Business Access Control for Offices, Shops and Shared Buildings

What access control does for a business

At its simplest, access control replaces a key with a credential you can turn on and off. That gives you a few things a key never could:

• Add and remove people fast. A new hire gets access the day they start. When someone leaves, you shut their access off without rekeying a lock.
• Schedules for every door. The front door can unlock for business hours and lock itself after. The back office, the stock room or the server closet can stay locked to everyone except the people who need them.
• A record of who came in. When something goes missing or a door was left open, you can look back and see whose credential opened it and when.
• Control from your phone. Let in a delivery or a contractor without driving back to the building.

How a system fits together

Every door with access control has a few parts working together. There's a reader or keypad on the outside, the hardware that actually releases the lock, and a controller that decides who gets in. The controller lives in a locked metal enclosure in a back room or utility closet, with backup batteries so the doors keep working if the power drops.

We work out the door hardware with you and, when needed, with your door or lock contractor, so the lock, the reader and the wiring all fit the door you have. Glass storefront doors, steel doors in a back hallway and wood suite doors each call for something different, and that gets settled on the walkthrough, not guessed at from a catalog.

Credentials your people will actually use

How people unlock the door matters as much as the lock. The common options are:

• Fobs or cards for staff and regular visitors
• Keypad codes that are easy to hand out and easy to cancel
• A phone app when phone-first access fits the people using the building

We'll recommend the one or two that fit your team, not every option at once.

Planned with your alarm, cameras and network

Door access works better when it's planned with everything else in the building. Since we also install the alarm, the network and, when you want them, cameras, we can look at all of it on the same visit.

• Alarm: your monitored alarm system knows which doors matter after hours. See business alarm monitoring.
• Network: the controller, readers and app all lean on a solid network. We do network work too, including in-ceiling Wi-Fi access points and ongoing network maintenance. See networking and Wi-Fi.
• Cameras: a camera at the main door is an easy add-on, so you can see who's at the door when you let them in.
• Front entrance: a door station or video intercom can be added for visitors.

And if the space also needs background music, a conference room or Control4 control for lighting and AV, we're an authorized Control4 dealer and handle that as well. One company, one phone number, for the security and the smart building side.

Local, licensed and close by

Access control is one of those systems you need help with on a random Tuesday. A new manager needs to be added, a reader stops responding, a schedule needs to change before a holiday. Our office is in Forest Park, so for businesses in the western suburbs the owner of the company is close by, not a call center a few states away.

Alarm and security work is handled by our licensed company, Acoustical Vision Security LTD, Illinois Private Alarm Contractor 124.002139.

Building out, or already have a system?

If you're in a build-out or a renovation, the right time to plan door access is before the walls and ceilings close. We coordinate with the owner, the general contractor and the electrician so the wire to each door is in place. Our pre-wire process shows the steps.

If you already have access control, we'll look at what's there. Whether it can stay, be added to or should be replaced depends on the controller and the hardware, and we'll tell you which after we see it.

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