FedExField makes HR and facility management more efficient and more secure with the MAAC solution for for stadium access management and control. Mobile Authentication and Authorization Control offers:
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Benefits of the MAAC System for the Washington Redskins: • Reduces costs and labor-hours in HR planning and management • Streamlines and simplifies workforce scheduling for every event • Automates scheduling of multiple suppliers of contracted staff • Reduces requirements for security personnel through efficiency gains; for example, guards monitoring staff arrivals and departures reduced by half • Credentials all employees including contractors and volunteers with robust dual-factor identification, eliminating buddy punching • Makes check-in more efficient, reducing gate delay and decreasing concession ramp-up time • Enables processing via a single checkpoint, increasing security and reducing loss to pilfering • Reduces requirements for security personnel through efficiency gains • Generates real-time reports and warnings on staff deficiencies for improved personnel planning and management • Automates the reconciliation of event work schedules with payroll files, ensuring positive identification of time and attendance marks • Issues action and alert/notifications of emergency situations across the entire system • Automates scheduling of multiple suppliers of contracted staff for each event |
Think FedExField and you're likely to think of the Washington Redskins, the NFL team for the Nation's Capital. Upwards of 700,000 of professional football's most devoted fans pass through the stadium's turnstiles each season to enjoy an afternoon or evening of competition on the gridiron. But this 82,000-seat facility in Landover, Md., hosts other major events throughout the year, including college football, soccer matches, and rock concerts featuring acts such as U2 and Paul McCartney. It also hosts private events such as social affairs, corporate functions, trade shows, and more. Making the guests at all FedExField events feel at home is the job of thousands of stadium employees, contract personnel, and seasonal workers who provide everything from catering and custodial services to maintenance and concessions. As many as 5,000 personnel may be on duty before, during, and after a major event such as a football game or rock concert. Such a constantly changing support environment poses significant security challenges that extend beyond screening guests when they enter the stadium. While that would be true of any major sports venue, it's a special concern for a stadium situated just a few miles from the nation's capital. Leaders of industry, members of Congress, and even the president of the United States regularly take in games at FedExField. Facility operations staff need to ensure that the right personnel are scheduled for each post and each position. They need to ensure that only personnel scheduled to work a certain shift at a certain event are authorized to enter the facility on the day and time in question. They need to verify that personnel scheduled to work actually report for duty on time. And, they need to assure the identity and safety of VIPs and other special visitors. Safety for all concerned "our Number One priority" Responsibility for managing these complex arrangements ultimately falls to Chris Bloyer, vice president for operations at FedExField. A 10-year veteran of the organization, Bloyer ensures the smooth management of day-to-day affairs at the stadium, which includes the security of guests, players, and employees alike. "The safety of all those attending events at FedExField is our number one mission," Bloyer says. A challenging aspect of security has traditionally been assuring employee identification, which was an arduous process with several layers of manual tasks. "The employees were screened through human resources and credentialed," Bloyer recalls. "On event day, the personnel were cleared into the stadium through a manual check-in process. So you can imagine how cumbersome that would be." That inefficiency prompted Bloyer and the organization to undertake a search for a better way to credential and check personnel into the stadium. "We wanted a solution that would automate the processes involved, where we could have access to real-time information and know that the employees that were in the building were actually those scheduled to work that day," Bloyer says. "We have as many as 5,000 employees and contract workers per event, but it's not always the same 5,000 people. We may have credentialed someone and then scheduled them to work the first game of the season but not the second game. But they still have a valid credential in their possession." MAAC eAccess System for robust venue access and security. Manually confirming that an employee with a valid credential was actually scheduled to work a particular event greatly slowed the check-in process. The solution they wanted should provide a very secure, "smart" credential that would automate the process of validating personnel for each event. Organization officials turned to Telos ID, a leading provider of identity protection and management solutions, and its Mobile Authentication and Authorization Control (MAAC) system for secure venue access control. MAAC is a complete, integrated system that lets security officials at stadiums, concert halls, convention centers, and other event venues quickly enroll employees and contractor personnel, manage their work schedules, and verify their identities and their authorization to work for a particular event. They can also get real-time information about who is and isn't in the building, including alerts about possible security violations such as unauthorized use of a credential. Such reports and alerts could also be used by police to help investigate security breaches or as evidence in court. The MAAC eAccess component of the MAAC system has enabled the organization to rapidly create credentials for its employees. After personnel have gone through a background check, enrollment is a quick and simple process, with employees receiving their credentials on the spot. According to Bloyer, "We enter the data into the MAAC system, we register their photograph and a fingerprint, and issue them a photo credential that's linked to that information." That information is housed in a central database that can be accessed locally or remotely using wireless handhelds or mobile devices anywhere on the grounds of the stadium. In fact, Bloyer notes that dual-factor authentication was one of their critical criteria for selecting the MAAC system. "We issued standard photo IDs to many of our employees, but some just had paper IDs or wristbands. Dual authentication gave us a photo credential tied to a specific person's record with their fingerprint. That gave us the assurance that the person coming through our access point was the person we wanted to be there for that event." While this helps prevent unauthorized use of employee credentials, Bloyer notes that this is also important because of the large number of volunteer groups (known as NPOs – Non-Profit Organizations) that often work a concession stand for a day. "There might be 10 different people from a community group working a concession stand for a particular game, and it could be a different 10 for every game." These volunteer workers might have been given a disposable ID such as a wristband in the past. But with MAAC, they can quickly and inexpensively generate robust dual-factor credentials even for casual or single-event labor. MAAC eScheduler supports online workforce management. Previously, personnel managers had to put together unique work schedules for hundreds of employees by hand. But with schedule templates that can be copied for re-use and rapidly customized for each event, what once took two days now takes two hours. MAAC was deployed at the beginning of the 2009 football season. Bloyer reports that access to FedExField on game day is easier than it was with the previous process. "The manual process required us to have a single check-in station with a checklist of people for each group coming in. The check-in station was staffed with a stadium security employee who would ensure that the people showing up that day were in fact scheduled to work that day." "With the automated process, all personnel – employees, contract personnel, volunteers – enter through a single checkpoint," Bloyer says. Users gain access to the stadium using a simple two-step (card swipe and fingerprint verification) process. "Stadium security simply ensures that the person coming in has successfully completed this process by a simple Green (access granted) or Red (access denied) status on the monitor." He also notes that the speed of processing has increased so much that they would be able to move the check-in station to a more efficient location for the upcoming season, which would not have been possible before implementing the MAAC system. Assuring visitor security with visitor management FedExField has also expanded the capabilities of their MAAC solution with MAAC eVisitor, which extends identity management capabilities to temporary visitors. The system issues temporary badges to visitors, VIPs and contractors requiring access to the facility for day-to-day business as well as on game or event days. As part of the initial verification process, a visitor is checked against watch lists and if clear, a temporary badge -- customizable by date and facility access privilege -- is issued to the individual. Their information can be entered into manually or by scanning documentation such as a driver’s license. The MAAC eVisitor system also captures and logs detailed information to provide a complete access history. This capability proved its value recently when security officials were asked to confirm the dates of attendance for some VIP guests. With the MAAC eVisitor component, officials were able to quickly verify their attendance on the date in question. Flexible and scalable for future growth. A significant element of MAAC is its flexibility. There are times when particular situations call for tighter security parameters – for example, when a particular VIP will be attending or when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security increases the Threat Advisory Level. "With the MAAC system, we can – on a moment's notice and in real time – review our access records, change our access criteria if necessary, and even re-locate our access points," Bloyer reports. "This gives us a lot of agility in how we deal with people who are in the building and people who are coming to the building." Over the next five years, as many as 35,000 people will be enrolled. This rapid expansion of the user base reflects not only the ease of adding and managing personnel to the MAAC system but also the organization's ongoing commitment to the security of its guests, players, and personnel. |
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