Unified Security Management: The Pain

Creating a unified security function means overcoming challenges from top executives, existing processes and change-resistant employees

During the review process, Wipprecht also sought the input of his staff. "You have to communicate. You redefine the new organization, set goals, then go to the agent level for their input. We want participatory management. The responses I got really helped formulate what our organization was going to be today," he says.

Wipprecht also says training is key to a successful, converged department. "We as a management team have an obligation to have the best and the brightest," he says. "To do that, we need to provide the training they need to maintain an expert level. If they're the best they can be, that can only assist you in the field as agents communicate with customers, the FBI, Secret Service, whatever. It saves time and money."Pain #5 Information-Sharing Think about information-sharing between the FBI and CIA. Or FBI and CIA and NSA. Or FBI and CIA and NSA and DoD. You get the drift: Getting security folks to share information can be as hard as telling your boss his putt isn't a gimme.

Security pros "are not accustomed to talking a lot; they're trained to protect information," says Richard Loving, CSO and director of administration at BWX Technologies (BWXT), a manager of nuclear plants and other high-security facilities.

Loving says communication across his organization was the biggest challenge he dealt with last summer as he centralized security, which previously was the domain of each individual nuclear facility. To get over that hurdle, Loving has emphasized to facility security managers that working together is in the best interests of the company and that headquarters is trying to enhancenot controltheir local operations.

He also advises showing employees the successes of their collaboration. "One time you may be sharing, the next time you may be on the receiving end," says Loving. For BWXT, the benefits of information-sharing came after the Department of Energy ordered all its facilities to improve security of controlled removable electronic media (CREM). Loving and his colleagues coordinated a group response across BWXT facilities rather than having each plant act on its own to comply.

This kind of sharing won't come easily; it's an evolution, Loving says. "It really is getting people to open up and share and recognize that there will ultimately be benefits, whether in operations, security or safety."

Got a painful convergence story? E-mail Senior Editor Todd Datz at tdatz@cxo.com.