The transition to digital solutions is reshaping industries worldwide, with mobile access playing a pivotal role in security management, as highlighted by ASSA ABLOY's recent advancements in keyless solutions.
In Western Europe, there are 459 million active smartphones, yet only a small percentage currently facilitates digital access. Anticipating rapid adoption, projections indicate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 22% for mobile credentials over the next seven years.
Benefits for Users and Managers
Mobile technology in access control offers enhanced security and convenience. This shift mirrors trends seen in sectors like banking and travel, where mobile-first approaches boost efficiency.
The use of mobile keys eliminates the need for traditional keycards or fobs, simplifying access for staff and visitors. Users can now move seamlessly through buildings with their smartphones as access keys.
Access Management Advancements
From a security perspective, mobile access streamlines operations for managers
From a security perspective, mobile access streamlines operations for managers. With mobile credentials, devices are less likely to be lost or misused and can be swiftly updated or revoked remotely. Security managers can adjust access permissions via mobile platforms, eliminating the need for physical key exchanges or meetings.
Remote Access and Productivity
Mobile-enabled remote management enhances efficiency, saving time and effort for facility staff. By utilizing secure cloud solutions, organizations improve their productivity and employee wellbeing. David Moser, SVP & Head of Digital Access Solutions at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions EMEIA, states, “At ASSA ABLOY, we were very quick to spot the benefits of mobile access for all kinds of stakeholders.”
Application in Multi-Residential Housing
ASSA ABLOY's mobile access solutions cater to various sectors, including multi-residential housing.
Build-to-rent provider Becorp in Barcelona opted for a digital approach, moving away from mechanical keys to streamline property management and reduce operational costs. Residents use the SMARTair Openow® app for secure mobile access, with Becorp’s Xavier Casals noting the pressure physical key management placed on operational expenses.
Diverse Mobile Solutions
Access permission updates are managed remotely through the CLIQ Web Manager
ASSA ABLOY offers multiple solutions, including CLIQ® Connect, which extends their programmable key systems into mobile platforms.
Access permission updates are managed remotely through the CLIQ Web Manager, enhancing flexibility. CLIQ Go serves small and medium-sized businesses, enabling straightforward digital access management from a mobile device.
Integration with Existing Systems
The Aperio® battery-powered locks align with existing systems, using Bluetooth and NFC protocols to provide robust security with Seos®-based cryptography. The ABLOY CUMULUS solution further enhances mobile capability, offering tailored access via smartphones and enabling Bluetooth unlocking for various electric and electronic locks.
Future-Ready Mobile Solutions
David Moser adds, “We engineered CUMULUS to help businesses increase their mobile capability to really get their access ready for what’s ahead.” With customization capabilities through APIs and SDKs, these solutions seamlessly integrate mobile into the core of business operations, opening new possibilities for customers across sectors.
In business and personal life, digitalisation increasingly means moving to mobile. Mobile-first is becoming the norm across regions and industries. In Western Europe alone, there are 459 million active smartphones and only a fraction of these are currently used for digital access. This is changing fast: one projection suggests mobile credentials’ CAGR of more than 22% over the next 7 years.
This rapid growth seems only natural: in terms of access management, it is more secure and more convenient, for both building users and managers, when the smartphone also becomes a key. From an organizational perspective, digitalisation helps to maximize the productivity of existing assets. By adopting a mobile ethos, in access and beyond, businesses increase convenience for their users and the security of their buildings.
Building users and managers
It is easy to understand why mobile is, according to one analyst, “the dominant trend in access control.”
Using mobile keys for access helps building users to act faster, work smarter and collaborate better within teams. Similar convenience benefits have already made banks, travel agents, food delivery services and more into mobile-first sectors. With mobile access, staff and visitors no longer need to carry or keep track of keys, fobs, badges or cards. The convenience of replacing plastic key-cards with secure mobile keys is obvious.
Access management perspective
From an access management perspective, mobile access enables the secure movement of people into and through premises – and simultaneously streamlines daily work for security managers. Mobile credentials are also more secure.
Phones are almost never loaned to anyone else, and are harder for a user to lose. Mobile credentials are easier for security managers to amend or de-authorize than a mechanical key. Changes to anyone’s access permissions can be made over the air, without any need for dedicated readers or asking a user to check-in their credential.
Remote access management
Furthermore, when a security administrator cancels a mobile key, it vanishes immediately. No more time-wasting handover meetings are scheduled when a tenancy, employment contract or authorized visit ends. Remote access management via smartphone and a secure cloud saves facilities staff time and hassle. They work smarter and more flexibly, benefitting both their well-being and their organization’s productivity.
“At ASSA ABLOY, we were very quick to spot the benefits of mobile access for all kinds of stakeholders,” explains David Moser, SVP & Head of Digital Access Solutions at ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions EMEIA. “So many of our access innovations provide the option to make access not only digital, but also mobile.”
Multi-residential housing
ASSA ABLOY offers customers a choice of mobile access solutions, both within complete digital access systems and via devices which plug seamlessly into an existing security management solution. Multi-residential housing is just one sector, among many, where the advantages of mobile access have seen its rapid growth.
Fast-growing build-to-rent housing provider Becorp is just one that has benefited from its convenience. For a planned new development in Barcelona, they sought a digital alternative to mechanical keys. Becorp realised that a keyless solution would save property management time, which is often spent handling hundreds of physical keys. The burden on staff is especially great when properties are newly occupied or vacated, a regular occurrence in large build-to-rent complexes.
Mobile access solutions
Residents instead use secure mobile keys in their own SMARTair Openow® app. “Physical key management for any large development puts severe pressure on operational costs,” explains Becorp’s Xavier Casals. “Choosing SMARTair wireless locks and mobile management via Openow helps us to minimize them.”
“We have several more mobile access solutions, providing customers with a choice to meet their exact needs,” adds David Moser. “CLIQ® Connect is a mobile extension to ASSA ABLOY’s CLIQ programmable key access solution. A keyholder no longer needs to update access rights physically in person. Their system administrator simply opens the CLIQ Web Manager – from anywhere – and updates it. The key-holder makes an encrypted connection between their programmable BLE key and the app on the mobile to instantly update permissions from the cloud.”
NFC mobile wireless protocols
“Yet another mobile solution, CLIQ Go, is designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers easy access management from a mobile. CLIQ Go makes it simple even for non-specialists to manage their own access, digitally and from the palm of their hand.”
Mobile access is also built-in to ASSA ABLOY digital access devices designed for seamless integration with existing systems and hardware. Battery powered Aperio® locks are compatible with both Bluetooth and NFC mobile wireless protocols. Aperio mobile access offers Seos®-based, class-leading cryptography and authentication, plus unrivalled privacy protection.
Keyless access solution
Utilising HID Seos® technology, Aperio also supports employee badge in Apple Wallet, enabling quick, convenient entry to doors, cabinets, lockers, server racks and more equipped with Aperio wireless devices.
ABLOY CUMULUS is another keyless access solution, also part of the suite of connected Digital Access Solutions from ASSA ABLOY. With ABLOY CUMULUS, tailored access rights are issued directly on a user’s smartphone. Their personalized, encrypted mobile credential unlocks any authorized opening. In addition, the revolutionary CUMULUS Controller brings mobile unlocking via Bluetooth to any electric or electronic lock – from any brand.
Smartphone app development
“We engineered CUMULUS to help businesses increase their mobile capability to really get their access ready for what’s ahead,” explains David Moser. “It is completely customisable, with APIs and SDKs for smartphone app development. Mobile becomes part of their business.”
“Like all our mobile access solutions, we hope it helps our customers to realize new possibilities in whatever they do.”
