Why would we want keyless entry on buildings?

If you manage a building, you are aware of some of the shortfalls of traditional physical keys. Some of these relate to security, others revolve around convenience. Let ESP Projects in Sheffield show you some examples:

  • Control of keys – Lost keys, stolen keys, staff leaving your business and not returning key can all impact both on convenience and security.
    In all these cases you may lose access to a building (or room within a building) or have a security risk where a key is unaccounted for.
    requiring you to call on a trade person to re-gain access and change the locks, costing time, and money, then there may be a need to cut further copies of the new key and distribute to keyholders and logging of keys etc.
  • Temporary access can also create a workload for you or your staff. We have all been there, there is a need for someone who is not a key holder to gain access to various areas of your building, leading to you running around finding keys for various areas, and then either signing them out to the person requiring temporary access, or following them around opening and locking doors. With he added chore of ensuring you get the keys back if you are issuing them out.
  • Allowing remote access. Someone needs to get in – it may be an emergency issue, boiler repair, or access to do some works out of hours…. You now must arrange for a key holder to be present to open up and again to lock up at the end of the period…. Or arrange for key collection and drop off ahead of time. Costing all involved inconvenience and time

How do Keyless entry systems get us around these issues?

In a keyless system you have a more intelligent way of maintaining access to your premises, or sub areas of your premises. Each door that you want to include in the system is controlled by a smart lock that can be unlocked in a mixture of ways (including code, Proximity key, Biometrics) and because the system is smart, controlled centrally you can invoke additional controls that you just cannot do in a traditional key system.

You want to only allow certain members of staff access to door during certain time periods? Easy!

You want to remotely change someone’s access levels for a temporary period? This too is easily achieved.

In the case of an unscheduled emergency visit you can even remotely open doors for people, either from an application on your phone, or from a computer. You can remotely add them to your system and only allow access to areas required, leaving all other areas secure.

If a method of access is lost, no need to change locks and cut keys, you can cancel the card or token off the system and it is no longer able to open your doors, costing pennies compared to swapping locks.

There is additional security in that all the doors are secure all the time – doors are not left unlocked and unattended – access is only available via the methods you deem appropriate, at the times you want, to people that you allow.

What else can keyless entry systems do?

As soon as you take steps to make access to your building smart, you can also integrate it with other systems to improve other areas.  It is beyond the scope of this article to go into all possible integrations, but some can save you money on your utility bills by controlling lights or heating based on areas being occupied or not.
Linking to CCTV allows you to tag on CCTV footage when a door has been activated so it is easy to review footage of entry times.

Summary

Access control systems can also link to your alarm systems, arming or disarming areas as occupancy changes.  All these integrations can add up to even more time and money saved managing your building.  If you would like more information, visit our website or our Sheffield office Contact Us or call on 0330 2020 118.