Access Control Systems Newstead

Why it happens

The building issued fobs for the street door and the lift; your business later added readers on its own doors with whatever technology that installer favoured. The two systems were never meant to meet, and often use different card formats entirely.

Why it matters

Two credentials means two things to lose and two lists to maintain, and in practice the second one gets shared or the door gets propped. More importantly, when someone leaves you can withdraw your card but not the building's fob, so the picture is only ever half under your control — and nobody holds a single list of who has what.

What we do

At survey we identify the card technology the building uses and check whether your system can read the same credential, so one card can open both layers where the building agrees to it. Where it cannot, we say so plainly rather than promising an integration that does not exist, and we set up one register covering both layers with a single person responsible for keeping it current.

Why it happens

Offboarding is usually a payroll and IT checklist, and physical access is not on it. Cards get dropped into a drawer without being deleted, or not handed back at all, and because the system still works for everyone else nothing looks wrong.

Why it matters

Your after-hours exposure is a list of people you no longer employ, and you cannot tell which of them still holds a working credential. If something goes missing from a store room overnight, the log will give you a card number nobody can map to a current person, which is harder to explain to an insurer than having no log at all.

What we do

We run a clean-up: every credential matched to a named current person, unknown cards deleted, and a register you can keep using. Then we make removal trivial — one named administrator on your side, trained to deactivate a person in a few clicks, and a lost-card process that does not require calling us first. We can also schedule periodic reviews as part of security system servicing so the list stops drifting.

Why it happens

It is the fastest thing to do under pressure. A trade needs the back door and the comms cupboard for a fortnight, so they are given a card or a code with ordinary staff permissions, because setting up a limited credential takes a conversation nobody has time for that morning.

Why it matters

The job ends and the access does not. Over a few years a tenancy accumulates a dozen of those, held by companies you no longer use and individuals who no longer work for them. A shared code is worse again, because it spreads well beyond the original holder, cannot be attributed to anyone in the log, and usually only gets changed after something has already gone wrong.

What we do

We set up contractor access as a category rather than an exception: nominated doors only, a start and end date, and time windows that match when the work is meant to happen. Those credentials lapse without anyone remembering to cancel them. For shutdown weeks or a fit-out period we can load a temporary schedule and let it expire on the date you give us.

Why it happens

The system was commissioned by an installer for a previous tenant, a developer or a building manager, and the top-level credentials stayed with whoever set it up. The office manager who knew the arrangement has since moved on. Everything still works, so the gap stays invisible.

Why it matters

You cannot add a starter, remove a leaver, pull a log or change a schedule without finding and paying someone else first, and if that company is gone or uncooperative the system has to be replaced to regain control. It also means you cannot answer the simplest question — who opened this door — inside the window where the answer still counts for anything.

What we do

We re-establish control: identify the platform and generation, recover or reset administrator access where the equipment allows it, document the configuration, and hand the credentials to a named person in your business in writing. If the equipment cannot be recovered, we will say so and propose a staged replacement through security system upgrades that reuses cabling and door hardware wherever it is sound.