Touchless Access from 2020 and Beyond

Access control has traditionally been a slow-moving industry. But there has been a huge shift in recent months due to increased customer demand and the need for safer access control experiences during and after COVID-19.

Moving forward, physical security systems that prioritize health and safety while creating an advanced level of security will have a huge influence on industry resilience and get people back to work safely.

Mixed priorities within organizations, however, are posing a barrier to the widespread implementation of health and safety technologies. A few common obstacles and objections to upgrading and evolving come up time and again: problems that, with the right solution, can be easily overcome.

1) Challenges for Commercial Real Estate & Business Owners

Touchless access investment will be at the forefront of priorities for commercial real estate and business owners in the near future. As tenants become more and more safety-conscious they no longer want to interact with physical devices, and half-baked temporary measures will only increase tenant dissatisfaction. The significant investment required for touchless systems upgrades understandably creates friction in the path to adoption.

Stakeholders are faced with declining occupancy revenues and impacted bottom lines, shifting their priorities to stabilizing immediate revenue losses before considering spending on systems upgrades.

This conflict between pressures to invest in health and safety and financial stability hinders the support of decision-makers and slows the implementation of the systems needed for cities to return to normal.

2) Barriers to Change

Industry leader HID Global notes the biggest obstacle to upgrading and conforming to the demand for improved health and safety measures is budget, citing that, “one in five say physical access system upgrades are not a priority for their organizations, while others listed business disruption, resistance to change, and integration with legacy systems” as the biggest obstacle.

With a readily available COVID-19 vaccine likely more than a year away, stakeholders are even less incentivized to invest in new building access and occupancy tracking systems today.

3) A Simpler Model for Access Control Modernization

Access control improvement for businesses needs to be simple, easy to adopt, and future-proof. This starts with solving the mentioned barriers to adoption:

•  1) Business disruption
• 2) Integration with legacy systems
• 3) Resistance to change
• 4) Budget restraints

A solution is needed that makes the mobile access upgrade path affordable and non-disruptive. Zerv solves this by leveraging users’ smart devices and the legacy infrastructure already in place, migrating access control to a timeless cloud-based solution rather than trying to drive costly reader replacements.

Benefits of a Cloud-Based Access Control System

• 1. The system can scale with the needs of the organization
• 2. Constant security updates that can be rolled out instantly
• 3. Zero downtime
• 4. Mobile-first access management
• 5. Unlimited number of buildings managed from a central location
• 6. Real-time and remote granting or revocation of access
• 7. Constant data backups
• 8. Fast product evolution

Our mission is to eliminate the need for costly hardware upgrades in the short run and to help organizations stay ahead of the changing landscape with less financial implication in the long run.

Patented Zervers integrate with existing legacy readers and re-equip them to securely communicate with mobile phones and smart devices, enabling features such as touchless access, identity verification, biometric identification, capacity monitoring, and more.

A. Migrating security and authentication to a software model that is adaptable to future security and access feature upgrades.

B. Offloading security hardware innovation on smartphone manufacturers

By leveraging existing access control infrastructure, Zervers can upgrade access systems in 30 seconds, with zero downtime and zero disruption to business operations

Zerv gets even deeper into the buildings, giving users the ability to manage more than just authenticated access. It integrates with other devices in a building, such as lighting automation, air circulation, supply chain management and more by allowing access data API integration with building management systems (BMS).

As access control technology continues to advance, forward-looking organizations stand to dramatically enhance their capability to protect their people and property. They can also use access control data to improve business operations by integrating API data to support automation and reduce operational costs - concurrently helping to reduce a building’s carbon footprint.

This will increasingly become a top priority for commercial real estate owners in the coming years as reduced occupancies and green initiatives become more prominent.

Need help planning for your visitor management protocols?

Connect with our team directly at contact@zervinc.com and we’ll work with your team to create a project plan that fits your facility’s needs.