Within my role as a Security Consultant, I have now been on countless appointments at companies that do not need an extensive key management plan in place. It's certainly not that uncommon of a problem and it can quickly escape control.

Nearly every home and office is secured with a lock and a key. Most folks have a vital chain to greatly help them record these important symbols of modern society. House keys, office keys, garage keys and several car keys usually rattle around in most people's pockets or purses.

Although lock and key mechanisms incorporate many modern security features they are still susceptible to being lost, stolen or copied. Another inherent weakness in lock and keys is that anyone with a vital can enter your building anytime they want.

Every year, companies spend a huge selection of tens and thousands of dollars re-keying buildings because someone lost a couple of keys or a worker was fired who did not return a couple of building keys?

Have you any idea how many grand master keys have now been issued in your building? Is it possible to reasonably say with full confidence that none of your keys have now been copied by significantly less than ethical employees? Are you experiencing employee's entering your office at odd hours? Has your building ever been left unlocked?

When you have experienced some of the preceding issues, perhaps and Electronic Access Control System may be the "key" ;.An Electronic Access Control System can provide you with a fruitful treatment for your key management nightmare while providing a really potent tool in your overall security management plan.

Restore those keys! A properly deployed electronic access control system will permit you to secure your facility and deter crimes by limiting usage of authorized personnel and separating public from private areas.

The capabilities of electronic access control systems vary greatly access control systems singapore. They range between single door stand alone systems that you program through a keypad, to medium-sized computer based systems, to the top of the line "enterprise" systems that have the ability to communicate control tens and thousands of card readers on multiple continents.

Electronic Access Control Systems have some very basic things in common. All of them will permit you to control who goes where and when in your facility by requiring the presentation of an original credential at a Card Reader or perhaps a PIN pad and they could be set up to provide you with a written report of who has entered your building.

There are several manufacturers offering 1 to 4 door solutions which are programmed through a keypad or perhaps a remote software package. A few of the higher end burglar alarm systems can also control access on up to 4 doors.

These smaller systems provide fully controlled usage of individuals based on the door, the date and the time. Some of them permit you to attach a form feed dot matrix printer right to the controller to be able to get reports. Most of these systems are limited to significantly less than 4 doors and several hundred users/credentials.

Many people who use the 1-4 door systems will most likely program cards to work 24 hours per day because it can be difficult and time consuming to handle multiple time groups or limit an individual's access.

That's not to say that you cannot provide full date and time limited access control with a 1-4 door system, if a application requires periodic updates and multiple users, you may want to consider an even more sophisticated solution. A good application for a 1-4 door system would be a remotely managed multi-tenant building lacking any on site manager.

Lower to mid range P.C. based solutions can be so long as control access on 1 to 32 doors of access. Systems in this range can provide controlled usage of thousands of users. They're a great choice if your intention is to allow keyless entry on a small quantity of doors at an individual site and run some limited reports.

Most electronic access systems in the lower to mid range are Windows based software applications that use MSDE or other off the shelf database software; therefore the reporting features are fairly limited.

Furthermore, the lower to mid range systems have limited abilities to monitor alarms, provide video badging, integrate with third party databases or interface with other systems such as for example CCTV or Burglar Alarms.

You will find literally dozens of manufacturers flooding the little to mid range market and their offerings vary greatly. You would be wise to do some due diligence and ask for local references from any vendor that maybe you are considering.

Enterprise Level Access Control Systems occupy the very best tier of entry control systems. You will find only a handful of manufacturers that will truly call themselves an "Enterprise Level" solution. These highly sophisticated systems are true security management systems that will easily and effectively handle tens and thousands of card readers, a huge selection of tens and thousands of cards, and a variety of workstations spread all throughout the globe.

An Enterprise Level Solution has integrated single point of entry video badging, seamless integration to CCTV systems and Digital Video Recorders, true realtime alarm handling with survive line graphics pages and full blown database solutions like SQL Server or Oracle.

Enterprise Level Access Control systems utilize door processing units or access control panels that will communicate via RS422/485 and TCP/IP Protocol. Enterprise Level Systems are only sold through factory trained and authorized systems integrators who have a proven history and fully staffed service departments.