Congratulations! Your $200 million, 20-story office building is almost complete. Now, how are you going to ward off internal and external intruders? A high-rise may seem an oasis of calm compared with the bustle of city streets: The entrances are finite and population-controlled; cameras and card readers record movement; and the range of activities taking place is limited. But a basic security challenge—how to use data to predict as well as explain crimes—is the same, whether the area being protected is an office or a neighborhood.

In this example, badging and video systems record who is doing what in a 20-story multi-tenant building and its adjoining garden and underground parking lot. Security staff located in the building's command center use an access-control application to manage the data, construct activity logs, prioritize events and broadcast information to staff on patrol. The software incorporates data from the digital video, alarm, intercom and RF systems; it also can be connected to personnel databases in real time. Tenants will be able to access subsets of information using browser-based clients. To read more about the assumptions behind this project, click on the Assumptions and Labor tabs.

To see the details behind this Planner and fill in your own estimates, click on the "Get the Tool" icon above and download the interactive worksheet.