TimeTec - Cloud Solutions for Smart City
Advantages of Cloud Electronic Access Control
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Drawbacks of Physical Locks & Keys
Easy to copy
Unauthorized copies of keys are quite common and pretty easy to do. But as long as you are using traditional locks and keys to secure
 your premise(s), the area is vulnerable to theft and break-ins. And there is no way to know how
 many unauthorized copies have
 been made - or who are holding them.

Changing locks is compulsory when keys are lost
By using traditional key, you have to change the locks every time you lost a key because the only way to f_14 Graytain security is to change all the locks that it can access. Losing a key might not be as impactful as losing an entire ring of keys. Replacing multiple locks are not only cumbersome, it’s also costly and pose security risks at the affected premises because when a key is lost, you have to assume the worst-case scenario.

Heavy key rings is a burden
With traditional keys, you almost always end up carrying large, heavy key rings to access multiple sites. If you lose a full ring of keys, the cost to change the locks can quickly become astronomic

Forgetting a Key is a Major Hassle
Every time an employee forgets to take relevant keys on his duty roll, time and expense become doubles. The same situation can occur if an employee picks up the wrong key, as large organizations will have many similar looking keys

There’s no way to log or keys
Physical keys make it impossible to log entries to any sites. It all depends on trust and manual check in log by the responsible party.

There’s no user-level and time restriction in keys
Keys always work, even when it’s not supposed to like at 4a.m. on a Sunday but nothing can be done about it because there’s no user-level and time restriction can be imposed on keys.

Remote access is not possible with physical locks
If an unexpected event comes up and you want to allow access to a site immediately, you can’t if you use traditional, physical locks.

Advantages of Electronic Access Control
Difficult to Duplicate It’s a known fact that physical keys can be copied very easily; however duplicating electronic keys needs a certain sets of skills and sophistication, which the average Joe couldn’t do. Therefore, electronic access system is proven to improve security than the conventional locks and keys.

Changing locks is the last thing you should do. You never have to change locks at your sites when using an electronic user database. If a keycard is ever lost, it can be immediately removed from the database and a new one can be issued. If an employee leaves your company, his or her access rights can be deleted within seconds. This greatly lowers your overall exposure to risk.

You Only Have to Remember One Key With electronic access, your single key or access code grants you access to every door you need to access, so there’s no chance of forgetting the key for a particular door. If you get to a site where you need access and you are not recognized by the system, a network operator can add you or your supervisor to the list instantly.

Electronic Keys Reduce Travel and Repair Time If an employee needs additional access to handle an emergency in the field, his or her access rights can be updated immediately. Manipulating user database, the personnel is not requiring to pick up a key so he can travel straight to the emergency site(s).

Complete History Logging With an electronic access system, every entry to your sites is logged for later review. This can be an invaluable tool when investigating vandalism or theft, or for tracking response times or technical activities internally. In break-in cases, you can set electronic access control system to notify you if doors are propped open illegally. Hence, action can easily be sent to remedy the situation.

Electronic Access Control is Completely Customizable for Every User Electronic access control gives you the ability to set user-level access rights all the way down to individual doors and times. This minimizes your exposure to risk by granting no more site access than is necessary.

Electronic Locks Permit Remote Access If a tech or outside contractor needs access to a locked site, you can open that door remotely from your central terminal. This gives you an extra degree of flexibility while making sure that you know about entries into your sites.

Advantages of Cloud Electronic Access Control (CEAC)
Reduce System Deployment Procedure
EAC System (Electronic Access Control System) deployment procedure requires hardware installation, enrolment of users plus software installation and configuration. The software installation could be the major obstacle due to computer and OS requirements and restrictions. Enrolling users with cards and biometric identities is another time consuming process that the deployment of EAC System requires. All the procedures must be completed in order for an EAC System to start working.

CEAC System (Cloud Electronic Access Control) on the other hand, requires you to use your computer/laptop/tablet to access the CEAC website for account registration, setting up and managing of the entire system. When the account has been setup, you can easily generate new accounts and mobile app login credentials for all users whereby users can login to the mobile app and turn their smartphones into an individual access credential. Moreover, enrolling biometric identities on CEAC System is optional whenever you link it to the hardware/readers installed at the working sites as these biometric identities can be managed from the CEAC as well.

Minimize Installation Cost
The CEAC is working with the latest Bluetooth access controller, whereby it works as a receptor that receives unlock door commands from a mobile app and controls the door’s open-close actions. The CEAC does not perform verification process, thus it does not require high end processor and storage memory. The decrease of hardware and computing power has reduced the hardware cost and installation complexity significantly. Additionally, users can also choose to pair the Bluetooth biometric and card scanner with the new Bluetooth access controller, and when a user scans his finger/card, the scanner will in turn send the data to the user’s mobile app for verification. The mobile app will then command the Bluetooth access controller to unlock the door if he/she is authorized to access it.

Multi-sites or remote sites under one roof
The biggest disadvantage of EAC is the fact that the software must be installed at the same working sites. Therefore, when there are multiple working sites or even remote sites, administrators are then in for a big challenge in terms of handling multiple copies of software. On the other hand, a Bluetooth access controller supports PUSH technology that always stays connected to the CEAC server for uploading of information. During installation, the installer has to make sure that the working/remote sites have an active Internet connection. Subsequently, all the installer needs to do is to install and plug in the LAN cable to the Bluetooth access controller, which will then connect to the CEAC automatically. As a result, the administrator can view and manage all the Bluetooth access controllers under one account through this installation. The Bluetooth access controller will upload door activities and users access records to the CEAC server automatically for the administrator to monitor and prepare the relevant reports.

Away from hardware limitation
The EAC hardware is known to be very powerful because it is equipped with a high-end processor to perform complicated verification that determines the users and door access rights. And it also has a memory storage that keeps algorithm, user’s credentials, access rules and records. However, every hardware comes with its limits. Although the use of master-slave and peer-to-peer technology can minimise the impact but running cables and complicated installations will definitely increase the cost.

With CEAC, administrator can configure user’s information and access rules in the server, but it will not carry out any computation. The CEAC simply segregates the complicated setups into individual profiles, and push them into individual’s smartphone. On the other hand, the mobile app is equipped with the algorithm to analyse and compute door permissions for its owner. Additionally, the mobile app also carries fingerprint matching algorithm, where it can store fingerprint templates, and match them with the incoming templates from a Bluetooth fingerprint scanner.

By deploying CEAC, neither there will be a requirement to upgrade to a higher-end EAC hardware, nor there is a need to develop complicated communications technology between the EAC hardware because all the maths are done in the mobile app.

Control and monitor the system at anytime from anywhere
In an EAC software deployment, administrator must have access to a physical computer in order to run the software and operate the system but, there are circumstances whereby the administrator cannot access the software.

With CEAC however, the administrator can access to it through any computer/laptop/tablet that is connected to the Internet. The administrator can login to his account to view and manage the system, providing flexibilities to the administrator and subsequently, the mobile app also allows administrator to be more efficient in viewing system alerts.

In EAC, monitoring is an important module but it requires the administrator to be in front of a computer. In CEAC, the system alerts administrator via push notification. Whenever there is an abnormal door activity, the CEAC server will send a notification to the administrator’s smartphone, thereby making monitoring task more effective.

All individual carries EAC system in their own pocket
The administrator can configure all the rules and setups in the CEAC server and the CEAC server will segregate and store the information by individual profiles. In case the administrator amends the rules in CEAC, the CEAC server will then push the update to the mobile app. When a user signs into a mobile app, the mobile app will collect the information from a CEAC server. The mobile app then will integrate with the door permission calculation algorithm, where it computes the rules assigned by the server. The mobile app also will capture every door access records, and perform the calculation again and again. But these are all transparent to the users, where all they can see is the list of doors that are permitted to access. The mobile app is integrated with the fingerprint matching algorithm, where it can authenticate incoming fingerprint templates from the Bluetooth fingerprint scanner. With CEAC, the smartphone is now your own EAC system in your pocket, secured by your preferred locking method.