Safety Trend Mobiles Are the New Badges
Thanks to digital identification, it’s now possible to onboard virtual access badges directly onto your mobile.
According to a Gartner analysis, 20% of all companies using some sort of access control system will, within the next three years, replace physical access badges with connected, virtual ones installed on a person’s smartphone, tablet or watch. That’s up from 5% in 2015. No surprise there: “On average, employees badge 11 times a day” says Vincent Du-part, General Manager of the French SME STid, recent winner of the SIA’s (Security Industry Association) “Best Mobile App Prize for Access Control”, thanks to its STid Mobile ID solution.
Three data transmission technologies
Faced with a challenge affecting 98% of all employees, security managers see the virtual access badge as a vital way of ensuring employee compliance with company best practices in security. And don’t forget this: a virtual badge costs 3 to 4 times less than its physical alter-ego.
This innovation uses three new data transmission technologies involving the mobile device and the instrument or person reading the badge information. First we’ll look at Near Field Communication (or NFC) which, with its 13.56 MHz band, runs at a distance of 5 cm. This is an Android-only option, as Apple’s iOS reserves this technology for its ApplePay payment system. Next comes the Bluetooth standard, offering longer reading distances (from 15 to 20 m). Especially Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which gets up to 60 m. Convenient for making outdoor and indoor parking entrances more fluid. As a matter of fact, the BLE optimizes battery consumption while reinforcing secure data transmission.
The smartphone extends functionalities
A major plus, badge-readers compatible with mobile devices also work with traditional badges. What’s more, badge-readers like the iClass SE, HID Global’s multiclass SE, Nedap’s Mace or STid’s Architect Blue, can replace existing badge-readers without changing the cables. Other than the remote attribution of access rights to users (employees, visitors, vendors…), the smartphone metaphorically opens the door to a myriad of functionalities. Like retrieving photocopies on secured printers or simultaneously attributing access rights to several company sites by HID Global. But the top prize goes to STid for its hands-free mobile solution as well as for its remote door-opening solution, using a double tap on your device (you tap your smartphone twice, even through clothes). Enough to make controlling access more intuitive.
Find out more
https://stid-security.com/fr/solutions/stid-mobile-id
Did you like the article ?
