“I handle more clients now, my day goes more productive with maximum queries resolved for the right customers and most importantly my workplace is more secure”, this is a review given by one of our client’s employee after the installation of Access Control System in their office which restricted entry of unwanted people without proving their identity, eliminating the risk of any accident or fraud.

Access Control An Overview:

Many employees and employers are not fully aware of access control and relate it to mere attendance punching machines. To enter somewhere means to access, to control the access is known as Access Control. In simple terms, it can be understood as “A method to control the in and outs at a place by using manpower, manual or electronic barriers or by any other kind of devices”.

The access control system works on a security principle of:

• Fundamental Principles.
• Identification.
• Authentication.
• Authorization.
• Rejection or non – rejection.

Access Control – One Name Numerous Ways:

In general access control systems are operated in 2 ways:

1. Finger Based Access Control System– biometric details of a worker’s finger are registered in the biometric access control machine. Now the doors of his office floor will be only opened by his/her fingerprint when it will be punched on the machine. The ones who are not registered with the access control system, their access will be denied. Finger-based access completely ensures the entry of authorized candidates only.
2. Card Based Access Control System – a card issued to an employee which holds a unique alphanumeric code. A unique code is assigned to every card which may match an employee’s company registration code and is strictly different for every card. this card is punched into the machine and due to its unique code, the door gets opened as the code is on the name of that employee who has been entered into the machine. Without this card, entry would be restricted.

But in actual practice, there are several other ways as well to operate access control and the unique part about it is that we don’t need to carry anything to make ourselves eligible for access but our hands, eyes, and fingers are unique enough to mark our access. Various access control options are as follows:

• Finger scan.
• Card Scan.
• Pin protection.
• Password protection.
• Card with pin protection.
• Card with password protection.
• Pin with password protection.
• 8 door controller
• Slave reader

Apart from this, there are several principles, criteria & categories followed by their subtypes which make access control a more wider topic to discover and preferably a safer option from a security point of view.

There can be many ways on how we want to characterize the access control, on the other end it also depends upon how many doors you want to operate:

1. Considering a single door to be operated,

• A biometric machine with finger based access only.
• A standalone biometric machine with card based access only.
• Door controller with Slave reader for card based access only.
• Standalone biometric machine with pin based access only.

2. Considering Multi door operations, only Door Controller with Slave Reader can be preferred.

A comparison chart will be helpful in understanding the features and importance of each option in Multi door operation Access Control Systems:-

Moving further, other features which play an influential role in safety are:

A. Time Zone – There are different shifts in the offices, some follow fixed, some rotational, and some work on 24×7 principles. With this kind of flexible timings, it becomes tricky to administer every employee’s access. Access control systems linked with biometric machines can also be installed with predefined shift timing access for employees. For example, if work timings of an office are from 09:00 AM to 05:30 PM, taking half to one hour as buffer time, the access control system will provide access to employees in this given shift timings and as soon as the time crosses the set limit, access will be denied by the system.

Also, Read: Specifications of the Biometric Attendance Machine

In factories, manufacturing units, and other big setups which work on 24 hours shift, a worker who is assigned for the day shift won’t be able to enter the premises once his/her shift gets over as there 12 hours shift time gets over and this time limit can be set with the access controls.

In a similar way, the week offs and listed holidays can be assigned for maintenance in companies and as per the client’s requirement only maintenance engineers can be allowed on the premises, so the access control system will grant entry to only selected maintenance staff only.

B. Anti Pass Back – This refers to a process of blocking the unauthorized access of an unregistered person through a registered employee.

It has been experienced in the offices that unauthorized people access a particular floor with the help of an authorized person with only one access card. Once an employee who has marked IN by punching the card on the access system will need to mark OUT as well to complete one cycle on IN and OUT from the floor.

Otherwise, the system won’t allow the employee to enter or leave the floor, this feature, in turn, can block the exit of the person who has entered the floor illegally as he/she won’t be able to move out from the floor now.

C. Feedback Locks – Following the list of various modes of security breach thru access control systems, another one in the list can be a physical barrier that can obstruct a gate from closing, lets suppose an authorized employee opened the door with the access card and placed a chair, rod or any other object before the door creating a barrier and not letting it to meet the armature plate to get closed.

This act can make doors open for everyone. What is particular about feedback locks is the siren or beep sound which gets installed with the doors so that if any object restricts the door from getting closed, the siren or beep sound starts ringing informing everyone about the suspicious activity.

Read more: Five Ways Biometric Systems Improve Employee Management and Productivity

Access Control – A Modern Name for Safety:

Now here a question arises,

Why do I need access control in my office when we have security agents?

Ans: let’s quote a simple example, we have a smartphone and a normal swipe lock is OK to protect our data, but why do we opt for a fingerprint scan or face scanner lock? A clear answer is for personal data protection from everyone and only we can access the data on our phones.

A single security agent won’t be enough to give complete protection on every floor, every department, every section, and every locker in the office, moreover an unwanted attack by a group of suspicious people can be difficult to be handled by a security agent.

We hope for the best and prepare for the worst and there can be many other ways which can affect the integrity and environment of a workplace as modernization gives birth to various Phishing activities, and to understand it in a good way, someone said, “Modern problems require modern solutions”.

Read more: How to Install a Biometric Access Control System?

“It is somewhere responsible for my employees to be more happy and energetic in office, they work, play and share their light moments together with a sense of security and a personalized space with no unwanted interference and this is all because of access control security systems”, says one of our client as he feels that installing an access control system in his office was one of his perfect decision taken.

Access Control – Changing Corporate Environment:

“This not only gives security but also a modernized & big corporate office feels”, these kinds of reviews from employees and their colleagues make us believe that Access Controls is ahead in adding convenience and features in the corporate world.

It is the business environment that is demanding a new and advanced level of professionalism and originality in the offices. These are nowadays considered as an employee’s right or employee’s rules in the offices to have personalized access control and somewhere can be counted as a personal identity at the workspace.

All the big enterprises have entered the world of Access Control systems and are working towards making the whole office space access control enabled and all the small, medium, and moderate organizations and startups have started following the same trend and we hope to see globally secured workplaces in future with employee and data protection at the topmost level.

Also, Visit: Biometric Attendance System.

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3. Biometric Security System
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