GPSJ Autumn 2024 ONLINE - Flipbook - Page 43
SECURITY & ACCESS CONTROL
systems such as desk booking, time
and attendance software, shared
printers, lockers, along with vending
machines and access to corporate
computer networks for enterprise IT.
By integrating access control with
this broad eco system—particularly
using smartphones leveraging digital
wallets as the handheld device to
do so—the security and safety of
occupants is boosted and the user
experience radically enhanced not
only for staff but visitors, too.
In addition, by adopting this
interconnected approach, the
environmental sustainability and
energy efficiency of buildings is
immediately improved as systems
like HVAC and lighting can be
optimized, thereby lowering
operational and maintenance costs.
The interest in all this is reflected in
our recent research titled: The 2024
State of the Physical Access Trend
Report. ‘Smart buildings and flexible
workspaces’ were cited by 43% of
respondents as one of the top three
trends shaping the wider control
access control industry in the near
future, only just behind implementing
touchless/contactless solutions
(48%) and mobile access/mobile
apps (44%). In addition, integration
with other business functions was
also listed as one of the top three
trends shaping the industry by nearly
one in three (32%) respondents.
In contrast, if such (open)
technology isn’t used, the
implications for CRE owners is
significant. Multiple disconnected
systems which have to be managed
separately add unnecessary
complexity and, as a result, cost
more to maintain and update over
time.
It’s therefore clear that the
move towards open standards is
fundamentally important to underpin
this convergence, shifting access
control from just being a way of
preventing entry by unauthorized
people to how a building should be
best used.
space utilisation and so on. Open
standards are key to delivering these
services as comprehensive data
integration needs to occur, with
AI-based tools in the future speeding
up the analysis of all this information.
Indeed, with an increase in
people now identifying as hybrid
workers, it’s become more important
than ever for businesses to use
occupancy information to help
shape their business strategy and
optimize costs. In the context of a
hybrid work environment, this could
be financial gold dust. Why rent
10,000 square foot of premium
office space when the numbers
show that through a combination
of people working remotely from
home as well as the office just 6,000
square foot will do?
Similarly, by providing real-time
data like this to an appropriate HVAC
system, air conditioning or heating
could be turned off if the data points
out that no one is in a particular
room.
Again, it moves access control
from just being a security centric
to one that takes on a far more
important and strategic role
to enhance the operational
engineering, maintenance and
functioning of buildings.
According to our survey nearly half
(48%) of organizations already have
access control/badge scanning
systems in place to monitor building
usage throughout the day, at least to
some extent.
Open standards helps Civil
Service collaboration in the
form of GovPass
And the benefits of open standards
are not just constrained to the CRE
sector. The UK Government is very
much focused on offering the Civil
Service modern facilities and for
public sector staff to be able to work
cross-department should their jobs
required it.
Today’s thinking is that an office
is not just a place where you go
and sit at a computer to work.
Rather it’s where you collaborate
with colleagues, shares ideas and
develop creative solutions. The
Government Property Agency —
whose role it is to manage all central
government buildings—introduced
the GovPass programme to make
it seamless for civil servants to
move freely from building to building
using just one security pass. Open
standards are clearly at the heart of
this, meaning that any vendor who
meets the stringent specifications
and is GovPass compliant—like we
are with our HID Signo readers—can
bid and provide solutions. Over
96,000 passes are now live, with
occupancy data collected extending
to over 770,00 square metres.
However, while the benefits of
open standards and interoperability
are clear from a business point
of view, this converged approach
isn’t without its challenges. With
physical access control increasingly
becoming an integral part of a smart
GPSJ
building set-up, there are inevitably
more opportunities for cybercriminals
to attack an organisation’s
infrastructure.
As a result, it’s becoming clear
that physical systems need to be
managed in conjunction with IT. As
Dark Reading reported: “Physical
security and cybersecurity are
intrinsically connected and it is
no longer effective to manage
these threats separately. Cyberphysical incidents can quickly lead
to physical harm, destruction of
property, environmental disasters
and worse.”
If organisations in conjunction
with their trusted partners embrace
open standards, then—just turning
back to tennis for a second—the
opportunity for a grand slam win in
terms of how you deal with all these
workplace opportunities, challenges
and threats is very much on the
cards for them, too.
For more information visit
www.hidglobal.com
Identity positioning services
drive data-based decision
making
An exciting example of this is the
forthcoming availability of identity
positioning services which will
provide the granular information
upon which these decisions can
be made. This combines data
captured from door readers and
real-time information ‘behind the
door’ supplied by digital credentials
on smart phones. No personal and
private data is collected. Rather,
information is anonymized and
grouped in order to provide an
overall picture about trends like the
number of people entering and
exciting a building, floor occupancy,
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL AUTUMN 2024
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