Access Control and ID System For A Large College

The situation

Our client was a large college with over 18,000 pupils and 1,500 staff. Over the past year, they had experienced a rise in walk-in theft and had no control over the movement of people around the College premises. The College comprised 3 separate campuses but did not have a centralised security management system. If one of the College intruder alarms went off, the response team did not have information to assess where it was exactly on the premises.

In addition to this, the College also wanted to introduce an ID system which would:

• limit access to certain areas and at certain times
• facilitate electronic registration in classrooms
• lay the foundation for cash-less vending and purchases by students
• be cost-effective to run and not require massive financial investment given the number of students they had

The solution

Having fully assessed the layout of the 3 campuses and requirements of the College, we installed a central access control system that covered all the premises. The system integrated fully with the existing intruder alarms the College had (so there was no need for them to reinvest in this area).

We also sourced and provided a cost-effective ID card (Mifare Access Cards) which the College could produce in-house. These ticked all the requirements for restricting access in certain areas (for example the staff room) and at certain times (for example the IT suite after 6pm at night). This gave the College’s security staff valuable information and an audit traiil on who had been in various points of the College premises. The cards also enabled registration in classrooms and cashless vending. They also worked out considerable cheaper than other cards, saving the College on average £27,000 per annumb in ID card related costs.

The centralised system also used GUI (graphical user interface) technology. This meant that if one of the College’s intruder alarms went off, the response team were given it’s precise co-ordinates and get to the scene quickly.

The results

The College was delighted with the improved controls they had over access to their premises. Walk-in thefts reduced and access to specific areas was successfully managed. The security team also had audit trail intelligence of access to different areas of the campus. And if an intruder alarm went off they could initiate an immediate response as they were enable to pinpoint the specific alarm.