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THE OPEN SECURITY EXCHANGE (OSE), a nonprofit association working with multiple industries to facilitate the convergence of physical and IT security, has created a roadmap that will help companies achieve the convergence of these functions; it is scheduled to be revealed this month.

Laurie Aaron, vice chairman of OSE and director of strategic sales at Tyco Software House, calls the roadmap a “comprehensive tool for end users,” a matrix of the business drivers behind convergence (such as regulatory compliance) along with a number of solutions. She notes that it’s not a list of vendors, but rather a way “to see which pieces of a solution will help mitigate the risk.”

Gary Klinefelter, vice president of technology at Fargo Electronics and president of OSE, adds that vendors and technology are only part of what is provided in the matrix; another aspect is the policies and procedures around implementation of these solutions. He says that the roadmap will be a living document as OSE works with a wide range of partners for input, including ASIS International and the Security Industry Association.

The roadmap also gathers lessons learned from members of OSE’s Convergence Council, who work with companies such as Lehman Brothers and Procter & Gamble and have firsthand experience in converging security functions.

Aaron urges companies to join OSE (corporate memberships are $5,000 annually) so that as the roadmap develops, it will include an ever-increasing number of solutions. “The more members we have, the more creative and extensive the solutions that will be listed,” she says, a situation that will benefit vendors and end users alike.