A business has twelve keys in circulation for a building with four doors. Two former employees never returned theirs and nobody is certain who else has one.
Changing the locks costs a day and a few hundred pounds, and it has been deferred twice because it is inconvenient rather than urgent.
The actual problem is not the locks. It is that a key cannot be revoked, and any business past a certain size has this problem permanently until it stops using keys.
The core reason to move away from keys
A key cannot be cancelled. Every other consideration follows from that, and it is why businesses with any staff turnover eventually reach this decision.
Option 1: keypads and codes
Cheap, simple and shared constantly. A code known by twelve people is not access control, and it is only appropriate where the risk is low and turnover is minimal.
Option 2: fobs and cards
The common middle option. Individually revocable, cheap to issue, easy to lose and easy to lend, which is their main weakness.
Option 3: mobile credentials
Convenient, hard to lend casually and revocable instantly. Dependent on phones, batteries and a network, which is a consideration rather than an objection.
Option 4: biometrics
Cannot be shared or lost, more expensive, and carries data protection considerations that a small business should understand before choosing it.
The administration is the real cost
Adding, removing and auditing credentials. A system nobody maintains accumulates former staff, which recreates the original problem in a more expensive form.
Decide who administers it before choosing anything
A named person, with a process for leavers on their last day. Without this, no system works regardless of what was installed.
Ask what happens in a power failure
Whether doors fail secure or fail open, and what that means for both safety and security. This is the question buyers least often ask and most need answered.
Ask about the fire and escape requirements
Access control must not prevent escape, and the arrangements have to satisfy both security and fire safety, which is a design requirement rather than a preference.
Ask what the audit trail provides
Who entered, which door and when. For some businesses this is the main reason to install anything and for others it is an unused feature.
Ask whether it works without the internet
Cloud managed systems that stop authenticating during an outage are a real operational risk, and the behaviour should be established beforehand.
Ask about visitors, contractors and deliveries
Temporary credentials, time limited access and how a delivery is handled. These are daily realities and they are frequently an afterthought.
Ask what it costs to run
Licences, credentials, support and administration time. The installed cost is frequently the smaller part across five years.
Answer the access questions before the quotation
An assistant that asks how many people, how many doors, what turnover looks like, whether an audit trail is needed and who would administer it can recommend appropriately rather than quoting the most capable system. The related enquiries sit in key holding and alarm response enquiries from businesses, manned guarding enquiries from businesses, key cutting and access control enquiries from businesses, and the same handling in ai receptionist pest control. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under security companies.