Hospitality and security are often at odds with each other. The challenge is to find the best compromise between Fort Knox and a warm welcome. Telecom company Liberty Global recently carried out a major renovation of their head office in Schiphol-Rijk – the Netherlands. As part of the project, the access security was considerably tightened, without affecting their brand’s desired welcoming appearance.
Liberty Global is an international telecommunication and television company. It is also one of the largest internet service providers outside the USA. Liberty Global operates in 14 countries and has 35,000 employees. The head office is based in London and additionally there are central offices in Amsterdam and Denver. Consumer brands that belong to Liberty Global include VodafoneZiggo (50% Joint Venture with Vodafone), Virgin Media, UPC, Unitymedia and Telenet.
In the high-quality business park - Schiphol-Rijk, Liberty Global have seven office buildings, which, collectively, employ a total of around 1600 people of 55 nationalities. "We did have manned security at the main entrance, but that solution did not always prevent people from entering our central hall unnoticed," says Simon Kuitert, who holds the position of Corporate Security Manager at Liberty Global. "That is why we introduced a single point of entry for the recent renovation."