Now, there are dozens of secure and economical designs to control and monitor who has access to your locked areas. Non-duplicating keys, keypads, stand alone units, magnetic cards, bar code cards, data chips, proximity cards, finger readers, hand readers, retina scan readers, face recognition readers, voice recognition, are just a few examples of such systems.

An access control system can help track employees or vendors as they enter or leave the premises. In addition, it can limit the times they have access to your premises such as after hours, non-working hours or holidays when you are closed. For example, if an employee quits or is fired you can easily lock them out instantly without having to depend on a locksmith’s schedule to re-key the premises.

You can issue temporary access cards to cleaning and service people without fear of improper duplication or of people leaving the site without returning your keys. Biometric readers are an enhanced level of security for sensitive areas in your business and are a lot less expensive than you might think.

There are many factors to be considered, from cost and ease of use, to how much security you really need. For instance, a research lab might warrant an FBI-grade eye scanner, but for your general office staff, a proximity card would be faster and more convenient. In general, proximity cards (sort of like your cars EZ-Pass) allow the fastest flow of people, with conventional keys and various cards close behind. Biometric readers can take from 3-10 seconds per person, which is fine for specialty areas but not high traffic (note that if combined with a smart card or other ID device, the computer can make a verification match much more quickly than if it has to search the whole database). Here is a very brief look at some options; then call us to help you decide which of these is right for you.