Miami, FL—March 1, 2022—Force 5, Inc. and Archer Energy Solutions, LLC today announced a strategic alliance in NERC/CIP compliance solutions for the power utility industry. Specifically focused on reducing visitor-control CIP-006-R2 risk, this alliance will combine the strengths of both companies to help power utilities drastically reduce their compliance risk.

CIP-006 is a recurring top-ten source of NERC/CIP violations. The partnership between these two companies, both with deep experience in CIP compliance, will help power utilities reduce their chance of possible or alleged violations related to CIP-006-R2.

“We analyzed more than one million customer data points from high- and medium-impact utility sites. Our findings suggest that most utilities have thousands of would-be CIP-006 violations at any given time, especially those with a high volume of geographically dispersed PSPs,” said James Evelyn, Vice President, Force 5, Inc. “Though most entities have a solution to fulfill CIP-006 requirements—a logbook, consumer-grade tablets, off-the-shelf visitor management software—their policies and regulations aren’t being fully enforced. That leads not only to possible compliance violations but also to safety and security on-site risk. This enforcement gap is what we’re solving.”

Armed with the largest number of former FERC and NERC auditors and CIP specialists in the industry, Archer’s compliance services tackle this problem on the front end, proactively identifying a utility’s latent risks. Their gap assessments, mock audits, and controls evaluations are built to address compliance risk by strengthening a utility’s CIP program. Force 5’s products are built to actively enforce that CIP program.

“The partnership with Force 5 will provide Archer’s team of compliance consultants a proven best-of-breed solution that will help our clients modernize and automate their security and compliance programs and minimize cumbersome, error-prone manual processes. Archer is thrilled to partner with Force 5 to deliver exceptional technology and value to meet our clients’ security and compliance needs,” said Nick Weber, Managing Partner, Archer.

About Archer

The managing partners at Archer have been involved in supporting energy companies’ technology, security, compliance, and operational goals for over 20 years. Archer’s experience in supporting the needs of utilities in the energy sector has a proven track record of success, including a drive toward sustainable and repeatable processes that meet the specific needs of their clients.

Renowned in the industry for directness, actionable recommendations, and effective solutions, Archer’s specialists are individually selected for their diverse skill sets, deep knowledge of their industry, and respective regulations as well as their productivity, professionalism, and integrity.

About Force 5, Inc.

Force 5, Inc. is the industry leader in automated enforcement for safety, security, and compliance in a power utility enterprise. Force 5’s flagship product, Gatekeeper, is a turnkey hardware-software solution that automatically enforces any policy or requirement. The only solution engineered specifically for CIP006, Gatekeeper is built for power utilities with 100+ locations, and it drives real-time enforcement at every door and every gate of a power utility. Gatekeeper’s robust architecture, industrial-grade hardware, and always-on support model aggressively pivot a power utility’s compliance from passive to active, leading to a significant reduction in compliance, security, and safety risk across the entire company.