Over the years, access control systems have become commonplace in a range of sectors including education, healthcare, business, and hospitality. Here, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) looks at how this technology has been advancing over time to meet consumer needs.
It’s no secret that smartphones have become a permanent fixture in our lives, with Deloitte’s 2016 Global Mobile Consumer Survey stating that four out of five adults now own a smartphone, with UK citizens collectively looking “at their smartphones over a billion times a day”. Due to this increased use, we are now beginning to see more integration between smartphones and security products, and access control is no exception.
Talking about the increased use of smartphones as being an identifier for access control systems, Paul Adams, Chairman of the BSIA’s Access and Asset Protection Section, has seen this as a solution in a number of sectors, especially hospitality. “Certainly the use of smartphones as an identifier is going to be hugely beneficial in the hotel industry. Most of the major hotel chains operating in the UK have shown an appetite for using mobile technology in this way and there are a number of pilot sites around the country.”
The integration of smartphones with access control systems within hotels enables the customer to use their phone as a key for their bedrooms, which can carry a multitude of benefits. After making an online booking, the customer can download an app – which has the capabilities to link to a hotel’s loyalty scheme – and automatically check in and unlock their rooms throughout their stay, all with the comfort of their smartphones. Paul says: “The ease of use and the ability to link an app to a hotel’s loyalty scheme will yield an impressive return on investment.”
Talking about the access control market as a whole, Paul believes that the uptake of smartphone integration has been slightly slower than its use in the hotel sector, but predicts that “within the next five years, it will probably be the norm that most access control identification will be by smartphone, other mobile device or wearable technology.”
To find out more about the BSIA’s Access and Asset Protection Section section, visit www.bsia.co.uk/access-control.
