Top 5 Access Control Problems
Author: Brian Rhodes, Published on Jul 21, 2014
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Comments (11)
John Honovich
If high cost and low priced competition are 2 of the biggest problems, then who are the budget vendors in the access control that are being used? Is there an equivalent to Dahua / Hikvision and their re-labelers in access control?
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Mario Fernandez
I am really surprised that some integrators actually entertain the idea of removing the DPS and REX devices from access control systems in order to reduce cost.
If you are not monitoring the status of a door, you no longer know if that door has been forced open, left open or compromised any other way allowing for anyone to access the space. By removing those devices you effectively have lost control over that door; therefore, you no longer have an "access control " system. All you have is a card reader and credentials that tell you who "unlocked" the door, not if the space is secured.
IMHO there are alternative methods to reduce cost without compromising the primordial function of a system.
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joel rakow
Educating end user administrators has long been a thorn in the side of access control integrators. ActivAdmin introduced professionally designed and produced online video tutorials for Lenel and AMAG. These tutorials are available via a subscription price of $500 per site with unlimited training for unlimited people. Both Lenel and AMAG manufacturers actively support the purchase and sale of these tutorials. Integrators can resell the training or have customers buy direct. ActivAdmin will configure the training to be available from integrator's web site with the integrator's logo prominently displayed.
Visit try.stevethesecuritygeek.com to see a sample and to register for a trial.
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joel rakow
John, thanks for your comments. There is a way to understand why Lenel is NOT a good source for end user training of their product. Here are some insights and thoughts I believe shed light on this matter:
-Microsoft has never produced good training or help documents for end users. The culture inside a software company is too different from the end user community for them to communicate well enough to prepare effective instruction for the non-technical person
-Lenel has excellent training for integrators and technical administrators
-Lenel has a responsibility to be complete and accurate in explicity detail
-None of the above insights will help Lenel people to develop or manage appropriate end user training for 80% of the their end user community, who are substantially non-technical, have little or no interest in anything beyond "doing the tasks required of them"
-In developing end user training for software, we consider: a) The tasks that 80% of the administrators perform 80% of the time; b) One single method to perform that task that is both readily teachable and does cause problems elsewhere; c) Organizing the instruction to develop the specific skills using the fewest words in the shortest time; d) Enabling repetition when needed on demand
-We see your #2 concern for integrators as an opportunity across all software-driven building controls that are sold by integrators (a.k.a. value added resellers). Access control happens to be the lowest hanging fruit among all building control systems.
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Justin Gant
Does any have a link to this that's mentioned in the article?
"What is your average markup on Access Control?"
Thanks!
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