Average Access Control Job Size 2014

Unique IPVM statistics reveal what is the average access control job size, how size varies across integrators, what brands they typically use for project sizes.

Average Size?

Across the board, the average size of an access job is 12 - 14 doors.

Our survey turns in an interesting, but telling result. There are two distinct 'typical' project sizes:

• Small: 4 to 16 doors represented over 50% of all systems. This size encompasses most commercial systems.
• Large: 32 to 64 doors represented over 20% of all systems, representing institutional and enterprise systems.

This chart helps frame the way this data stacks:

Double Peaks

This result explains a reality of access control systems, that many systems are fixed to control just a few doors in a single commercial property, but a significant bump falls on campuses and large facilities that emphasize centralized access control as a primary security and administrative system.

Average Size

Across the board, the average size of an access job is 12 - 14 doors. However, the bimodal distribution here reveals the standard deviation is broad, an observation shared repeatedly by our integrators:

• "The average is probably around 32, although the standard deviation is quite large from very small jobs to much larger jobs."
• "20 would probably be the average, however our median would be 8. Usually there are one or two that really skew the average."
• "Average would be about 20 but very skewed: 10 jobs between 2-20 for every job >100. Hospital doing right now is 411 doors."
• "Every once & awhile, we'll win a system conversion with several hundred doors, but that only happens once a year or so."

Larger = More Secure?

There is no meaningful correlation between the doors in a system and the 'security' of the credential. We also asked integrators "Do you sell more 125 kHz or 13.56 MHz credentials?" and cross-referenced the answers to gauge how the well-publicised exploits and cracks of 125 kHz credential formats have spurred big buyers to the more secure, encrypted, and more costly 'smartcard' formats using 13.56 MHz frequencies.

The answer: Large systems are not any more likely to use 'smartcards' than smaller systems.

Vendor Breakout

The data shows the vendors most often used for larger systems (32 to 64 doors) are less varied than for smaller systems. The brands commonly mentioned by those reporting larger typical system sizes:

• Software House
• Lenel
• Genetec
• Paxton
• Honeywell

However, for smaller systems, there are more than 25 system brands mentioned with no clear preference among any single brand. 

First in a Series

This survey result is the first in our "Access Control Integrator Insights" series where we asked access resellers across the globe questions like:

• "What is your favorite access control management system?"
• "How many years does your average access customer use their system before replacing it with something else?"
• "Compared to video surveillance, is access control more profitable work? Why or Why not?"
• "What is the biggest problem you face with selling EAC?"

Stay tuned for the results!