systems traditionally fell within the domain of the IT department. IT took proactive steps to identify and implement a robust access control solution that would meet their stringent selection criteria and this led to the selection of acre security Access Control, a solution that would later be embraced as the campus standard.
The challenge
Initially, with seven to eight different systems across various buildings, nothing was centralized — a scenario that posed significant challenges in terms of security management and efficiency. Recognizing this fragmentation, the UCF security teams pushed for a standardized solution across the campus. As funding became available, the university progressively moved towards this centralized approach that laid the groundwork for future expansions and upgrades.
The solution
The journey toward a centralized access control system was driven by a blend of forward-thinking leadership and technological necessity. Steven Freund, Director of the Department of Security at UCF, sought to move away from the process of administering access controls within specific domains and expanded the vision to integrate control access across the entire campus.
We recognized that the piecemeal solutions scattered across the campus were inadequate for the university’s growing needs. Our ever-evolving campus required a centralized, scalable solution capable of supporting a vibrant and expanding academic community.
- Steven Freund, Director of the Department of Security at UCF
Enter acre security. As discussions between UCF’s security team and the acre team unfolded, it became evident that a centralized approach was the ultimate goal but one that couldn’t be achieved overnight. Acre’s solutions offered the opportunity to centralize management but also advanced features that could push UCF’s security infrastructure into the future. These included campus-wide lockdown capabilities, immediate updates, and enhanced coordination with law enforcement — a critical upgrade in emergency response protocols.
The result
The transformation has spanned several years and continues today, phased meticulously to align with available funding and to minimize disruption to students and staff. UCF, it’s long-term integrator partner Signature Systems of Florida and acre security work hand in hand, customizing the system to meet the unique demands of such a large and diverse institution. Each phase of the rollout has been marked by careful planning, extensive testing, and continuous adjustments based on feedback from various stakeholders.
As new systems have been brought online, the benefits became increasingly apparent. Security operations were optimized, allowing personnel to manage and respond to incidents with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Centralized control means that, at the push of a button, the entire campus could be locked down, securing all buildings and facilities instantly, and system management can be completed remotely. This operational flexibility was a game-changer for UCF, ensuring that security personnel could react swiftly, during critical situations.
By addressing the limitations of our fragmented security measures, we have not only enhanced the safety of our campus but also strengthened our operational framework.
This initiative and our partnership with acre have empowered us to better protect our campus community while fostering an environment where innovation and learning thrive.
- Steven Freund, Director of the Department of Security at UCF
And looking ahead, there are more goals on the horizon. UCF is planning to continue its shift from any traditional key-based entry systems to a more secure and efficient card-based system, and plans to integrate video surveillance with access control for greater situational awareness.
I don’t like to just maintain the status quo. I’m looking for ways to deploy technology to make security better.
-Steven Freund, Director of the Department of Security at UCF
