Industry Vertical
All Doors Not Created Equal
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Sep 01, 2016
You might not give a second thought
when you enter or exit a secure facility;
it may just seem routine. But, that’s
not how Martin Huddart and the team at
ASSA ABLOY see it. Their take on a secure
facility is one door at a time, measuring convenience
against risk.
With its Americas headquarters located in New
Haven, Conn., ASSA ABLOY is a leading provider of
security and life-safety solutions, including those from
well-known door hardware brands Corbin Russwin,
SARGENT and Yale. With this broad offering, ASSA
ABLOY plays comfortably in the commercial and institutional
markets, as well as the residential space.
All three brands are supported in New Haven, or a
nearby facility in Berlin, Conn. Along with engineers
in the United States, ASSA ABLOY locks are designed
by engineers in Mexico, South Korea, Stockholm
and Poland. “As a $9 billion global company,
we are able to leverage the best technical minds from
ASSA ABLOY around the world,” Huddart said.
The business intersects two multi-billion dollar
markets: the traditional lock and hardware world
and the electronic access control world. While there
are more choices in lock technology than ever before,
up until fairly recently, security decision makers had
only two choices to secure an opening—mechanical
locks and keys or traditional online access control.
Due to advancements from market leaders like ASSA
ABLOY, there is now a solution for every type of
door and for every budget.
Taking an expansive look at ASSA ABLOY
Americas, the division offers a wide variety of new
and traditional products to address an array of environments
and applications. The organization manufactures
a wide range of security products including
access control components, perimeter fence and security
products, doors and frames, high security mechanical
and intelligent key systems, architectural accessories
and door controls products plus residential
locks and hardware.
Zooming out further, the global ASSA ABLOY
organization offers identity management solutions
through HID Global, a variety of entrance automation
solutions, and a multitude of door, lock and
hardware solutions in most markets around the world.
ASSA ABLOY is a regular member of the
FORBES Most Innovative Companies list, and has
many new technologies designed to improve building
security and convenience.
Mobile Access
One of the most significant factors in the changing access
control landscape is the proliferation of the smartphone.
Just as we manage nearly every aspect of our
lives with mobile technology, we now have the same
convenience for unlocking doors. While this may have
been merely a concept initially, mobile access is now
gaining traction quite rapidly due to increasing comfort
levels with this type of technology. This is reflected
in the growing use of applications like cashless payments
in banking, retail and vending machines.
In the world of access control, mobile access is
possible thanks to innovations like HID Mobile Access
powered by Seos. ASSA ABLOY’s Seos technology
is a next generation credential technology that
enables the first multi-platform ecosystem for issuing,
delivering and revoking digital keys and other identity
data across a broad range of smart devices, including
mobile phones, micro-processor cards and wearables.
Providing the ultimate in convenience and flexibility,
Seos offers the ability to unlock doors with iOS
or Android mobile devices, with support for both
Bluetooth Smart and NFC technology. Seos also
addresses one of the biggest concerns with mobile
access, which is security. Best-in-class security and
privacy protection safeguards identity data and ensures
that over-the-air communications between the
mobile device and locks is completely private. With
these two barriers removed, mobile access will likely
become more and more popular as a complement to
traditional smart cards. ASSA ABLOY offers a broad
range of access control locks that support HID Mobile
Access, giving you even greater flexibility in how
you deploy it.
Aperio Wireless Technology
“We want to make it easier and more affordable to
bring access control to more doors and more applications,”
said Huddart. “We’re able to do this by allowing
customers to leverage the systems they already
have in place.”
ASSA ABLOY’s Aperio wireless technology eliminates
the greatest cost and inconvenience of traditional
access control by using wireless communication
between the lock and a hub that is connected to
the access control panel. “Many facilities have extra
capacity on their access control panels, giving them
the option to expand their access control footprint
at a much lower cost,” notes Huddart. “Aperio really
offers the best of both worlds – the convenience and
flexibility of wireless with the real-time communication
of online access control.”
Aperio also addresses the growing need for access
control in applications beyond the traditional door.
With a complete range of lock types, including locks
for cabinets, drawers and server racks, you can deliver
the higher level of security, accountability and control
that is increasingly becoming a requirement for many
facilities, especially healthcare and data centers.
IP-Enabled Solutions
Facilities can leverage their existing IT infrastructure
to expand their access control footprint using IP-enabled
WiFi orPoE locks. WiFi locks offer the lowest
infrastructure costs, because it is truly as simple as
installing the lock on the door and configuring it to
communicate with the access control system using the
building’s WiFi network. While there is a slight tradeoff
in communication frequency, the total installed
cost can be as little as 20 to 30 percent of a traditional wired solution and is ideal for openings
that would otherwise be too difficult or
costly to secure.
PoE locks use a single network cable
for both power and data, offering online
access control at a much lower cost
than traditional solutions. PoE locks
are also highly efficient—they significantly
reduce standby power consumption
and use less materials by combining
several separate components into a
single lock.
At security conferences in the North
American market, ASSA ABLOY is
showcasing these technologies and others
in the context of some important
vertical markets including:
Residential and Multi-Family
As the home automation market heats
up, ASSA ABLOY has many software
partners which is also true in the
commercial market. ASSA ABLOY
is also addressing the rapidly expanding
multi-family housing segment with
a new cloud-based solution from Yale
that makes managing access for multifamily
facilities easy and affordable.
Education
“One of our biggest concerns in the security
business is the school vertical,”
Huddart said. “Lockdown procedures
are now a critical component of every
school safety plan, but as schools
evaluate these plans there are a couple
issues they need to keep in mind. First,
we want them to realize that the same
strategy may not be best throughout
the school or for every circumstance.
What works well for the perimeter may
not work well for classrooms, so an application-
appropriate solution is often
the best course of action.
It is absolutely critical that regardless
of which lockdown strategy they
implement, students and staff must
have free egress at all times. Though
mandated by fire code, there are unfortunately
many solutions available that
lock doors so they cannot be opened at
all, trapping students inside the building.
Including the right team of people
in the school security evaluation process
helps ensure that all needs are met,
including code compliance.”
Customized for the Environment
ASSA ABLOY fully understands that
there’s no one-size-fits-all solution
when it comes to security. Which is
why, amazingly, no matter what technology
is involved, they build each
order specifically to the customer’s
specific requirements, even if it’s a
single lock. Huddart said, “Because
doors and locks come in all kinds of
shapes and sizes, we make almost all
our products to each customer’s individual
requirements in a short period
of time. We are proud to be making
security products in efficient U.S.
plants close to most of our customers.”
It is nice to see a leading innovator
in the security space still have a
commitment to manufacturing in the
U.S.A.
This article originally appeared in the September 2016 issue of Security Today.