FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
APPLICATIONS ACROSS SECTORS
Care home buildings, co-working spaces, healthcare sites, holiday properties, local authority, offices, schools and education buildings, or small offices – building sizes and access requirements vary. However, top-tier security and access visibility and control, is an essential requirement across all sectors.
Care Homes: Carehome.co.uk, reports that there are around 16,700 care homes across the UK that are home to almost 500,000 people and employ around one million members of staff.
In these environments, a balance of security, accessibility, and privacy is crucial. Residents, visitors, nursing staff, and service providers all require seamless access, and must be unhindered by physical keys in an emergency.
Digital locks, powered by electronic management systems ensure everyone can move freely to do their jobs efficiently whilst respecting residents’ privacy and maintaining the necessary levels of security and access control around the building.
Healthcare: Digital access control solutions ensure swift, secure access to critical areas while upholding the highest standards of patient care and data security.
Keyless systems can help manage access to medical cabinets, entire wards, staff lockers and even on-site laboratories, according to the roles and responsibilities of a user so entry is restricted to those who need it.
Bruce Donald, UK & Ireland Manager at SimonsVoss, specialists in electronic door locks, notes that hospitals often transition from traditional locks to code locks to bolster security. While code locks eliminate physical keys and management, they can pose security risks if codes are shared or written down.
He said: “Maintaining code locks is labour-intensive too, and requires monthly code changes for each door.”
He shares an image of a client’s previous ‘access security’ solution, in which the code to a door was plastered above the punch code pin pad.
He adds: “This approach is the opposite of secure. A more digital solution, electronic keypad locks for example, offer easily configurable, time-restricted PINs and centralised control which is a much more intelligent and flexible security solution.”
Schools and Education Buildings: It’s estimated that a third of UK university students become a victim of crime – mainly theft and burglary – with about 20 per cent of student robberies occurring in the first six weeks of the academic year.
With a rise in the number of first-year students also choosing purpose-built accommodation, rather than house-share arrangements, there is a need for advanced security measures to protect both the students who reside in these multi-occupancy accommodation buildings and the property itself.
Digital locking systems can enhance educational building security, ensuring that students, staff, and valuable assets are protected by managing entry permissions and monitoring access.
Russell Waller, Head of Buildings and Services at Cambridge University’s Trinity Hall has seen the benefits of electronic key management systems within his own buildings. He said: “Keyless access solutions have dramatically reduced the time previously spent travelling to a central point to collect the correct keys. Additionally, it means that multiple personnel can independently access the same building and that lost keys are no longer a legacy security issue.”
THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL LOCKS AND ACCESS CONTROL: MOBILE CREDENTIALS
According to a recently published Omdia report, 2024 Trends to Watch: Physical Security and Critical Communications, the global market demand for mobile credentials is expected to grow at rates four times faster than demand for access control hardware over the next three years.
Mobile credentials can offer building occupants greater flexibility via their smartphone to enter any number of compatible facilities, lower management costs and allow better access to real-time data from entrants’ phones.
Access control vendors have also cited mobile credentials as the dominant technological trend in access control. According to IFSEC Insider’s Wireless Access Control Report, 29 per cent of surveyed end users in 2023 reported mobile credential compatibility with their physical access control systems, nearly a tenfold rise from the 2021 survey.
These finding demonstrate why electronic key management systems are providing more and more building and facilities managers with a reliable and effective solution for safeguarding their buildings, as well as the assets and people within them.
