Date icon26 May 2022

People flow image

Access Control Technology is employed by public and private organisations up and down the country. It is a proven way to secure premises and keep people safe, as well as to help comply with legislation such as GDPR.  

Whilst the benefits are clear, there is no doubt that the demands on any access control system will change over time. For those businesses, it is imperative that the systems they have in place provide the scalability and flexibility to grow and adapt in line with requirements.  

Reason to Upgrade?

So, what happens if your existing access control system does not meet your current requirements? The answer is that there are many downsides to operating an outdated system. If your system does not meet your current requirements, you can quickly lose the ability to track who is in your building. Not only can this be disruptive to your business and its operations, but it could also potentially have a serious impact on site security and health and safety.  

Then there are also the hidden costs. Operating an outdated system can result in increasingly inefficient processes, which means they can be resource heavy, time consuming and expensive to manage.  

Take an educational institution for instance, this is an excellent example of an environment that will see rapidly fluctuating volumes of people that need to be managed. Many campuses welcome a number of visitors each day, as well as a high volume of students, faculty members and staff. These various users have differing needs and access requirements, yet all must be able to move around easily for the campus to run smoothly. For fast moving environments that must deal with constantly fluctuating people flows, it is vital that they have a system in place that can be managed with minimum time, cost, and effort.

The good news is that the latest access control system’s make for extremely efficiently system administration across this or any other sector. Not only are they clear, intuitive, and easy to use, they can be managed remotely from any networked PC or mobile application. Whether you are looking to designate complex staff access rights that match working patterns, or simply provide temporary access to visitors requiring the use of the car park, all this can be achieved with minimum time, cost, and effort.  

System Integration

Managing fluctuating volumes is just one example of change that an access control system must cope with. For many users of access control, there are often additional security systems in place such as intercoms, CCTV, and emergency phones that can evolve over time. In these situations, it is vital that these are fully integrated into your access control system. If these are not integrated, incompatibility and limited connectivity can mean they become time-consuming and expensive to manage, and potentially even a threat to overall security.

In scenarios like this, it is worth considering the use of a specialist integration platform. An integration platform is the perfection option for businesses that are looking to streamline and reduce the costs associated with their operational processes. Automating the transfer of access control related data, TouchStar’s own dynamic interfacing tool “EvoLink”, can work in conjunction with their own Evolution access control software or any third party security or software product. Not only does it help integrate multiple security products, further changes to systems or data sources can be managed effectively, with the middleware effectively reformatting any changes with no impact on the overall system experience.   

Furthermore, the integration of multiple systems greatly increases situational awareness across large or multiple sites, facilitating instant and business-wide responsiveness in the event of an incident.

Step by Step Access Control System Design You Can Rely On  

There’s plenty of cutting-edge security technology that businesses can capitalise on right here and now. At Touchstar, we have decades of experience designing and implementing bespoke access control solutions for clients across a wide range of sectors, as well as bringing legacy systems up to date with innovative integrations and upgrades. Talk to us today to find out more.