COVID-related Changes Lead to Need for More Training

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Because of COVID-related changes that shifted responsibilities, an end-user customer became increasingly responsible for being more hands-on with managing his organization’s access control solution: DNA Fusion. He knew the basics but, if he was going to be successful, he knew he needed a better understanding of the correlation between hardware and software. He immediately signed up for an in-person training class at Open Options to learn what he needed to know.

To his delight, Open Options customized the training for him. “Our direct support customer came to class with a list of questions and issues that his company was having and left with solutions and resources to use in the future,” said Brittany Tate, Technical Trainer at Open Options. “Instead of making the class cookie-cutter, we adjusted the course to link his list of questions with the topics we were discussing.”

He first attended a one-day wiring class and then the traditional three-day “Essentials” training.  An example of the type of questions the customer brought to class is: "My door always gives me false alarms when we have to replace the door contact. Honestly, I don’t really know what that is or how it’s used in the software.”

In the class, Brittany wired up a door with the customer, explained where the door contact is added in the DNA Fusion software, and demonstrated how to momentarily disarm any door forced/door held alarms until the door is fixed. This hands-on approach helped solidify the concepts for the participant.

The customer stated, “I really feel like we’re building from the ground up,”. The training broke down everything into repeatable tasks of good habits as well as troubleshooting techniques. The sessions covered common scenarios that occur in the field, including situations with dipswitch settings and various jumper settings.

“The customer left with a firm understanding of the big picture of both the software and the hardware,” explained Brittany. “He mentioned how having all of the resources and physical hardware at his workstation allowed him to make mistakes and troubleshoot in a controlled environment. Towards the end, he mentioned, “I’m excited to go back to my office and finally understand how everything is connected together.”

Through the Open Options training, the customer was equipped to anticipate and be able to fix problems before they even occur.

2020: Year in Review

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2020 Year in Review

Dear Valued Customers and Partners,

As 2020 comes to a close, it seems like a great time to reflect on this past year’s trials and tribulations and everything we’ve accomplished. It was quite a journey to get to where we are today, and we are excited for a bright future in 2021.

I’d like to start by telling you how much the Open Options team and I appreciate your ongoing support and business. We recognize that our success is due to the great partnerships we have cultivated over the past 23 years.

2020 was a year that changed everything. With COVID 19, our business models had to change to meet the new norms of the physical access control industry. We faced challenges along the way as did Security Directors in opening businesses and campuses; integrating temperature sensing technologies into existing security systems and workflows to keep employees and guests safe and secure. The need to quickly and safely incorporate temperature sensing into our security ecosystem was something we never thought we would need to do, yet it became an important factor in our customer’s security requirements.

Our training went virtual, with online courses and custom classes and we launched a new Connect Care app to help technicians out in the field by putting immediate support in their back pocket. We didn’t stop there, we saw the need for creating new tools, ACTID mobile credentials, and a License Builder specifically created to help Dealers, and Specifiers in designing DNA Fusion solutions.  Despite the travel limitations upon us, we found new ways to remotely connect and support our customers. We adapted quickly, and many customers realized the flexibility of our DNA Fusion platform.

We have earned a solid reputation as an experienced support mechanism for our partners and our customers.  Open Options’ goal is to continue our commitment to excellence in 2021.

With a bright outlook ahead, we are pleased to deliver some exciting new products next year. We will begin in Q1 2021 with the introduction of our Cloud-hosted DNA Fusion software.  More information will be forthcoming in my January 2021 newsletter.  We will also continue playing our role in educating the market on the value of open architecture and cyber-secure systems as part of our dedication to supporting your business.

We know the efforts of our phenomenal partners and the incredible Open Options team will drive our continued success, and I look forward to a fantastic new year of partnership and growth.

I would like to wish you all a very joyous holiday season, and a happy, healthy, rewarding 2021.

Chuck O'Leary, President, Open Options

A Secret to Tech Support’s Success: Attention to Detail

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A customer was having a significant issue with his access control system. It was crashing immediately every time he launched it, rendering DNA Fusion unusable. He was not able to create badges or edit personnel. The customer could not figure it out on his own. Therefore, he called Technical Support at Open Options, trusting their reputation for resolving complex issues.

Zack Davis, the Tech Support Supervisor, dug into the issue by checking the DNA Driver logs. He discovered that the logs were showing a massive amount of controller functions but did not point to any specific controller. The error logs were indicating the driver was getting overwhelmed with commands, which was causing it to crash. 

He implemented a SQL script that disabled all the controllers, allowing the driver to start back up and for DNA Fusion to launch without issues. Then he started to enable the controllers one by one.  While enabling the second controller, the error appeared, and he was able to isolate it. 

“A host-based macro had been programmed in DNA with a loop condition on a camera call up function,” explained Nic Robran, Vice President of Customer Support at Open Options.  “Zack verified this with a report and found 30,000 pages of that event being executed before the driver crashed. Once he found the problem, he removed the host-based macro that was causing the issue and enabled the remaining controllers.” 

Subsequently, DNA Fusion remained stable and all the controllers came back online without issue.  He verified that the system was 100% back online and operational. 

“The customer was extremely happy that their system was back online,” added Robran. “And they were able to once again create badges and edit personnel.”

Limited AC System causes school district to turn on the “Fusion,” while facing a major hurricane

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A large school district with more than 120 campuses` was having difficulty using their Paxton access control system, which was set up with 4 separate servers to accommodate the size of the school district. Over time, as more users needed to be added to the system, it became laborious, as they would have to add each new personnel 4 times (or to each server). With limited functionality and tight budgets, the school security director called on the Open Options Professional services team to provide an enterprise solution that would rid them of the limited functionality. The answer was DNA Fusion.

“To start, we had to create a Powershell script for the system to assist with day-to-day management until they have completed the overall project,” stated Michael Digby, Professional Services & Sales Engineer for Open Options. “We initially were called to a meeting by the school to provide a plan to upgrade to DNA Fusion, but before we could meet, a tropical storm forced the district to close. At this point we had to work quickly before the storm hit.”

Meanwhile, back at the Open Options headquarters, the Professional Services team got to work quickly to set up a mock database that would re-creating some of their Active Directory structure to ensure the script could handle the number of access levels/security groups the District had. Along with the script there was also an issue with the naming convention of the access levels versus the security groups, so a bit of programming had to be done to create a table to match them correctly.

With ETA hurricane lurking on the horizon, it didn’t stop the team from laying out a plan for the district to use while they move to DNA Fusion completely. To do this, the team had to be given access to the network, VPN and server. Once the access was granted, the team began testing PSAD Script, which then alerted the team to an issue. After much investigation, it was discovered that the server was only configured with 4 GB of RAM and, to complete a scan of the 128 ODX packages, it took almost an hour!

At this point the Open Options team notified the customer that this delay meant the AD portion of ODX was not real-time, and the team suggested bumping the RAM up. Due to a delay of packages being scanned, the team used the remainder of the day to start going over items sent earlier.

The Challenge: Knowing that the District was having to remove access levels manually from personnel records, which was taking many hours to do, and with a hurricane approaching, the team had very limited time to create a solution. With no time to waste, the team set up quickly an in-house solution that they were able to develop and test. They created a plan to utilize Powershell to scan Active Directory Security Groups. This script handles adding and removing access levels based off Active Directory accounts being added or removed to Security Groups. The other task while on-site was to address a list of topics to help in the interim, and it helped explain why/how to use different features within DNA Fusion.

The team arrived on-site and started working on testing the PS AD Script. Due to the delay with OpenDX and even with the RAM being increased to 8 GB, all the existing scripts were disabled.

“This allowed for faster testing of the new scripts being implemented said Digby. I modified the Powershell script to pull info from nested AD Security Groups and setup Task Scheduler to run batch file every hour. I tested several access levels and removals before enabling scanning of all AD Security groups and emailed the customer to move the test user into several new AD Security groups to confirm functionality. Soon after Hurricane Eta hit, the district closed down the schools. In the end, we managed to configure and build an interim solution before the storm hit.”

Once again, the Professional Services Team at Open Option proves there are no limits in aiding customers!