In my 2020 year in review, I remember reflecting on how much change had occurred in the physical security industry during the tumultuous time that corporations, executives and humans were experiencing. I also remember assuming that my 2021 post would be much easier to write as the world would inevitably return to “normal”…well, you can’t always be right (don’t tell my son).

The continued influx of security incidents across nearly every sector was the catalyst for Ontic to continue to push the boundaries of disruption and innovation in ways many may have not thought possible. It’s because of our clients, who arm us with consistent feedback and are so open to sharing their knowledge, that we were able to do so.

As I reflect on some of the quantitative pieces of Ontic’s growth, I am most focused on the success stories we have heard from our clients. The real-world examples of how the use of the Ontic platform transforms the way they perform their daily tasks, evolves their programs and creates a safer environment for their employees and customers is what motivates the entire Ontic team.

Ability to manage intel over time
Being organized should never be underestimated. And I am not talking about your spice cabinet — it’s how you’re organizing and tracking past, current and potential future threats to your business. Manually searching and documenting information leaves room for error. Plus, it’s time spent that could be better deployed elsewhere. Every analyst has good intentions but they’re being inundated with threats and tools. Therefore they often don’t have enough time in the day to properly address potential situations. Today’s modern security professionals have to be afforded the opportunity to work smarter, not just harder.

In our 2021 Mid-Year Outlook State of Protective Intelligence Report surveying 300 physical security and IT leaders, 82% agreed that given the unprecedented increase in the physical threat landscape, every company needs to implement threat management platforms so employees, stakeholders and regulators have confidence (and proof) they are doing everything possible to keep their people and assets from physical harm.

For one Ontic client, a global pharmaceutical company with multiple campuses, keeping tabs on threats in a geo-specific way was critical for staying ahead of activity but difficult to do given the volume of data and the manual approach to managing it. Having all available information in one central source that is continually updated gave the Intelligence Analyst the ability to see ahead and anticipate what’s around the corner. It also gave them something that is hard to quantify but can’t be underestimated: confidence.

Increased reporting efficiency
Sharing the complete picture of a threat is critical, but extremely challenging in today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape. Delivering a report of activity to those that need to know can be time-consuming and daunting — as it’s easy to forget to include contextual details from past incidents. Having all information available in one place that’s easy to understand and share is a gamechanger in proving the value of security’s effectiveness.

Another Ontic client, a Fortune 100 consumer packaged goods company, is thankful for the added time they have in their day, as they are no longer spending eight hours piecing together information. Leveraging Ontic, they’re now able to generate an even more robust report in just 30 minutes.

Keeping a dispersed workforce safe
Feeling safe at work has extended far beyond the boundaries of the office walls and into hybrid and remote work environments. Knowing where employees are located and checking in properly to ensure they have the resources they need to feel protected is critical to maintaining a safe workplace. Threats beneath the surface are often the most likely to bubble up into a larger issue.

For a Fortune 100 financial services company, this scenario played out when threats to an employee from a former domestic partner were brought to the attention of their Threat Assessment Team. Relying on Ontic, the team was able to understand the threat actor’s whereabouts and notified the employee (victim) within four hours of receiving a criminal hit indicating the threat actor was released from jail. This allowed the employee time to plan ahead. That notion of confidence came up again with the Threat Assessment team knowing they did their job but also for the victim to know that her employer was able to help protect them from potential harm.

There are many more stories our clients have shared with us, highlighting their ability to save time and reduce risk and cost by leveraging the capabilities in the Ontic Platform. These stories are our greatest motivation to come to work (whether that’s the office or the corner of the living room) each day and find new ways to better support our clients’ goals.

Ontic by the numbers

While the number of clients we support has more than doubled (we now protect over five million U.S. employees and countless customers in over 12 industries) our unwavering commitment to helping them work smarter and be a force multiplier has remained consistent. With 69% of physical security and IT leaders agreeing that compared to the beginning of the year, the lack of unified digital protective intelligence has resulted in missed threats and physical harm to employees, customers and human assets for their company, there is great opportunity to be better.

Technology empowers teams to do more with what they have and understand the data that supports their intuition and experience. Here are some highlights of how we delivered on our mission of serving intelligence to those who protect this past year.

The teams we work with were able to turn more unknowns to knowns than ever before with:

  • Over 40,000 connections to identified Entities discovered
  • More than 800 previously unknown Threat Actors converted to Entities

We did 19 new integrations this year including data partners and hardware/software integrations — incorporating more relevant data into our platform allows security teams to effectively track visitor management, initiate behavioral threat assessments, and more. These integrations have allowed us to surface critical information, such as:

  • Over 200,000 criminal activity hits related to persons of interest
  • An average of 108 vehicle sightings belonging to persons of interest per client

Our clients’ required outcomes are our North Star when it comes to enhancing the capabilities of our platform. This past year we completed nearly 500 product improvements and enhancements. This has enabled our users to leverage features in new ways, such as:

  • 1500 investigations initiated
  • 225,000 Observations recorded
  • Nearly half a million hits on the dark web of potential threats

Whether it’s a story of organizing an unruly amount of hardcopy information, or something as momentous as identifying the location of a manipulative threat actor, we remain dedicated to improving the lives of those we serve and helping them keep people safe. In what was sometimes a dark and uncertain year, our clients’ stories and success bring our mission to serve intelligence to those who protect into focus.

Inspired to create your own stories? Check out Ontic’s 2022 Summit Agenda to hear from leaders in the space who have paved the way throughout our three-day event in sunny Austin.

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