In this post, we’ll dive deeper into some of the unique challenges of access control for commercial buildings. Previously, we looked at how the hardware and software of modern commercial access control systems and their role in securing businesses. Today, we’ll explore how advanced access control solutions address these various concerns. Your business has distinct goals, objectives, and needs while also sharing commonalities with others in your industry. ESI Technologies has the expertise to address these challenges so that they become assets instead of liabilities. This blog post explores six key concerns facing commercial buildings:
- Reliability – Ensuring uptime and robust security, even during power or network failures.
- Scalability – Supporting large facilities while allowing room for future expansion.
- Group-Based Access – Managing access levels for employees, departments, and contractors.
- Multi-Tenant Management – Simplifying access control for buildings with multiple businesses.
- Centralized Oversight – Unifying security across multiple locations.
- Temporary Credentials – Securely managing visitor or contractor access.
This article is part of a larger guide to Commercial Access Control. You can see the first post here.
Why can you trust us?
ESI Technologies has been in business for over 4 decades installing low voltage systems – including access control. We’ve designed, installed, and maintained access control systems for all sizes, types of organizations, and styles of controls. We have installed systems from single unit stand-alone door controls to large organizations with thousands of devices across dozens of locations. Our clients range from municipal governments to retail stores. You can trust us because when we design and install a system, it’s backed by our field-tested experience and results.
High reliability meets high demands
Your business has established itself by consistently delivering results to meet the needs of its clients even through rough patches. This is what reliability looks like. Why should your access control system be any different? In fact, the demands for access control are higher, especially when access control systems are often kept for over a decade[1]. Even if your business isn’t operating 24/7, safeguarding physical assets is necessary around the clock. At ESI Technologies, we ensure this high reliability through both the installed system and ongoing support and maintenance.
We design and install each access control system to be highly dependable and accommodate enterprise-volumes of users, doors, and events. This is done through using commercial grade hardware and software from tested and proven suppliers. Additionally, how the software controls of the system are configured allow for dependable operation at enterprise volumes. We’ve seen more than one client unhappy with other access control systems simply because misconfiguration of the system resulted in headaches that only surfaced after years of use and eroded trust in the system.
Our systems also incorporate measures to mitigate potential disruptions. Even in the unlikely event of a power outage or network disruption your security remains uncompromised. Although many factors go into this, we’ll look at three specific ones. First, backup batteries provide uninterrupted power to both the system and access control devices. If power to your access control system goes out, rechargeable batteries continue to power the access control panel and all connected devices for 12-24 hours. This provides extensive coverage compared to the average 5.5 hours of power outage per year that was experienced in the US in 2022[2].
In the event of an IT network outage, our access control systems continue to provide uninterrupted service. Local components store necessary data and continue functioning until connectivity is restored, whether minutes or days later. We’ve had calls from clients who didn’t realize they had an internal network outage until new users weren’t authorized at remote locations.
Informed hardware choices ensure door hardware and other devices allow proper egress in case of a fire or other emergency. These physical fallback safeguards go beyond what is strictly required by code to protect your employees and customers. Access control systems can be integrated with fire detection and other systems for further protection. These measures make your access control system as dependable as the building it protects.
Reliability extends to the management and control of any physical system. Depending on the access requirements, cloud-based systems and on-prem solutions both maintain reliability while mitigating against different types of circumstances. Cloud-based control software ensures the ability to remotely administer your system anywhere you have internet access. On-prem hosted solutions remain accessible through network failures but at the cost of additional complexity to scale and maintain.
Our commitment to your security extends beyond design and installation—comprehensive support and maintenance uphold your system’s reliability. Support is only a phone call or email away when unexpected issues arise. Further, we stand by our work and ensure it meets our high standards; we are committed to making it right for the off moments when we mess up. For expected service, ongoing maintenance and changes are optionally provided either on an ad hoc or contracted basis. A maintenance contract ensures the regular operability of your system compared to scheduling service calls when issues arise.
Access control that grows with you
The next challenging factor when designing access control for commercial buildings is scalability. When considering scale, ESI Technologies ensures the initial infrastructure is tailored to fit without limiting potential for future growth. The initial right sizing of a project ensures it meets your immediate needs within budget and is efficient to use. Enabling growth means accounting for ongoing concerns to help avoid future costs and unnecessary limitations.
Experienced system integrators know what questions to ask to understand the underlying needs and concerns. We’ve all used products or solutions that didn’t deliver on their promises. ESI Technologies aims to lead with a focus on your business and concerns, not just push products or platforms. This means a better solution at a price that meets your current situation. Additionally, right-sizing also means fitting the ongoing operational needs to your staff. We manage the complexity so your staff doesn’t need to. We also use quality products that save you time and money by not needing management or periodic troubleshooting. All of this adds up to meet the unique operational needs of your business.
Great products alone aren’t enough to ensure scalability. After the current fit is found, ESI Technologies ensures it won’t be a future hindrance. We achieve this through both visible and behind the scenes choices. More obvious ones are choosing products and technologies that are expandable as needed. We also give hands-on guidance and training in the use of those same products. Less obvious is the approach of the install technicians and system configuration. Our installers take a thoughtful, collaborative mindset. They plan each step to ensure seamless integration with other trades and systems. By prioritizing long-term functionality and coordination, we help reduce costs and support the success of the entire project. This same methodology consistently reduces the cost of future adjustments or additions. We take a similar tack when programming and configuring systems – thoughtfully approaching it to ensure long term success.
Businesses evolve, and their security needs must keep pace. We design our solutions for scale—whether you’re expanding a facility, adding new sites, or adjusting to shifting business demands. Balancing these concerns while designing custom solutions is where our team shines. We know that every organization, building, and solution has unique aspects while also sharing similarities with others. We understand how to support the needs of now and the future, thanks to our decades of experience. We’re not here to check boxes or just win the bid — we’re here to build a system that works for you both today and tomorrow.
Manage your system from anywhere
As businesses look to the future, the need for unified management for systems or locations is increasingly essential. For access control for commercial buildings, centralized oversight allows you to administer all aspects of your system from any location. This includes modifying configuration, monitoring events, and viewing system reports. Additionally, integrating the administration of access control with surveillance and other security systems enables new possibilities and increased efficiency.
For centralized management, we have both cloud-based and remotely accessible on-premise solutions. Both facilitate the complex access control needs of commercial buildings while each having their own advantages. Cloud-based software allows for the simplest access and setup of control software – often requiring no setup at all. On premise hosted software, on the other hand, enables increased organizational control and security. Either option allows your team to oversee multiple locations without having to be onsite.
If you have a sprawling campus or geographically separate locations, these same offerings enable seamless integration across locations. Additionally, our experience configuring multi-site systems helps avoid future headaches caused by growing your organization’s footprint. Taken together, multiple locations can be managed and controlled as if they were all one.
Combining the controls of systems – access control alongside surveillance – enables event insights, improved event visibility, and expanded capabilities. Showing video alongside access control events enables your team to get eyes on specific events. Meanwhile, AI features in cameras when integrated with access control events allow for more secure facilities through smart configuration rules. This unified oversight brings separate security systems into alignment for truly modern centralized control.
Smarter access configuration
Managing and maintaining card access for your staff shouldn’t be a full time task. This is true whether you have a complex structure with thousands of employees or just a handful of on-site staff. Group based access rules are a way to configure employee access through granting permissions to groups instead of specific individuals. Employees are then thought of based on roles, departments, or other groups. This separation reduces ongoing maintenance by simplifying the addition of future users or future access controls. This same simplification also reduces human errors through the reuse of the specific permissions. Finally, these groups also reinforce pre-defined security rules through the use of previously established groups.
With group-based access, configuring a new user is the same whether they have access to every door or just one. In either situation, you simply add them to the appropriately configured access group(s) in a couple of clicks. Even outside contractors can be given access based on the needs and working hours for them to perform their duties. This reduces future demands by eliminating the need to meet or escort approved individuals. By using group-based access, organizations maintain security, improve efficiency, and keep access control a streamlined process—not an ongoing burden.
Empowering building tenants
For commercial building managers leasing space to multiple tenants, access control is an integral part of the service you provide. In these multi-tenant environments, the right system simplifies access management while giving each tenant the control they need. In some situations, maintaining the group based access rules on behalf of all your tenants could make sense. For long-term tenants, this essentially means you have to keep track of their employees and maintain each individual’s access. Even if group based access control makes this possible, we have options that go beyond it. A better solution is to provide those long-term tenants with the ability to configure their own employees’ access.
Multi-tenant configurations allow you to create administrative users with siloed access to just part of the larger access control system. These siloed administrators can add users, groups, and manage access without affecting other tenants. This multi-tenant configuration is called partitioning an access control system. Each tenant partition acts like its own full fledged access control system. Multi-tenant configuration empowers each building tenant to manage their space while the building owner retains overall control. Building managers can assist individual tenants, but it’s no longer a requirement to manage their access. It changes a potential management burden into a selling point for your commercial space.
Multi-site environments can also take advantage of partitioned multi-tenant configurations. The advantage here is that it reduces complexity while also siloing required scope of access. For example, each building or campus of buildings could be configured as a separate partition. Then part of the administrative staff of that building or campus would administer access for their users. This is a great way to reduce complexity of mature systems in these large organizations.
Temporary access for trusted guests
Access control for commercial buildings enable new types of scenarios – such as temporary access credentials. Temporary credentials empower trusted visitors with controlled access to your facility. This could be used for visiting staff, contractors doing work on the building, or attendees of a hosted event. These credentials allow you to give the necessary access without compromising your overall security by limiting scope, exposure, and duration. Additionally, in case of an incident, the system tracks these temporary credentials just like any other credential. Their event history is reviewable and access can be revoked if needed.
We offer multiple software solutions that enable temporary access. Some systems use mobile phone apps to simplify management, others may require the creation of physical cards or fobs with limited access. Either way, these systems enable credentials for contractors, visitors, and other guests while safeguarding your commercial assets. Ask us about the different formats that these access credentials can take.
The expertise your business deserves
Whether your organization faces some of these challenges or others completely unique to your mission, ESI Technologies has the experience to meet them with the unique insight they deserve. We pride ourselves in our fully integrated solutions, which solve both the visible and hidden complexities in access control for commercial building management. This allows you to worry about growing your business while we handle the growing needs of security and access control!
Contact us today to learn about how our solutions can help relieve the frustrations related to access control for commercial buildings and your business!