Assa Abloy’s VP Digital and Access Solutions Discusses Future of Access Management

When you look at the access control market, what major forces do you see affecting it in the next few years?

Stephanie Ordan: We are on the brink of significant change in access control. In fact, change beyond access control. It is becoming ever less useful, from a forward-looking perspective, to talk about building management functions in isolation. Rapid urbanization and technological change mean systems are being used simultaneously, every day, and often with unnecessary duplicated administrator workload across platforms.

As manufacturer — a leader in the EMEA security market for many years — our challenge is to develop solutions which create a seamless experience for security managers and building users. So providing intelligent seamless solutions designed to meet the changing needs of our customers is critical in this fast moving environment.

It is forecast by analysts TechNavio, that the demand for Access Control as a Service will grow at 22 percent annually through 2022. Technologies like wireless locking and secure mobile keys on a smartphone have now become mainstream,  and make electronic access control increasingly attractive to small and medium-sized businesses.

How would you define a smart building that provides a seamless experience?

Stephanie Ordan: A smart building needs an ecosystem where data flows in every direction. Intelligent analytics track use, the environment and more data points to make better, automated decisions in real time.

The way we live, work and move continually evolves. At Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEA, we understand that when it comes to securing your doors and spaces, adapting to diversity is everything. Flexibility and simple scalability allow security and other building functions to facilitate the changing ways we move in and through buildings.

Smarter buildings deliver many concrete benefits. For example, commercial buildings currently waste up to half of their energy consumption**. Smart energy management can help to minimize this waste. Access control has a role here, because if your building management system knows who is present, it can modify heating or cooling systems automatically. This optimises the thermal comfort for occupants, while reducing energy consumption, cost and overall carbon footprint. This only happens when your systems are joined up.

The European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy estimate smart building technology will reduce energy use by at least 15 percent. Automated controls and smart software are the key ingredients. Recent research by commercial property experts JLL identified a rent premium of between 8 percent and 10 percent for smarter, more sustainable office buildings, alongside lower vacancy rates. These efficiencies go part of the way to explaining why.

You are talking about integration, then? This is a growing trend in access control and security over many years.

Stephanie Ordan: At Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEA, we have long pioneered the benefits of integration. Our award-winning Aperio wireless locking technology, for example, is integrated with access control systems from over 100 different manufacturers. The next generation of buildings demand we take another big leap forward. Across multiple industries, leaders identify “ecosystems” as the main driver of change for their existing business models. Security is no different.

Building administrators want a single solution, available everywhere, which unites all the functions relevant to them: access, locking, CCTV, energy management and everything else into a single, powerful, flexible software environment. The latest access control software report from Omdia Technology says: “Access control software will play a critical role… for future innovation”. Our new Incedo ecosystem is the logical step: its first iteration for commercial businesses is called Incedo Business.

Incedo is a universal ecosystem combining software and hardware into one agile environment. An environment powered by data, connectivity and seamless integration, across secure, connected access points and intelligent identification technologies, and across the doors and spaces we use every day.

Despite the extraordinary shared global experience of early 2020, ours will continue to be an age of ceaseless, evolving movement. Given access control is what makes the movement of people safe and comfortable, our systems must move with it. Every end user who touches Incedo, even if they never know it, will enjoy easier access and more flexible security in their everyday lives. We can advance, change, evolve — and move. Together.

Clearly, the Incedo launch is a big step for Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEA. How does the new system work?

Stephanie Ordan: Incedo is an ecosystem, based on a true platform. This will be the place where you combine and manage all the electronic security devices and systems within your building. It is modular, making it flexible and easily scalable — in any direction.

You pick the most suitable options from a growing range of Incedo-enabled security and access control hardware. Trusted, award-winning ASSA ABLOY wireless digital locks and wired Assa Abloy wall readers secure interior and exterior doors. Also already available, a choice of card and token credentials helps users enjoy safe and convenient access to, and movement around, your premises. Incedo mobile keys let you open doors securely with a smartphone.

Incedo’s system management options — Lite, Plus and Cloud — run from entry level up to cloud-based administration. You can manage multiple sites and third-party integrations, including CCTV, when these options become available. Scale up and down, add or remove hardware and credentials on demand — or switch system management options — all within your single environment. Migration between Lite, Plus and Cloud options is always seamless in any direction, ensuring flexibility and peace of mind.

Can you tell us a little more about what customers — new and old — should expect when they adopt Incedo Business?

Stephanie Ordan: Incedo makes workflows more efficient for everyone, from installers to end users. Facility managers enjoy more control and flexibility than they ever imagined possible — with Incedo Business you are able to scale on demand. System administrators do more within limited budgets: initiating, cancelling or amending access profiles, and monitoring movement around a site in real time. You will never need to re-train, because Incedo keeps adapting to your changing needs. Building users, meanwhile, get the individual access times and entry permissions they need. They move freely without compromising the security of other people or equipment.

Integrators can upgrade technologies and systems quickly, minimizing risk and meeting customers’ raised expectations from modern technology. Incedo’s open API makes customization straightforward. Installers no longer wrestle with incompatible systems. Easy interoperability is built into Incedo, meaning no more delays or unnecessary complexity.

This launch is just the first step. Our Incedo ecosystem embraces connectivity by design, it’s not a question of bolting on upgrades or integrating functions as we go. Incedo will soon incorporate software solutions designed specifically for key verticals, including education and healthcare. This is an incredibly versatile new platform which puts flexible, powerful, future-proof security at the heart of every building and business.