Rise in flexible working leads to greater reliance on automation and AI

As businesses adapt to the post-COVID era by offering employees greater freedom in terms of when and where they work, security professionals need to respond and keep pace with these dynamic and more fluid working patterns.

With the demand for flexibility growing, the need to monitor and protect premises and people alike becomes an ever-more complex task, in turn leading to a greater reliance on technology, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

As social norms begin to be restored across Europe, flexible working is fast becoming the modus operandi for many. The offer of greater fluidity for employees is not, however, without its challenges when it comes to those individuals responsible for the safety and security of such environments and the personnel within.

The hybrid or flexible working model is gaining momentum. That being so, the White Paper* highlights the opportunities available for the physical security professional who’s looking to unlock powerful business and security insights through Video Surveillance-as-a-Service and Access Control-as-a-Service.

Facilities, Human Resources, security and office managers need to adapt to the regular comings and goings of employees, of course, but there’s also a palpable upturn in the co-work space, a third dimension that sits between the office and the home-work set up, that has witnessed a 158% increase in openings over the past year.

With health security a key concern, it’s increasingly going to be physical security systems in the cloud that will unlock critical insights to support business decision-making based on intelligence derived from surveillance data.

Transformation process

Martyn Ryder, vice-president of sales and marketing at Morphean, explained: “The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the working world for many, opening up new possibilities around when and where people do work. Creating secure and more efficient office spaces relies on intelligence about current use. Using access control and video surveillance data from cloud physical security solutions allows behaviours and usage patterns to be analysed and relevant changes implemented as a direct result of insights, for example, about the number of people on-site and their movements within and around the premises. There’s a great opportunity here for the security professional to support a business model that represents the future.”

Morphean’s White Paper examines the use of modern cloud technologies to support the managers of the flexible office and co-work space by improving security and unlocking critical business insights.

Research into the attitudes of working professionals about the move to remote working as a result of the pandemic found that 74% expected remote work to become standard and that a significant 97% of employees don’t want to return to the office full-time. Many now deem the capacity for remote and flexible work to be the biggest draw for top talent.

Video Surveillance-as-a-Service and Access Control-as-a-Service are on-demand solutions disrupting the security market. An independent survey of 1,000 IT decision-makers across the UK, France and Germany (and conducted by Morphean) found that demand for such solutions across Europe is high. Of those considering Video Surveillance-as-a-Service and Access Control-as-a-Service, 79% anticipated introducing these solutions to their business within 12 months.

Indeed, the Video Surveillance-as-a-Service market alone is expected to experience huge growth, rising to a projected $US4.7 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 16.0%.

*Download the White Paper entitled How Can Cloud Physical Security Support the Flexible Working Model?