Any business desiring to have adequate security will strive to have an access control system. Access control is a process in which one restricts access to available resources and systems. If your business is small, having the regular key entry may work for you, but most businesses agree that access control systems are worth the investment.

Access control can solve a lot of the conflicts businesses may have with security issues. Even businesses that are open to the public will have some areas that are not intended for customer access.

Here are some of the many benefits your business will experience when adopting access control technology.

1. Streamlines the Employee Turnover Process: Lost cards or cards by former employees can be easily deactivated without the expense and annoyance of changing locks.
2. Provide More Convenient Access to Multiple Campuses/Locations: Access control works wonders for those employees who must travel to various campuses to conduct their daily operations. It also decreases the expense and technological complexity of maintaining separate access control systems for each branch of the business.
3. Limit Access to Certain Areas: Access control keycards are a valuable tool for restricting employee access. Some departments have confidential information that should not be accessible to all employees. Having areas that are only accessible to certain people with restricted access control keycards is an effective way to ensure a company’s record-keeping processes are efficient.
4. Asset Protection: If you have the traditional metal keys, you won’t have a way of identifying which employee gained access to an area with valuable company assets. To protect company resources that have a hefty price tag on the streets, access keycards are a viable way to monitor who gains access to restricted areas. Access control creates a record of entry and exit activity that can prove to be beneficial when investigating any thefts. Not only does it help in identifying thieves, but it also may deter theft since people know their access to restricted areas is monitored.
5. Security in Environments with Variable Shifts: It becomes difficult to recognise everyone by face when you have large personnel and people who may not come at the same shift every day. Therefore, a manager or security officer (especially a recently hired professional or one who has recently transferred to that location) may not have knowledge of everyone’s faces in the building. Also, the manager or security personnel may not work the same shift every week and may not have familiarity of personnel on a shift the manager occasionally works. Access cards make sense because it prevents fake employees from gaining access to vital material, and it eliminates the annoyance of having to do manual security clearance through managers and security personnel each time you enter the building or a specific part of the building.
6. Cost and Energy Efficiency: You can save you money on your utility bills by integrating your access control system into other building systems. Your access control system can alert your air conditioning and heating systems to cease to operate (or operate at an adjusted temperature) in spaces where people are not currently occupying. Unnecessary lighting can also be regulated when the access control system is connected to the lighting system. Therefore, your building will function more intelligently because it will know when to restrict utility usage, and the decrease in usage will also decrease utility expenses since the building is no longer consuming unnecessary energy.

Access control for non-commercial use

A variety of organisations can benefit from the security access control provides. For instance, you can use access control in hospitals, government buildings, colleges, resorts and clubs, apartment buildings, community centres, schools, etc. These places may be open to the public, but sometimes there is a need to limit access to certain parts of a building (or the entire building at certain times of the day or week).

Having a variety of levels of access can help owners and managers keep better track of which employees are permitted in certain areas, which is way better than the metal key strategy.

Further reading on access control

• Seven security predictions for small businesses in 2017