For facilities management professionals, the notion of 'safety' often feels intangible, yet improved access control has a profound impact on the day-to-day working lives of every individual. The business-critical nature of regulating visitor access and managing the flow of visitors has been a catalyst for developing new systems and solutions to advance security and safety.
The old-school approach of installing a mechanical access control system and forgetting about it until the next upgrade cycle is now a relic of the past. Mechanical keys, once the backbone of security protocols, have lost their luster, revealing their limitations in functionality, ease of loss or duplication, and the hidden costs of maintenance and upgrades. The narrative around access control is rapidly changing, with businesses shedding the cumbersome legacy of traditional systems in favor of agile, technology-driven solutions that promise not only enhanced security but also operational fluidity. As we move forward, it's clear that the journey from mechanical locks to digital keys is not just an upgrade—it's an evolution in how we think about and implement security in the facilities management world.
Modern facilities and the businesses that occupy them require interconnected and smart electronic access systems that offer improved control, flexibility, and a more cost-effective way to scale their systems. This new generation of access control systems needs to offer not only physical security but also robust data security coupled with convenience and reliability.
Nobody understands this shifting paradigm better than SALTO Systems, a leading manufacturer of next-generation wire-free electronic locking solutions. Since 2001, SALTO has been redefining the access control world with its smart electronic locking solutions that provide users the ability to control all their access needs and secure every door in their facility without any complicated and expensive wiring. SALTO has been synonymous with innovative software and hardware access control solutions, including stand-alone, cloud-based, and mobile applications, which set new standards in security, manageability, flexibility, and design and bring real-world benefits to virtually any type of door.
SALTO was founded with the idea to drive the advancement and adoption of electronic locks by handling the user database differently—leveraging the credential (physical or mobile) as the database. "Over the years, we have continued to grow and evolve our portfolio of electronic locking solutions aiming to simplify and enhance access control and eliminate the mechanical key," asserts Colin DePree, Head of Sales Strategy, North America at SALTO Systems. The company's advanced and highly flexible electronic locking solutions help numerous organizations across various sectors, including commercial, education, retail, healthcare, hospitality, and residential, to accomplish their safety and security goals cost-effectively while improving their operational efficiency and the end-user experience.
According to DePree, access control is now becoming "access," which is not limited to security but as part of a much larger solution that requires partnerships and an ecosystem of end-users, clients, partners, collaborators, and suppliers. It's about elevating access beyond just control while delivering an enhanced experience to the end-user. Against this backdrop, SALTO Systems is focused on blending the physical and cybersecurity aspects to deliver easy-to-use solutions. SALTO's access control systems can be networked without wires to offer near real-time intelligence and instant control, providing a seamless, keyless experience to the end-user at all points in a facility. "As we become a part of that larger solution, our customer is not just the person who's operating the solution or managing the access control platform but also the end-users—the credential holders," mentions DePree.
When it comes to improving operational efficiencies, being able to understand and deliver actionable insights from data becomes crucial. However, as data opens new doors, there are major concerns around data security and privacy. "We are keenly focused on data responsibility and integrity. One of our major hardware projects has been to deploy secure elements that ensure encryption across multiple connectivity paths," states DePree.
From a comprehensive range of electronic locks and cylinders, wall readers, locker locks, cam locks, padlocks, and swing handles, SALTO provides end-users with one of the broadest product portfolios in access control worldwide. At the heart of SALTO's access control solutions is the revolutionary data-on-card-based, which powers SALTO Space, a wire-free smart access control technology platform. The company also offers SALTO KS (Keys as a Service), a wireless, API-rich, cloud-based access platform and SALTO Homelok for multifamily and residential applications.
These solutions are geared toward enabling organizations to enhance overall security and control their access needs not just at the perimeter doors but throughout their facility in a manner that delivers a positive experience for clients, guests, and employees. The SALTO SPACE platform, a hybrid access control system, is designed to offer end-users ultimate freedom of choice with system layout, type and number of access points, and level of security. Additionally, it can fulfill virtually every technical and functional requirement and can deliver scalability regardless of project size.
SALTO SPACE leverages SVN, an easy-to-use system that seamlessly integrates all physical security needs through networked, stand-alone, battery-operated smart locks. It provides the most up-to-date user access information for virtually all doors in a facility and enables stand-alone locks to read, receive, and write information through an encrypted and secure data-on-card system. SVN allows SALTO Systems to move the end-user database from a PC/static location to a physical or mobile credential. This enables the company to reduce the overall infrastructure and deploy offline locks on a wide variety of doors and multiple locations to solve the access issues.
To make it easier for businesses to successfully manage keys, users, and doors across multiple locations, the company offers its highly flexible SALTO KS platform with best-in-class real-time capabilities. With a centralized database, SALTO KS provides improved functionality and performance than a mechanical solution and doesn't require any software installation. Additionally, SALTO's JustIN mobile technology makes it easier to incorporate smartphones as part of the end-user access control solution securely and conveniently. It works with an end user's iOS or Android smartphone, and the JustIN mobile app lets the user receive their key online. "JustIN technology is critical to our solutions and enables us to be a good partner because we can embed the user credential into a third-party app and deliver our credential through a workplace/resident app," comments DePree.
Organizations often need to update, store, and send the latest access information from the user's smart keys throughout the building wirelessly and securely. To this end, SALTO offers its wireless, real-time technology, SALTO BLUEnet, to control and manage all access points in an organization in real-time. This robust access control system is developed to meet the demands for data integrity and security. SALTO BLUEnet is networked through Bluetooth RF and is specially designed for doors where real-time control is required. "Securing. We need to secure communication and data from the credentials and lock the communication hub to the database and vice versa is critical. Our BLUEnet technology allows us to deliver a first-class experience while ensuring the data is not compromised. In whatever ways that pathway flows, securing and encrypting that data transfer is critical to our solutions," says DePree.
Over the years, SALTO has worked continually toward its goal of delivering a hardware solution stack that is uniform across all of its software platforms. Within that hardware set, the company has been innovating and aligning its solutions from a firmware and security capability perspective. "Our commitment to simplicity, efficiency, and security hasn't changed since our inception; however, how those concepts get deployed has changed. Our hardware has evolved to meet more specific demands, our platforms are now critical to the enablement of ecosystems, and our channels are now integral to our delivery," states DePree.
