Although many people perceive a locked door to function similarly to any other locked door, it’s important to distinguish between doors that control access to certain spaces and those that protect items. While both aim to allow authorized individuals in and prevent unauthorized access, they serve different purposes. By understanding this difference, it becomes clearer which access control solution would be most suitable for your needs.
Places that we live, work and sleep
Access control systems are common in offices. It’s important that they are both secure and convenient for efficiently managing large numbers of people. Most individuals prefer access control methods that are easy and require minimal effort. We don’t want to pull out a mobile phone and open an app to get into our front door. Consider how you get into your house. Do you use the garage door opener (convenient and secure) to guard an unlocked inner door? While we are accustomed to using mechanical keys to enter our homes, given the option, we prefer to be recognized and granted access without the need for a physical key. Similarly with hotels, the card swipe by the door latch is about as complicated as guests will tolerate.
Convenience is a crucial factor when it comes to access control. People desire different ways of gaining access, including badges, cards, codes, keys, biometrics, or mobile credentials. Entering an office with a notebook and coffee can be inconvenient if a phone is needed to open the door. Similarly, someone carrying groceries would prefer not to search for a key at the moment they arrive home.
Places that protect things
When it comes to spaces that are designed to protect items, we typically approach them differently. The process of accessing such areas often involves taking deliberate steps, such as finding a key for the bike shed before going for a ride. Individuals are prepared to undertake additional steps to access these spaces, such as manipulating a padlock or opening an app on their mobile phone.
Consider the infrequently accessed infrastructure areas: mechanical rooms, plant rooms, electrical panels, building risers, and waste management. Approaching all of these with a deliberate “I need to get in there” process is appropriate. The way that we approach access to such places is fundamentally different than how we access main doors, even though they’re all in the same building.
One of our employees highlighted the difference well in saying, “I don’t want to pull out a phone to get into my apartment, but when I get my hockey equipment once a week I would appreciate opening my storage locker with my phone so I don’t have to search for my key before heading down there.”
We believe our solutions at Sera4 are best-suited to access control in places that protect things. Contact us to discuss the right solution for you to get all the benefits of modern access control.