Vanderbilt entered a strategic partnership with SwiftData Technology, a provider of custom-configurable data management systems. The partnership combines Vanderbilt’s access control and security management solutions with SwiftData’s Pinwheel Data Management Engine (DME) to form Vanderbilt VI Connect powered by Pinwheel.

Pinwheel DME is a custom-configurable data management system designed to automate business workflows between disparate systems. When used in conjunction with Vanderbilt’s security management system (SMS), Pinwheel DME loads the appropriate users and maintains account records in the various connected systems, and ensures access permissions are consistent. For example, SwiftData takes the information associated with a student enrolled in a university who lives in a specific dorm, including demographic information, courses she is enrolled in, housing information and badging settings, and passes it on to Vanderbilt’s SMS. If that student majors in biology, the system would allow her to access the biology department buildings, as well as her dorm room and cafeteria. SwiftData gathers this disparate information and facilitates the coordination of these systems.

“The problem with data integration is that it is very vendor-dependent — specific vendors work well with their own systems — but they all have to integrate with other platforms to allow users to gain the most value from security and business data,” said Brian Adoff, co-founder/head of business development, SwiftData Technology. “The combination of Vanderbilt and SwiftData enables customers to capitalize on the investments they have already made in access control technology, while offering more robust features than other systems on the market today.”