Security according to principles of a global corporation

From a successful start-up to the New York Stock Exchange

Based in Ljubljana, Outbrain Slovenia started as formerly highly successful Slovenian startup Zemanta, which was acquired by the Israeli-American company Outbrain in 2017.

Zemanta employed 25 people at the time, and now, after only 6 years, the number of its employees in Slovenia has grown to 120. As a whole, Outbrain employs around 1,000 people in 18 locations around the world, most of them in Israel and New York. Outbrain's shares have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021.

The company is active in the field of content recommendation systems and online advertising. In 2019, it was awarded the Best Employer award in the medium-sized enterprises category at Dnevnik's Golden Thread (Zlata nit) event. In 2022, Planet GV and the Institute for Knowledge Management and Talent Development Sofos awarded the company the TOP Investor in Education certificate at the Edutainment conference.

Most of our back-office systems run in the cloud, as we wish to optimise them. For our generation, this is a given. -Andraž Tori

From key to cloud

"When we became part of the Outbrain corporation, we needed to adjust to their rules concerning security and access to company premises," says Andraž Tori, Director at Outbrain Slovenia. Previously, at the old premises, each employee had a key to the front door. But even if we the company had not become part of Outbrain, it would not have been able to keep the old system in place, because the number of employees has increased from 25 to 120.

Outbrain required the system to be cloud-based. "We looked for a cloud solution provider in Slovenia. Most of our back-office systems run in the cloud, as we wish to optimise them. For our generation, this is a given. The new system also helped us during the Covid epidemic. When we started to return to the offices after the first wave of the epidemic, it was the data from Door Cloud that showed us what the situation was actually like. For example, how often individuals come to the office. It was not the sole, but certainly one of the most important sources for this purpose," Tori adds.

 

At the new premises, most users have the same access rights. At the old site, the situation was different; we had several different user profiles set up via Door Cloud and we also managed the rights of the landlord's employees. Maša Horvat Sardi

Excellent overview of contingencies

"At our new premises in the Delo office building, which we moved into this May, we have 19 doors across three floors. We currently have 135 regular users, and we also have a few additional cards active for internal visitors and external employees who we want to give temporary access to," says Maša Horvat Sardi, Outbrain Slovenia's Office Manager.

"In terms of administration, the system provides a good overview of employee presence in the offices and their needs. Based on the accesses, we can better understand the working habits of our employees and decide when active ventilation is needed, which days require more thorough cleaning and so on. The system also comes in handy in the event of incidents.

Each person is assigned a card, so we can find out where and when they were in the company. We've already had an accidental anti-burglary alarm set-off when an employee forgot to switch off the alarm when entering the offices at a late hour. With the help of Door Cloud, we were able to easily identify which card was used to open the door and verify the authenticity of the data on the footage from the security cameras, which we've also had installed by Špica," Horvat Sardi describes a specific case.

At the new premises, all doors are the same in terms of status and all cardholders get the same access. At the old premises, certain entrances and common areas were shared with the landlord. As the need to manage the system in the cloud came from Outbrain, agreement was reached with the landlord to also manage the rights of the landlord's employees via Door Cloud.

"We were able to specify who could enter the lift, which floor they could access, who could enter the server room, etc. We have elaborated user profiles significantly and, fortunately, Door Cloud is user-friendly and easy to use. In the building we moved into, the system doesn't need to be shared and there is no connection between the main building access system and our system," explains Maša Horvat Sardi.

According to Tori, this is one of the reasons why more employees don't use the system via their phone: "I'm certain more employees would use this option, but the entrance to the building is separate from the entrance to our offices, which means that they need another card for full access in any case." However, when Outbrain moved offices in May, the employees were happy to accept key fobs instead of cards; about half of them use this option.  

Hybrid 3+2 system

Outbrain's work model requires employees to come to the offices at least three times a week, while giving them the option of working from home or remotely twice a week. Employees set their own work schedule in agreement with management and their team.

"When we were still in our old offices, the main reason for the fixed attendance schedule was to rationalise the use of space. Since May this year, when we moved and there is enough space for everyone, the main reason for choosing a hybrid work model until further notice is that we want our employees to have optimal working conditions and to feel part of a strong team, regardless of the global nature of the company," Tori says. 

Results

There are several advantages:

• Optimisation. The Door Cloud system in the cloud allows for greater optimisation. Most of the back-office systems across the Outbrain corporation are therefore cloud-based.
• Security. Excellent administrative overview of what goes on thanks to Door Cloud and Spica CCTV cameras.
• Multi-company system. The system also allows managing access to the offices of several companies in the same building, located in close proximity to each other.