Multi-site access control management

Managing access for multiple offices can be a nightmare—making sure everyone has the right access at the right times is difficult enough with one building.

Ultimately, careful planning is the “key” to avoiding the problems associated with access control for multiple facilities. To get you started off on the right direction, here are some important questions to consider when designing an access control system.

Who Needs Access? And Where Do They Need Access?

The more people who need to go in and out of your offices—and the more locations you have—the more complicated it is to manage access control. Plus, each of your locations has unique access control requirements. To better understand what you need, consider the following questions:

• What is the total number of people who require access?

• What are the different stores, offices or buildings for which you are managing access?

• What is the total number of people who need to access each of your locations?

• Do some employees need access to certain facilities and not others? Or require access at different times? Role-based access relates to the different access control levels required by different workers—such as the ability to open the location during off-hours, needing to access storage, supply and server rooms, or requiring universal access to the entire office.

• What are the different characteristics of each facility, and what are the different role-based access control needs of each facility?

• Which employees require access at the different security permission levels you’ve identified?

• Will you need to apply temporal constraints to your access control solution by limiting access to specific days and times?

What Kind of Access Control Systems Do You Want?

Every business has different access control system needs. For example, some need to control parking access, and some will have a constant stream of visitors. Review the characteristics of the most common access control solutions to determine which is best for your needs:

Keycard systems: Keycard systems use radio frequency identification keycards (RFID cards), badges or key fobs to unlock doors. These systems are the most popular access control solutions, but they present several challenges:

• It takes time to constantly assign and revoke access to the keycards that comprise the system.

• You have to physically meet with employees and visitors to distribute keycards—which is a big hassle when you have multiple offices.

• Employees might lose or forget their cards or lend them to others—all of which are security risks.

• Keycard systems require continual management, maintenance and upkeep by at least one responsible person at each of your locations.

Physical keys: “Old-school” physical key systems work to keep your buildings secure, and although they’re cheaper to set up, they’re even more inconvenient than a keycard system. For example, every time a key gets lost or an employee leaves, you need to rekey all the locks and redistribute new keys to everyone. The more locations and employees you have, the more unmanageable your physical key system will become.

Smartphone access systems: Smartphone-based credentials solve the worst challenges of keycards and physical keys. For example, Openpath smartphone access systems allow you to grant and revoke access to an unlimited number of employees at an unlimited number of facilities remotely. With Openpath, managers don’t have to be physically present to provide a key or keycard to employees and visitors. So, the next time an employee gets locked out of a store in New Jersey, you can open the office with a touch of a button even if you're in California.  

Finally, because Openpath access solutions use standard Wiegand wiring, are plug-and-play compatible and don’t require an on-site server, they’re a lot less expensive and faster to set up and get running compared to traditional readers and systems.

Openpath Makes Access Control for Multiple Facilities Easy, Seamless and Secure

Openpath access control solutions are easy, seamless and secure for multiple facilities. If you’d like to learn how your business enterprise can benefit from an Openpath access control system, reach out to the Openpath team for a thorough evaluation of your access control needs.

Additional Resources

• Stay safe with the Return to Work Safety Guide