Migrated Large Systems Away From Lenel?

Which VMS platform?

I know RS2 has a tool they call the "Lenel-in-nator" Put Lenel database in and 20 minutes later out pops the RS2 database. I converted one several years ago that was about 50 readers. Easy peasy for the most part. The vice president of RS2 was even going to come out and help with the programming until I told not to bother as I had already completed it. The conversion didn't include everything but it had most things you needed and what it didn't convert needed to be re-done anyways.

It's interesting that you mention "Lenel to Prowatch" in that list.  Prowatch can certainly talk to Mercury panels, as Prowatch panels themselves are a Mercury variant.  A Lenel-to-Prowatch conversion would almost certainly have left the Mercury panels in place, because ripping them out would create nothing but an avoidable expense.

Also, Brivo now talks to Mercury as well, so I would doubt that a Brivo takeover would rip/replace.

Because of the huge installed base of Lenel OnGuard, I don't doubt that SWH, Prowatch, Brivo and Hirsch have picked off more sites than Lenel has picked off in the other direction.  But any integrator savvy enough in all of those products to do conversions, would also know that Mercury panels are very broadly used.  If it were me, and I was converting OnGuard to SWH or Hirsch, I'd keep those Mercury panels in inventory for the next job, not the junk pile.

I have found Rip & Replace jobs from Mercury are excruciatingly rare.  Why?  Because changing out a system has more to do with the company's head-end software and support.  The panels are just one part of it.  If you don't like your system, you have nearly 20 other companies that you can go to without going to the expense of ripping out the panels.

In my long experience in this industry, I have witnessed countless migrations between Mercury-based systems, but only 1 migration from Mercury. (a CCURE customer that absolutely needed an obscure clustering feature on the iStar panel).

The best approach to serve the customer is to find a way to protect their investment. Mercury hardware is not the issue, LENEL is the issue and that is software and contemptuous support.

There are more than one software solution that can fit the bill with worst case only minor hardware changes. (older 500 panels as mentioned already) Even that is not the end of the world.

I am absolutely in total agreement that eliminating Lenel installs serves the Client, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater not so much.

Everything comes down to support, the better the vendor supports the dealer the better the dealer can support the customer. That was never a priority for Lenel which is a shame as they were a game changer when they hit the market, but got too full of themselves to stay on top due to arrogance.

I am still pissed that Bosch did not buy them out and kill their culture and assimilate it into the Bosch family of products since they already had a hook in with Readykey Pro.

What type of customers are you generally switching away from Lenel? My Lenel experience was limited, but once I started working with it, I was very unimpressed. But the company I was working for at the time was getting a lot of extra access control jobs, from large enterprise clients wanting Lenel for god knows what reason.

I can't ever see those large enterprise clients switching away from Lenel, I don't know why they love it so much, but they do.

I can how ever see smaller clients doing so. Ones with maybe a small handful of buildings, or one large one. Curious as to what your experience was with that.

When you converted away from Lenel, was it to another Mercury-based system?

Typically in a system that is more than one controller you will keep the old system running as you replace or update firmware on the controllers. Example building one is transferred then two then three and so on. Ideally if planned accordingly you shouldn't have any doors down overnight. This way there is minimal downtime for the customer and fewer service headaches. Typically you will run into issues of hardware not working the way it is supposed to or parts not wired correctly in the field or say rex motion sensors not adjusted properly to avoid forced door alarms. You will typically exclude any non-functioning hardware and to bill that at T&M. Often we will setup the new system completely fully programmed that way when you start the cut-over it goes even quicker. This scenario is the same regardless of whether your taking Lenel out or even as we did recently putting Lenel in in-place of an existing Winpak/Honeywell system.

Shannon pretty much nailed it. Get the new database and software running, if changing cards or card type, get them all issued well ahead of time, with users instructed to carry both cards. And then it's one door at a time, or one controller at a time, depending how the old or new system functions. It's not too hard of a process.

Although funny story the only time I ever upgraded to Lenel was from Facility Commander, which was previously upgraded from something much older. Used this four wire bus, and then the original readers handled the strike output, door contact input, and REX input. Those readers had long been replaced with a module that took over that job. What we didn't know is that the module like changed the data transmitted from the reader, so the lenel database and controller just thought every card was invalid, because it would show up something funky. I can't quite remember, it was awhile ago.

Some one ended up building a custom card type for us, for Lenel, so that the customer could still just put in the card number as "12345" and not have to add all the extra digits. That held things up when we first encountered that problem.

The Crown Prince of Dubai concerned with software maintenance fees!  That's interesting.  

One of our business partners in Dubai recently converted a 200+ reader Lenel install for the offices of the Crown Prince of Dubai. All panels and software was removed for the Galaxy solution.

Sounds like a royal pain in the ass ;)

What panels does the Galaxy system use?  Are they proprietary?