It’s a wonder that Mark Domnauer gets any rest. 

As Corporate Security Director for Adobe Systems Incorporated, Domnauer has risk coming at him in all shapes and sizes, and from any direction. Whether it’s a smartphone or tablet app, a game, video, digital magazine, website or online experience, chances are that it was touched by Adobe technology. The company’s tools and services enable its customers to create groundbreaking digital content, deploy it across media and devices, and then continually measure and optimize it based on user data. But all that means constant innovation and collaboration with partners such as Apple and Google at various Adobe sites. And access. “Every industry is different, but in Silicon Valley, it’s all about access and enabling workers, not restricting them,” he explains. “We work with diverse partners and many people come onto our sites each day to collaborate with us. We have to protect our assets and intellectual property while allowing them to move freely.  Making the two world mesh in a scalable and measurable way is a challenge.”

Domnauer’s staff, regional security managers for the Americas, India, Asia Pacific and Europe, implements corporate security guidelines to the company’s offices around the world. Ensuring that the Adobe offices are secure is the result of policies based on “who can have access to what and why.  We are, if you will, entrusting the 'keys' to people, not machines,” he says.      

“We have a tightly controlled process.  There are procedures to get non-Adobe workers on site which, once approved, assign access based on their role, location and their need. The process is fully automated from hire to term including all access changes in-between. Any manual changes in the access control system are flagged on exception reports.  This gives us a completely scalable and auditable process,” Domnauer explains. “Access control is the gate keeper; every perimeter door is alarmed or has a badge reader, and we move people through central points with turnstiles to eliminate tailgating. We know who comes on site, thanks to our access control and visitor management system with security camera back-up,” he says.  

The system, SAFE Secure from Quantum Secure, allows Domnauer to manage the lifecycle of identities as they relate to physical access. It allows him to streamline access request and approval processes across multiple types of people, user-access profiles and physical access systems. This approach lets him create worldwide business policies and workflows.   

More importantly, security is not the only area within Adobe that benefits. “Procurement can track their vendors: how many people visited and when, if a vendor has 10 workers on site or 20, how many workers are showing up for work and who could work off site, for example. It has helped us to manage our office costs,” he says. Additionally, real estate and facility teams can track office occupancy levels and determine how sites are utilized. Expansion decisions can be based on the utilization of the work stations, not the number of workers assigned to the office, resulting in Adobe configuring more flexible workspace options, he says. “Adobe is a leading-edge, technology-driven company, so when we find a partner using our technology, we collaborate with them to solve problems.”    

With his access control system in place and secure, Domnauer says that his biggest challenge is making sure that the systems have scalability. “We deliver a lot of high-end services to the company, and I need to ensure that they are scalable with our mergers and acquisitions,” he adds. “Adobe’s philosophy is to ensure that new employees have an ID badge on day one of their employment, even if the employee was acquired through an acquisition the day before,” he explains.

For Jos Giele, director of corporate security for Con-way Inc., protecting against risk means protecting the total supply chain within company facilities and on the road. Con-way Inc. is a $5.3 billion freight transportation and logistics services company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich. The company is a leader in the transportation and logistics industry and delivers services through its primary operating companies of Con-way Freight, Con-way Truckload, and Menlo Worldwide Logistics. These operating units provide high-performance, day-definite less-than-truckload (LTL), full truckload and intermodal freight transportation; logistics, warehousing and supply chain management services; and trailer manufacturing. 

The most challenging part of his job? “Ensuring protection when facing risks, due to external circumstances we can’t control in advance,” he says.

He and his staff use theft prevention tools and stringent access restrictions to company facilities, emphasizing ongoing training and incorporating prudent modification of the company’s yard and facility layouts. “It’s satisfying to work on an international platform that provides tailor-made solutions in mitigating identifiable risk,” Giele says.  

It’s the same approach at Whole Foods, a retailer of natural and organic foods throughout North America and the United Kingdom. Mario Ruiz is the associate facility team leader at the company’s Aurora, Colo. distribution center that distributes to 27 stores in the Rocky Mountain region. The 110,000 square foot warehouse handles produce, meat, cheeses, seafood, bulk items and more through its 23 bay doors for shipping and receiving. Along with the bakery, the two facilities supply 28 Whole Foods stores in their four-state region.

As progressive as the company is, access to the facility used to rely on lock and key and keypads to manage access control for the 170 employees of the combined operations. In 2010, however, under recommendations from the USDA, the FDA and a food-terrorism audit, the company quickly changed its direction and faced risk head-on, Ruiz says. “We had not faced major theft, but the audit showed us the kinds of risks that we were facing that maybe we didn’t know about,” he says.

Ruiz implemented a Web-based access control system from Brivo, and very soon Ruiz felt comfortable managing the amount of risk the warehouse faces, he says. He uses the system to divide the employees from the warehouse and bakery, as well as outside contractors, into separate groups depending on each person’s specific access needs.  He uses the system’s alert feature to warn him when doors are left ajar, and he regularly runs reports for time and attendance information to monitor employee lateness.

The solution also tied in forklifts through an InfoLink system to monitor data for OSHA compliance. Drivers log into forklifts with the same card they use for building access.

“Everyone has badges, we’ve got a feeling of greater security, and the auto lock feature is great for management — we’re more in control,” he says.