When you walk up to a door controlled by an Avigilon Alta access control system, the system recognizes your phone and lets you in. This is partly thanks to mobile credentials. A mobile credential is how your smartphone can confirm that it has access to the door you’re about to walk through.

Previously, legacy security systems needed to rely on key cards, fobs and other items to verify users. Now, thanks to mobile credentials, your phone can do yet another task for you, allowing you frictionless access to your workplace or property. Here are three key reasons that using mobile credentials has changed the access control industry.

More Secure

Using a smartphone is a significant improvement over keycards and other less sophisticated options for access control. Smartphones have built-in technology to communicate with end-to-end encryption, to use two-factor authentication and more. The security advantages of using phones include:

  • Staff are much less likely to loan their phone to others than they are to loan a key card or fob.
  • If a phone is lost, the credentials can still be immediately revoked.
  • Avigilon Alta users can use their phones to report issues, detail problems and get support.
  • Smartphones are highly secure by nature and cannot be cloned the way that a keycard can be.
  • You can require users to unlock their phone with FaceID or a thumbprint to access the building.
  • Staff are much less likely to lose their phone, and they can alert you immediately if they happen to.

Cost-Effective

Unfortunately, maintaining a typical access control system with key cards or fobs can be expensive, never mind the cost of hosting servers. Using smartphones makes your access control system more affordable in a few ways:

  • When you use smartphones, you do not have to purchase or replace badges, keycards or fobs.
  • Smartphones enable you to use a cloudsystem, which means you save on the costs of physically housing your server and maintaining it.
  • Your staff can spend less time managing the system and more time on other work.

More Convenient

When you add security, you expect to add some degree of inconvenience to your building’s users. However, with smartphones, that extra inconvenience is minimal. Compared to key fobs and other options, smartphones are actually the access control system that feels most convenient. Consider that no one forgets to bring their phone to work, as they might forget a key. Other ways that smartphones are more convenient for access control systems include:

  • Issuing and revoking IDs can be done without the phone, and you do not have to manage every user individually.
  • Smartphones can enable systems that use hands-free opening. Users do not have to pull out their phone or even touch the door (it opens automatically).
  • You can use smartphones to create temporary credentials that automatically expire, giving guests a better experience while also maintaining security.

Smartphone usage is just one reason that Avigilon Alta systems are our first choice for any of our clients.