Keeping Your Business Premises Secure With An Access Control System

The most basic way you can assure the security of your office is by controlling who can access your premises. When you allow just anybody to enter your offices, you increase the risk of theft as well as accidents. The best way to improve your security is with an access control system that gives you control not only over who can enter your premises, but also restrict access to certain sensitive areas, such as those where cash and other valuable assets are kept.

But a managed access control system gives you more than just a way to restrict entry; it provides you a range of ways to ensure the security of your premises, including:

It allows you to monitor and control access to key areas. One of the biggest benefits of an access control system is that it provides you with an accurate record of not only which employees are entering a particular area, but also how long they were there. This allows you to supervise your employees’ comings and goings, but also restrict access as required, i.e. if their shift schedules change, you can also change the hours when they have access.

It reduces the risk of criminals having access to your premises. Most criminals are opportunists who only target offices where they can enter with little risk. Having an effective access control system makes it much harder for unauthorized persons to gain entry, thus deterring most criminal activity.

You can schedule access. You can program the system to deny access to unauthorized persons during times when there is supposed to be nobody in the office, i.e. after working hours. You can also set the system to allow only certain people to enter at particular times, i.e. those who are working overtime.

You can easily and quickly revoke access. If you have an employee who is suddenly terminated for cause, you can remove their access to the premises by deactivating their cardholder record. Thus, even if they do not turn over their key cards, they still wont be able to use them to get into the premises again.

You can combine access control systems with other security systems. For example, you can install surveillance cameras at access points so that you can see who is entering particular areas. These can be particularly useful in case of incidents such as attempts at unauthorized entry, since you now have a video record.

* You are provided with a wealth of data regarding cardholder activity. The system can tell you:

* What doors a particular cardholder opened

* The last door they accessed

* How often a particular door is opened

* The last time a particular card was used to open a door

* Having access to all of this data can help you better manage your security.