Where iLOQ Intelligent Locking Makes Sense
iLOQ starts to make sense when managing access has become an operational problem.
That might be because you've got hundreds of locks, lots of people coming and going, contractors who only need access occasionally, sites spread across a large area or locks in places where running power and data cabling would be expensive.
Sometimes the problem is security.
Quite often, though, it's simply the amount of time and effort being wasted managing keys.
If somebody somewhere in the organisation is spending an alarming proportion of their working week answering the question “Who's got the key?”, it's probably worth looking at another way of doing things.
Student accommodation
Student accommodation is almost a perfect example of the sort of environment where intelligent locking becomes useful.
You've got large numbers of people moving in and out, often at predictable points during the year. Rooms change occupants.
Students lose things. Maintenance teams need access. Cleaners, contractors and other staff need to get into some areas but not others.
With conventional keys, all of that creates administration.
Keys have to be issued, collected, recorded, replaced and sometimes chased halfway across the country after somebody has moved out.
With digitally managed access, permissions can be issued and changed as occupancy changes. Staff and contractors can be given access to the areas they actually need without necessarily being given a master key to everything else.
For a small property, the key cupboard might be perfectly manageable.
For hundreds or thousands of rooms, it can become a completely different problem.
Retail and multi-site estates
One shop with three members of staff probably isn't where we'd start.
A retail business with dozens or hundreds of locations is much more interesting.
Now you've got staff changes, shop managers, cleaners, maintenance companies, refrigeration engineers, shopfitters, alarm engineers and other contractors all needing different kinds of access.
And the front door is only part of it.
There may be stock rooms, plant areas, service entrances, shutters, external compounds, cabinets and other restricted areas across the estate.
The more sites you've got, the less attractive it becomes to manage all of that using physical keys being posted, collected, copied and passed between people.
Digitally managed permissions mean access can follow the person and their job rather than relying entirely on which bunch of keys happens to be in their pocket.
Utilities and critical infrastructure
This is where battery-free intelligent locking becomes particularly interesting.
Utilities often have assets spread across enormous geographical areas: substations, pumping stations, treatment facilities, cabinets, compounds, gates, technical rooms and other locations that engineers and contractors need to reach.
Many of those locations don't lend themselves particularly well to conventional powered access control.
Running electrical and network cabling to a remote gate simply so somebody can open it electronically may solve one problem by creating another.
iLOQ allows electronic access permissions to be used in applications where permanent power at the lock may not be practical.
That can also be valuable when the person trying to get through the lock has arrived precisely because something else at the site has stopped working.
Commercial property and facilities management
Commercial property and facilities management
Commercial property and facilities management
Large commercial buildings and property portfolios create another kind of access problem.
There may be employees, tenants, cleaners, facilities teams, maintenance contractors and specialist engineers all moving through different parts of a building or estate.
Some need permanent access.
Some need it for a week.
Some need access to one plant r
Large commercial buildings and property portfolios create another kind of access problem.
There may be employees, tenants, cleaners, facilities teams, maintenance contractors and specialist engineers all moving through different parts of a building or estate.
Some need permanent access.
Some need it for a week.
Some need access to one plant room on Tuesday afternoon and absolutely no reason whatsoever to be wandering around anywhere else.
The larger and more changeable the estate becomes, the more useful digitally managed permissions become.
And this isn't limited to shiny new buildings.
iLOQ has even been selected to modernise the locking systems in New York's Empire State Building.
That's a useful example because it demonstrates an important part of the technology's appeal: intelligent locking can make sense as a retrofit in substantial existing buildings, not just projects designed around electronic access from the beginning.
Industrial, logistics and warehouse sites
Commercial property and facilities management
Commercial property and facilities management
Factories, warehouses and logistics operations tend to have a lot more locks than the obvious ones on the front gate.
There are stores, workshops, plant rooms, cabinets, compounds, restricted production areas, maintenance spaces and sometimes several buildings across the same site.
There are also usually contractors.
Lots of contractors.
The
Factories, warehouses and logistics operations tend to have a lot more locks than the obvious ones on the front gate.
There are stores, workshops, plant rooms, cabinets, compounds, restricted production areas, maintenance spaces and sometimes several buildings across the same site.
There are also usually contractors.
Lots of contractors.
The person servicing one piece of machinery may need access to a particular area without needing access to the rest of the facility.
The same goes for temporary workers, specialist maintenance teams and external service providers.
Managing those permissions digitally can be considerably cleaner than increasing the size of the master-key system every time another access requirement appears.
Education, healthcare and other large estates
Commercial property and facilities management
Education, healthcare and other large estates
Schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and other large institutional estates often share the same underlying problem.
There are lots of buildings, lots of users and lots of different reasons why somebody might legitimately need access.
Teaching staff, estates teams, cleaners, contractors, clinicians, maintenance engineers and temporary
Schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and other large institutional estates often share the same underlying problem.
There are lots of buildings, lots of users and lots of different reasons why somebody might legitimately need access.
Teaching staff, estates teams, cleaners, contractors, clinicians, maintenance engineers and temporary staff don't necessarily need access to the same places.
These are also environments where buildings evolve over time.
New areas are added. Rooms change purpose. Departments move. Contractors change.
A locking system which allows permissions to change without physically changing the lock every time the organisation changes can make life considerably easier.
When the problem isn't the building — it's the people
The common theme across all of these examples isn't really the industry. It's change.
- People join.
- People leave.
- Contractors arrive.
- Responsibilities change.
- Buildings are extended.
- Sites are acquired.
- Keys go missing.
Somebody needs access at seven tomorrow morning and the person holding the key is 80 miles away.
Mechanical keys are wonderfully simple when the environment around them is simple too.
The problems start when the organisation becomes complicated but the method of controlling access doesn't.
That's the point where intelligent locking starts becoming genuinely useful.
When iLOQ probably isn't necessary
We don't think every lock in Britain needs to become intelligent.
If you've got a small office, five employees and two doors, a perfectly ordinary mechanical locking system may continue doing its job quite happily for years.
Likewise, if you need a heavily integrated access-control system involving turnstiles, CCTV, biometrics, alarms and building-management systems, a conventional access-control specialist may be the more appropriate route.
iLOQ becomes particularly interesting when you have some combination of:
- lots of locks;
- lots of users;
- regular staff or occupant changes;
- contractors and temporary access;
- multiple buildings or sites;
- remote or awkward locations;
- locks where installing permanent power would be difficult;
- or physical-key management that is consuming more time and money than it really should.
It's the operational problem we're interested in, not finding an excuse to fit an intelligent lock.
Tell us what's causing the problem
You don't need to know whether you need an S5 key, an S50 mobile credential or which cylinder goes in which door. That's our bit.
Tell us about the estate, the people who need access and what currently goes wrong.
Maybe keys keep disappearing.
Maybe contractors have to collect them.
Maybe you're spending a fortune changing cylinders.
Maybe you've got hundreds of remote locations.
Or maybe the system technically works, but everybody who has to manage it hates it.
That's enough to start a conversation.