Abstract:
A system, computer program product and method of correlating safety solutions implemented in a facility with the facility&#39;s business climate are provided. The system, computer program product and method are used for designing safety solutions for a facility. While doing so, a user such as a security consultant, may derive a plurality of variables from the safety solutions. The variables are used to calculate a business climate index and a safety level from which a value for a safety/climate coefficient may be calculated. The value of the coefficient indicates whether the threat level is greater than the security level, or whether the security solutions are adequate or too intrusive.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present invention is directed generally to impacts of security measures on business climates. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system, apparatus and method of correlating safety solutions with business climate. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Security consultants often focus on security/safety ramifications when implementing technology-centric solutions for a client. For example, if there has been one or more shootings in a bank or robberies of the bank, a security consultant may advise bank personnel to install metal detectors at all entry points to the bank to ensure that no one is able to enter the bank armed. This security measure may lead to a decrease or an outright elimination of shootings in the bank and/or robberies of the bank. However, depending on the number of customers who conduct business at the bank, this safety measure may impinge on the business climate of the bank. 
     For instance, if each time a customer goes to the bank, the customer spends between a half hour to an hour in line due to the installation of the metal detectors, the customer may decide to conduct his/her banking business elsewhere. In this particular case, although the customer may perceive the bank as being safer now than before, the customer may nonetheless decide that the extra time spent in line is not worth the extra sense of security. This is an adverse impact on the business climate of the bank. Obviously, the more customers that decide to conduct their banking businesses elsewhere due to the time spent in line, the more of an impact that safety measure may have on the business climate of the bank. 
     Thus, when designing a security solution for a client, a security consultant should take into account two arguably competing interests: (1) increase safety level as perceived by customers of the client and (2) minimize the impact of the increased safety mechanisms on the customers. 
     One method that may be used to ensure that before a safety measure is implemented the impact it will have on the business climate of the client will have been taken into consideration is to correlate the two competing interests to each other. Presently, no such system or method to calculate such a correlation exists. 
     What is needed, therefore, is a system, apparatus and method of correlating safety measures (to be implemented by a client) with the impact of the measures on the business climate of the client. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a system, computer program product and method of correlating safety solutions implemented in a facility with the facility&#39;s business climate. When designing safety solutions for a facility, a user such as a security consultant may derive a plurality of variables from the safety solutions. The variables include a security level, a threat level and an intrusion level as perceived by customers, employees and/or the user. Using the security level and the threat level, a safety level may be calculated. Likewise, using the security level and the intrusion level, a business climate index may be calculated. The business climate index and the safety level are used to compute a value for a safety/climate coefficient. Using just the value of the coefficient the user may determine whether the threat level is greater than the security level, or the security solutions are adequate or too intrusive. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  depicts a safety level vs. security level minus threat level graph. 
         FIG. 2  depicts a business climate vs. the sum of security level and intrusion level graph. 
         FIG. 3  depicts a business climate vs. safety level graph. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary table within which values of assessed and calculated variables may be stored. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a process that may be used to implement the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is an exemplary block diagram illustrating a distributed data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The safety level of a facility, as perceived by an observer, is a function of the security measures implemented at the facility if any (i.e., its security level) minus any perceived threat to the facility. This can be expressed as: S f L=S c L−TL, where S f L is the safety level, S c L is the security level and TL is the threat level. 
     This is illustrated in  FIG. 1  where it is shown that the safety level at a facility is directly proportional to the security level (of the facility)—minus the threat level (at the facility). For example, if there is a high level of security combined with a small amount of threat, the safety level is high. 
     The security level at a facility and the threat level of the facility can be gleaned from any, all or a combination of the following: system reports, observations, audits, surveys, expert opinions and anything else that may provide relevant data to arrive at such a conclusion. To quantify the security level of the facility after the security measures being envisioned have been implemented, a security consultant may have to determine on a scale of one (1) to five (5), for example, one (1) being the lowest and five (5) the highest, what value to ascribe to the security level of the facility based on the data gleaned above. Likewise, the security consultant may have to determine on a scale of one (1) to five (5), one being the lowest and five the highest, what value to ascribe to the threat level of the facility after the implementation of the safety measures based on the data gleaned above. 
     Further, the security consultant will have to calculate a business climate index. The business climate index may be defined as a function of a constant minus half the sum of the security level and the intrusion level of the security measures. In this particular case the constant is six (6). Thus, the equation to be used is: BC=6−(S c L+IL)/2, where BC is the business climate, S c L is the security level and IL is the intrusion level. 
     The intrusion level is defined, again on a scale of 1 to 5, to represent the amount of intrusion to a customer based on the combined amount of security systems installed. For example, video surveillance has a very low intrusion level (people are not affected by a camera in the corner of a room). Metal detectors, however, may have a high intrusion level especially when there is usually a long line for a customer to go through (i.e., customers will have to spend time in line each time they have to conduct business at that client&#39;s place of business). Thus, the higher the intrusion level, the more likely it is to affect business climate. 
     Again, the security consultant may have to determine on a scale of one (1) to five (5), one being the lowest and five the highest, what value to assign to the intrusion level of the security measures that are to be used. As can be seen from  FIG. 2 , the business climate index is inversely proportional to the sum of the security level and intrusion level. Note that as long as the security and intrusion levels are calculated to fall between 1 and 5, the business climate number calculated will also fall between 1 and 5. 
     From the business climate index and the safety level that a facility will have after implementation of the security measures, the security consultant may derive a safety/climate coefficient. The safety/climate coefficient is the safety level divided by the business climate index: Safety/climate coefficient=S f L/BC=[S c L−TL]/[S c L+IL]). 
     From this equation it can be seen that a negative coefficient means that the threat level is greater than the security level. Therefore, there is a low security level at the facility. If the coefficient is a positive number that is smaller than one (1), the business climate level is higher than the security level, which indicates that there is some room for additional security measures. If, however, the coefficient is a positive number higher than one (1), then the safety measures may impinge on the business climate of the facility. Hence, less intrusive security measures may have to be implemented. As is shown in  FIG. 3 , the business climate of a facility may be portrayed as being inversely proportional to the security measures used therein. 
     As an example, suppose a security consultant assigns a value of three (3) to a threat level and a value of four (4) to the security level of a facility, then the safety level of the facility is one (1): S f L=S c L−TL=4−3=1. 
     If the security consultant ascribes a value of one (1) to the intrusion level then the business climate index is 3.5: BC=6−(S c L+IL)/2=6−(4+1)/2=3.5 
     Thus, the coefficient is 0.2857: S f L/BC=1/3.5=0.2857 
     In this case then the business climate level is higher than the security level. Thus, more stringent security measures may be implemented. The values for this example may be entered into a table such as the one shown in  FIG. 4 . 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a process that may be used by a consultant when designing security solutions for a client. The process starts when a security consultant assesses the current or planned security level S c L of a facility (steps  500  and  502 ). After assessing the security level, the consultant may assess the threat level (step  504 ) then the intrusion level (step  506 ). Note that only industry accepted methods should be used to assess these variables. For example, only reliable data such as system logs, historical data, expert opinions, surveys, independent audits etc. should be used. Once the variables have been assessed, the consultant may calculate the safety/climate coefficient (step  508 ) by first calculating the business climate index and the safety level of the facility. Using the value of the coefficient, the consultant may determine whether the design/implementation of the security system is satisfactory (step  510 ). If so, the process ends (step  512 ). Otherwise, the consultant may change the design/implementation of the security system and the process may go back to step  502 . 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating a data processing system in which the invention may be implemented. Data processing system  600  employs a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus architecture. Although the depicted example employs a PCI bus, other bus architectures such as Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) may be used. Processor  602  and main memory  604  are connected to PCI local bus  606  through PCI bridge  608 . PCI bridge  608  also may include an integrated memory controller and cache memory for processor  602 . Additional connections to PCI local bus  606  may be made through direct component interconnection or through add-in boards. In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter  610 , SCSI host bus adapter  612 , and expansion bus interface  614  are connected to PCI local bus  606  by direct component connection. In contrast, audio adapter  616 , graphics adapter  618 , and audio/video adapter  619  are connected to PCI local bus  606  by add-in boards inserted into expansion slots. Expansion bus interface  614  provides a connection for a keyboard and mouse adapter  620 , modem  622 , additional memory  624  and an audio/video capture adapter  640 . Small computer system interface (SCSI) host bus adapter  612  provides a connection for hard disk drive  626 , tape drive  628 , and CD/DVD-Drive  630 . Typical PCI local bus implementations will support three or four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors. 
     An operating system runs on processor  602  and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system  600  in  FIG. 6 . The operating system may be a commercially available operating system, such as Windows XP, which is available from Microsoft Corporation or AIX, which available from Internal Business Machines Corp. An object oriented programming system such as Java may run in conjunction with the operating system and provide calls to the operating system from Java programs or applications executing on data processing system  600 . “Java” is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented operating system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive  626 , and may be loaded into main memory  604  for execution by processor  602 . 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in  FIG. 6  may vary depending on the implementation. Other internal hardware or peripheral devices, such as flash ROM (or equivalent nonvolatile memory) or optical disk drives and the like, may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in  FIG. 6 . Also, the processes of the present invention may be applied to a multiprocessor data processing system. 
     The depicted example in  FIG. 6  and above-described examples are not meant to imply architectural limitations. For example, data processing system  600  may also be a notebook computer or hand held computer. Data processing system  600  also may be a kiosk or a Web appliance. 
     The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.