PISCATAWAY, N.J. — A cross-industry forum designed to provide standards and guidelines for the integration of physical security, as well as cyber security, is changing its membership structure to allow for more participating companies. The Open Security Exchange (OSE) has reduced its yearly general membership for companies to $5,000 from $15,000 and expanded the number of seats available on its board.

“We really want to get people involved,” OSE Board Member Debra Spitler says. “As we move forward to meeting users’ needs, we need to have other members from other walks of life come together.”

The OSE, created in April 2003, has been defining best practices and promoting vendor-neutral specifications for security components and also serves as a body where those in the physical and IT security worlds can come together to serve their customers. Among its participating companies are physical security companies HID Corp., Siemens Building Technologies and Software House, as well as IT firms Computer Associates, Gemplus and CoreStreet.

Spitler, who also serves as president of smart card manufacturer OMNIKEY and also represents HID on the board, says the OSE’s knowledge base helps integrators serve all of the needs of their customers. “I used to be field sales person for 18 years selling integrated systems. Each year, you had to be more and more technical,” she says. “If you are an employee trying to offer solutions to customers, you better have a way to build a knowledge base or you’ll be left behind.”

For more information on how to join the OSE, access www.opensecurityexchange.org.

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