Consuelo Bangs

In 2019, the PSIA decided to have one of the most compelling demonstrations for its PLAI specification at ISC West 2020. It would rely on a cloud-based agent, which would allow attendees to badge and authenticate at various vendor’s stands who had implemented the spec. In 2020, technical development was progressing well and eight vendors were set to have PLAI implemented in devices and systems at their various booths and suites in Las Vegas. Of course, ISC West was cancelled, but the group was able to do a quick reset for a Virtual PLAI Experience six weeks later. Synchronising identity data The reception for the Virtual PLAI Experience was impressive, with over 400 people registered. On May 20, the event took place, with PLAI-enabled products in three countries (U.S., Ireland, and Switzerland) and seven states (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and Colorado) participating. The demonstration was conducted on Zoom which showed not only the main PLAI dashboard with products passing and synchronising identity data, but also each participant’s product performing after card authentication. PACS and biometric systems The members of the PSIA were particularly gratified to see the enthusiastic response to our PLAI demonstration" David Bunzel, PSIA Executive Director, noted, “The members of the PSIA were particularly gratified to see the enthusiastic response to our PLAI demonstration. Hard work by the participating companies allowed us to show PLAI performing in a real-world environment similar to how it will be used in commercial implementations.” Two weeks later the PSIA hosted a Q&A session with industry professionals which provided time for deeper discussions on how PLAI could be deployed in enterprise applications. “The PSIA has demonstrated that PLAI is ready for commercial deployment,” said Consuelo Bangs, Sr. Program Manager at Idemia Identity & Security. “Our ability to pass identity data to multiple PACS and biometric systems and synchronise them in real time will offer a significant benefit to our customers.” Significant commercial implementations The PSIA has a video recording of the Virtual PLAI Experience on its site and is working on a condensed version of the demo to share with industry professionals. Momentum is building in the market for PLAI with a number of commercial implementations in large enterprise customers in process. “PLAI is satisfying a critical requirement for some of our large customers,” said Stuart Tucker, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions at AMAG Technology. “We expect to announce some significant commercial implementations of PLAI this year.”

The PSIA will show continued momentum for its Physical Logical Access interoperability (PLAI) spec at ISC West 2019. “In past demos we were able to show some exchange of records between PACS systems, but this year we will have five vendors, and demonstrate existing employee identity data sets, which can be passed to other systems in the security environment beyond having just a clean start,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. Physical security systems Biometrics, an important component of enterprise physical security systems, will also be featured in the demo. Princeton Identity has previously demonstrated its PLAI adapter and at ISC West 2019 we will be showing new adapters from EyeLock and IDEMIA. Two of the major physical access control (PACS) vendors, Johnson Controls and LenelS2, will show their new commercial PLAI adapters at the demo “Having the ability to transfer employee credential data so that associated biometric identifiers can be constructed and utilised with existing access control systems will be a valuable feature for our customers,” said Consuelo Bangs, Senior Program Manager, IDEMIA Identity & Security USA LLC. “This will save time and money by eliminating redundant record creation.” Two of the major physical access control (PACS) vendors, Johnson Controls and LenelS2, will show their new commercial PLAI adapters at the demo. Critical components “Our enterprise customers have complex environments with high costs for integrations and identity synchronisation today, and as a result these customers have been looking for solutions. PLAI provides an effective means to support these industry needs,” said Jason Ouellette, Product General Manager- Access Control, for Johnson Controls. One of the critical components is the introduction of an independent commercial PLAI Agent by Cruatech of Dublin, Ireland. This Agent acts as a central hub, to allow interchange between disparate PACS and biometric vendors. “The introduction of the Cruatech Agent offers the means to effectively provide solutions to enterprise customers, solving an important problem in the industry–finding a method to have a single trusted source in an enterprise environment,” said Bruno Desrochers of Tech Systems Inc.