Jaroslav Barton, HID’s product marketing manager for physical access control in Europe looks at the importance of open standards to deliver smarter, more efficient buildings which support a modern hybrid workforce.
Open champions
It was a hugely successful Olympics Games 2024 in Paris for Novak Djokovic – the 37-year-old Serbian star – given he won his first gold medal by defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles final. Djokovic achieved a feat known as a career Golden Slam, an accolade given to players who win all four major Grand Slam singles titles plus an Olympic gold. He joins only an elite few to have ever done it: Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf.
Jaroslav Barton, HID’s product marketing manager for physical access control
This begs the question as to why the famous tournaments – the French Open, Australian Open and US Open – are called like this. The answer dates back to 1968 – the beginning of the so-called ‘Open Era’ of tennis – when all players (both amateurs and professionals) were allowed to take part in the same competitions. Matches were open to all, ending a division dating back to 1926 which had split the sport into two: prestigious amateur events comprising Grand Slams and pro-only tournaments where players won prize money.
And talking of an open era, 52 years after tennis became more universally accessible to players, the access control industry has done something similar. While interoperability has been on the agenda for some time, in 2020, OSDP finally became an International Electrical Commission (IEC) standard. Developed by the SIA to improve integration among access control and security products, OSDP is an ‘open’ standard driving development in the Corporate Real Estate sector, particularly when it comes to smart buildings.
This is significant. Fortune Business Insights predicts that the global smart building market size will grow from $96.96 billion in 2023 to $408.21 billion by 2030 – a CAGR of 22.8% during the forecast period.
An open access control architecture is integral to facilitating this. Irrespective of the manufacturer, OSDP-enabled readers and OSDP-compatible door controllers mean customers aren’t locked into any vendor or proprietary communications protocol. By leveraging the latest encryption technologies offered by OSDP (which guarantees security), systems can, therefore, be easily combined to fulfil specific commercial, operational and worker needs. This is enhanced if manufacturers then offer open APIs and software development kits to third-party solution providers and installers, as this helps with the integration and roll-out process.
Converged solutions are smart
In other words, ‘open’ access control solutions can be combined with a whole range of other applications -a convergence of systems which make up smart buildings: heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, lifts, car and bicycle parking, office focused systems such as desk booking, time and attendance software, shared printers, lockers, along with vending machines and access to corporate computer networks for enterprise IT.
By integrating access control with this broad ecosystem—particularly using smartphones leveraging digital wallets as handheld devices to do so—the security and safety of occupants are boosted, and the user experience is radically enhanced not only for staff but also for visitors.
In addition, by adopting this interconnected approach, buildings’ environmental sustainability and energy efficiency are immediately improved, as systems like HVAC and lighting can be optimised, thereby lowering operational and maintenance costs.
The interest in all this is reflected in HID’s recent research titled: The 2024 State of the Physical Access Trend Report. ‘Smart buildings and flexible workspaces’ were cited by 43% of respondents as one of the top three trends shaping the wider control access control industry in the near future, only just behind implementing touchless/contactless solutions (48%) and mobile access/mobile apps (44%). In addition, integration with other business functions was also listed as one of the top three trends shaping the industry by nearly one in three (32%) respondents.
In contrast, if such (open) technology isn’t used, the implications for CRE owners is significant. Multiple disconnected systems which have to be managed separately add unnecessary complexity and, as a result, cost more to maintain and update over time.
It’s therefore clear that the move towards open standards is fundamentally important to underpin this convergence, shifting access control from just being a way of preventing entry by unauthorised people to how a building should be best used.
Identity positioning services drive data-based decision-making
An exciting example of this is the forthcoming availability of identity positioning services, which will provide the granular information upon which these decisions can be made. This combines data captured from door readers and real-time information ‘behind the door’ supplied by digital credentials on smartphones. No personal or private data is collected. Rather, information is anonymised and grouped in order to provide an overall picture of trends like the number of people entering and exiting a building, floor occupancy, space utilisation and so on. Open standards are key to delivering these services as comprehensive data integration needs to occur, with AI-based tools speeding up the analysis of all this information in the future.
Indeed, with an increase in people now identifying as hybrid workers, it’s become more important than ever for businesses to use occupancy information to help shape their business strategy and optimise costs. In the context of a hybrid work environment, this could be financial gold dust. Why rent 10,000 square feet of premium office space when the numbers show that through a combination of people working remotely from home as well as the office, just 6,000 square feet will do?
Similarly, by providing real-time data like this to an appropriate HVAC system, air conditioning or heating could be turned off if the data points out that no one is in a particular room.
Again, it moves access control from being security-centric to a far more important and strategic role in enhancing the operational engineering, maintenance, and functioning of buildings.
According to HID’s survey, nearly half (48%) of organisations already have access control/badge scanning systems in place to monitor building usage throughout the day, at least to some extent.
Open standards helps Civil Service collaboration in the form of GovPass
And the benefits of open standards are not just constrained to the CRE sector. The UK Government is very much focused on offering the Civil Service modern facilities and for public sector staff to be able to work cross-department should their jobs required it.
Today’s thinking is that an office is not just a place where you go and sit at a computer to work. Rather it’s where you collaborate with colleagues, shares ideas and develop creative solutions. The Government Property Agency —whose role it is to manage all central government buildings—introduced the GovPass programme to make it seamless for civil servants to move freely from building to building using just one security pass. Open standards are clearly at the heart of this, meaning that any vendor who meets the stringent specifications and is GovPass compliant—like we are with our HID Signo readers—can bid and provide solutions. Over 96,000 passes are now live, with occupancy data collected extending to over 770,00 square metres.
However, while the benefits of open standards and interoperability are clear from a business point of view, this converged approach isn’t without its challenges. With physical access control increasingly becoming an integral part of a smart building setup, cybercriminals will inevitably have more opportunities to attack an organisation’s infrastructure.
As a result, it’s becoming clear that physical systems need to be managed in conjunction with IT. As Dark Reading reported: “Physical security and cybersecurity are intrinsically connected, and it is no longer effective to manage these threats separately. Cyber-physical incidents can quickly lead to physical harm, destruction of property, environmental disasters and worse.”
If organisations, in conjunction with their trusted partners, embrace open standards, then—just turning back to tennis for a second—the opportunity for a grand slam win in terms of how you deal with all these workplace opportunities, challenges, and threats is very much on the cards for them, too.
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