SureID and Force 5 Partner to Deliver Innovative Vetting and Cost Recovery Offering for Emergency Response Contingent Workforces

Severe weather costs U.S. economy between $18 and $33 billion per year

HILLSBORO, Ore.--()--SureID, Inc., the market leader in high-assurance identities, announced today a partnership with Force 5, Inc., a leader in compliance-based solutions for the bulk electric power industry. The offering addresses important contingent workforce challenges in a natural disaster emergency response including safety, security, regulatory requirements and cost recovery, ultimately resulting in savings for the utility ratepayer.

The unique and innovative offering combines SureID’s identity assurance technologies with Force 5’s Gatekeeper enForce solution, enabling electric utility companies to securely vet and manage the contingent emergency worker pool between multiple companies. The offering takes advantage of SureID’s nationwide network of SureID registration stations, mobile credentials and advanced cloud-based identity management portal along with a seamless integration to Force 5’s Gatekeeper enForce system for tracking emergency response labor efforts for safety, security and cost recovery.

According to a Grid Resiliency Report, severe weather is the number one cause of power outages in the U.S., costing billions of dollars annually in lost output and wages, spoiled inventory, delayed production and grid infrastructure damages. Weather-related utility outages cost the U.S. economy between $18 and $33 billion per year.1

SureID’s proven identity solution fortifies the existing Force 5 solution by enabling registration of contingent emergency workers from other utilities, in addition to the existing management of workers’ identity and access. The solution enables Force 5 to quickly and securely mobilize contingent emergency workers by activating an identity attribute associated with emergency response on the worker’s SureID-issued credential. With Force 5’s Gatekeeper Mobile solution, the accounting for workers’ time, cost and billing to other parties can be more efficiently and accurately tracked and reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Force 5’s Gatekeeper enForce solution also will provide utilities the management, tracking and validation of contingent worker certifications and secured entry validation at restoration staging sites when combined with Force 5’s secure point-of-entry mobile units.

“Natural disasters and the ensuing widespread power outages create significant economic impacts on a local and national scale, which requires utilities across service territories to pitch in to get the lights back on. We’re thrilled to partner with Force 5 to build our trusted identity solution into emergency response and power restoration efforts for tracking, accounting and cost recovery purposes,” said Steve Larson, CEO and founder, SureID. “Our 15 years of experience working with the U.S. Department of Defense continues to open doors in critical infrastructure markets. There is significant value in pairing our technology with Force 5 to more effectively account for emergency response workers.”

“We are excited to integrate with SureID’s nationwide registration network to help improve how organizations track who is activated for emergency response,” said James Evelyn, general manager of security and compliance, Force 5. “Pairing Force 5’s Gatekeeper enForce system with SureID’s technology streamlines both the time-sensitive onboarding of emergency response workforces and the capture of cost recovery detail. An additional benefit is all SureID-credentialed workforces can now be seamlessly on-boarded to Gatekeeper enForce’s OSHA Outage Management and NERC/CIP Compliance modules.”

To learn more about the partnership, please contact info@sureid.com.

About SureID, Inc.

SureID, Inc. (www.SureID.com) is the market leader in high-assurance identity solutions. The company creates end-to-end trusted identity programs offering full credential lifecycle management through the combination of registration, identity proofing, background screening, credentialing and identity authentication for government, private enterprise and individuals including contractors, vendors and other authorized personnel. SureID’s RAPIDGate® program provides an enterprise-wide, single-credential high-assurance identity for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army and critical infrastructure sectors across the country. SureID is the leading commercial issuer of PIV-I credentials. The SureID Certified™ solution is a high-assurance digital identity certification offered to individuals. The SureID Certified Edge™ solution includes identity proofing, recurring background screenings and credentialing for third-party vendors, contractors and suppliers, volunteers, coaches, consumers, and other individuals. Founded in November 2001, SureID is headquartered in Hillsboro, Ore., with offices in Minot, N.D., and Alexandria, Va.

About Force 5, Inc.

Founded in 2000, Force 5 has had a single company focus – solving customers’ business problems with proven technology solutions. Force 5 is a minority- and woman-owned business based in Miami, Florida. Force 5 has architected and delivered complex mission critical solutions to utilities, enterprises and government organizations. The entire team at Force 5 is committed to providing world-class service to our customers.

The Gatekeeper enForce was developed for and with a major electric utility based in the United Sates. It was based on specifications to meet the visitor tracking section of NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) compliance requirements along with specifications for Outage Management providing Positive Point of Entry Control, Tracking of Safety and other Certifications required by OSHA and support of mustering events/roll calls. Gatekeeper enForce is a single integrated multi-purpose platform to provide a technical state-of-the-art solution to mitigate risk and provide a more secure, safe and efficient work place. Gatekeeper enforce has been time tested, is CIP Audit proven and is deployed in the largest power utilities in the United States.

CIOReview rated Force 5 as one of the 20 most promising compliance solution providers in 2016. For more info, visit: www.force5solutions.com.

1 Grid Resiliency Report, August 2013, https://energy.gov/downloads/economic-benefits-increasing-electric-grid-resilience-weather-outages

Contacts

BAM Communications
Saramaya Weissman
C: 208-610-3375
saramaya@bamcommunications.biz

Release Summary

SureID and Force 5 Partner to Deliver Innovative Vetting and Cost Recovery Offering for Emergency Response Contingent Workforces

Contacts

BAM Communications
Saramaya Weissman
C: 208-610-3375
saramaya@bamcommunications.biz