Access Control

Access control replaces keys with credentials that can be revoked. That single property is the whole business case: when somebody leaves, a key has to be collected or a lock changed, and a credential is switched off from a desk in seconds.

The range runs from a standalone keypad on one door to a networked system across several sites with a central card database, time profiles and a full audit trail. Which you need is decided less by the door count than by whether you have to be able to prove afterwards who went through and when - a requirement that is common in ministries, laboratories, server rooms and cash-handling areas, and rare elsewhere.

Cards, fobs, PINs and fingerprints all work. Fingerprints remove the credential somebody can lend or lose, and they also fail more often in dusty conditions and on worn hands, which is worth knowing before specifying them for a workshop or a site gate.

The part most buyers underestimate is administration. Somebody must enrol new staff, revoke leavers and keep the records, and a system without a named owner drifts within months into one where half the active credentials belong to people who have left.

Fail-safe and fail-secure behaviour on power loss also has to be decided per door, and fire regulations, not preference, decide it on escape routes.