When running an expanding business, keeping your employees, premises, and assets safe is crucial. As a busy business owner, managing your access control can be a time-consuming task which requires constant surveillance, taking time away from making new deals and planning your business’s next big strategy.
As a business grows, managing access across multiple doors, staff roles, and external visitors becomes harder. What once worked for a single office often breaks down as teams expand, locations increase, and security risks rise.
Why access control scalability matters
As your business grows, whether it’s expanding to other locations or making your existing one bigger, your security needs to be up to scratch. When your business’s premises are small, access control concerns are often minimal, as there are fewer opportunities for thieves and trespassers to infiltrate. When your access points increase, so does the risk of authorised entries.
Benefits of access control for expanding businesses
When selecting the ideal access control system for your expanding business, there are several key features to consider to ensure your system remains effective as your business and requirements evolve.
Single-point access control management across multiple sites
When you have multiple premises, you might have multiple systems and dashboards. This makes managing access control difficult and inefficient, particularly when more locations are added, resulting in multiple different apps and dashboards for each site.
Modern cloud-based access control systems combine your site management into a single, comprehensive dashboard you can access from any device at any time. This single-point management system makes it easy to monitor and survey all your locations at the same time.
Integrations with your existing systems
Does your business have existing systems for different areas of your business? Expanding your business shouldn’t mean you have to take on the management of another system with a new interface and dashboard.
Having an access control system with the right integration capabilities means your existing systems can be consolidated into a single place, without the need to migrate or remove them, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Our secure, cloud-based platform, OLS Connect, works with trusted partners to provide integrated access control. This system enhances security and system management for businesses with multiple sites.
Scaling access control as you add entry points
As your physical access control needs expand, your system should be able to expand with them.
When adding doors, locks, and other physical access control points to your business, it is essential for your system to onboard them quickly and easily.
An effective access control system should enable the management of new physical access points to seamlessly integrate with your existing ones without any downtime or disruption. Your doors and barriers are the first line of defence against intruders, so ensuring that they are always operational and responsive is crucial for maintaining the security of your premises.
Managing large-scale access changes across multiple locations
Communicating a single message across multiple sites simultaneously is difficult. When you make a change to your access control system, you want to make sure the new rule is executed the same way across all your access control points.
The right access control system should allow for quick and easy management. On a single cloud-based dashboard, your change should be communicated instantly to all the needed areas, negating the need to repeat the process across multiple sites or systems. This saves time and prevents different systems from misunderstanding access rules. This helps ensure that access control is effective and consistent across all your locations.
If you need to add many new users at the same time, your system should allow for easy mass uploads of these users and their permissions. This should happen with minimal downtime so that their permissions become active as quickly as possible.
Visitor management and role-based access control
For large businesses, setting permissions for each employee individually is impossible and leaves an opportunity for inconsistent access across various roles.
Role-based access control removes this issue; an effective access control system can assign a predetermined set of permissions to an individual based on their assigned job title or role within the business.
For external visitors, access control systems allow for temporary digital passes to be created and distributed prior to their visit. Credentials can be used on their mobile device, giving them restricted access to your premises, and automatically expire after their allotted time. These time-based passes help to streamline processes like deliveries and meetings, saving valuable time whilst ensuring security.
Remote support from anywhere
In the event your access control goes wrong, traditional on-site systems require costly and time-consuming on-site support. This could leave your premises vulnerable while you wait for a technician to arrive.
Cloud-based access control systems offer quick support because you can reach a technician anytime, from anywhere, to ask questions or fix issues. These systems also receive automatic security updates, keeping your system secure without needing any in-person intervention.
Minimise disruptions
In any organisation, it’s important to minimise disruptions to keep productivity high and operations running smoothly. An effective access control system supports your business’s operations, reducing security risks and allowing staff to focus on their core responsibilities rather than managing security concerns.
Identify threats before they happen
A strong access control system can warn you about potential risks before they occur.
Cloud-based access control systems allow for real-time reporting and live monitoring of occupancy and fire muster reporting, helping you keep track of who is at your premises and where. This ensures that you are aware of any security issues right away and can respond quickly to incidents at all locations.
OLS works with growing businesses like yours to design and implement scalable, cloud-based access control tailored to their needs.
If you’re planning your next stage of growth, speak to our team. We can help you understand the best options for your premises today to ensure your security is ready for tomorrow.
