Why Mobile And Biometrics Are Now Mainstream For Cloud-Based Access Control Systems  

User experience and convenience are driving the adoption of new security technologies.

“There’s a need for, ‘I don’t want to have to think about my security. I want it to be there. I want it to work. But it needs to be seamless,’” said Mary Clark, Chief Marketing Officer at Brivo, a pioneer of cloud-based access control systems.

This observation about the future of the industry was presented to participants in “2023 Security Trends: Safeguarding Your CRE Portfolio in Today’s Rapidly Changing Tech Landscape,” a March 14 webinar hosted by Commercial Observer Partner Insights and presented by Brivo, and featuring Clark as the sole speaker.  

Clark discussed a report Brivo commissioned for the sixth straight year on security trends in commercial real estate featuring the perspectives of over 600 security professionals from around the world. 

She began by discussing the survey’s top five security trends of 2023. The first was the observation about user experience, and the second was that cloud-based access control with mobile and biometrics is moving mainstream.  

“Cloud-based technologies are affording the more prevalent implementation of mobile,” Clark said. “Also, we have been hearing concerns about biometrics for awhile, but the responses indicate that the benefits are starting to outweigh the concerns.”

The third trend showed that data collection and systems integrations are now considered business imperatives, and that “the integration of identity and access management-related solutions is job one,” said Clark. “But then also, everything else after that. From video surveillance to alarms, you’ll see the spread. It can’t just be access control alone.” 

Trend number four is that cloud adoption and security centralization are accelerating. 

“This is probably one of the things we see the most variation of across different regions,” Clark said. “The concerns associated with data privacy and security of personal data information felt more confident in the context of having it on-premises versus having it centralized in the cloud. So you’ll hear a little bit of that.”

While centralizing data in the cloud comes with its own issues, Clark believes those issues are receding over time, and will continue to do so as centralization becomes normalized.

The final trend, for which Clark said there are “some roadblocks,” is that security integrators need to stay ahead of technology or risk being left behind. 

“There are still roadblocks from a lot of C-suites as to their buying in to certain critical aspects of access control, and the critical need to figure out how to ensure there is a reasonable amount of security that is convenient, efficient, and delivering on the promises of the experience for the end user,” Clark said.

Despite this, however, Clark noted that even skeptical C-suite executives, understanding the importance of security, have been willing to prioritize it and invest.

Clark showed that 84% of survey respondents considered access control user experience “significantly important.” An insta-poll of the webinar participants showed similar support. 

She then showed survey responses on which types of security respondents find easiest to use.

Facial recognition was the clear favorite at 71%, followed by using security locks on smartphones at 55%, badges at 26%, and fobs bringing up the rear at 21%. 

“This is all about the experience,” Clark said. “People want seamless interactions.”

Looking at the integration of biometrics with mobile, Clark noted that Brivo has over 2 million mobile credentials currently being used regularly to access property structures around the world. 

“This is going to be the direction. Seventy-one percent of survey respondents say that their organizations would adopt mobile access in three years,” Clark said. “The opportunity for the utilization of the mobile is what’s going to drive this experience.”

Clark noted that wallets on mobile phones have become a central home for everything from car keys to boarding passes to concert tickets and more. Making this the centerpiece of one’s work access simply makes sense.

“These wallets have become the home of everything from access control to loyalty cards to your proof of insurance,” Clark said. “I live in Maryland, and we have the ability to have our driver’s license there. Kia and others are utilizing mobile access to allow drivers to access and start their cars. It is replacing the key. Mobile has become something that everyone of us depends on.”

Clark notes that mobile access has several advantages over traditional access cards, as losing a card can lead to hassles in getting a replacement, and card readers are not always the most precise to operate. Mobile, Clark notes, provides a much different level of positive experience.

She then noted that interest in biometrics was even higher than Brivo expected, with 63% using biometrics for two-factor authentication, and 40% putting it to use at all access points.

Moving to the importance of data collection and systems integrations, Clark showed a quote from the manager of a global security operations center that highlighted just how important data issues have become: “In my career, I have never delivered more data to an organization than I do today.”

“We saw through last year’s survey that data integration and collection were important, but now they’re absolutely business imperatives,” Clark said, highlighting the vast universe of data managed by Brivo, which possesses one of the largest data sets for the built world.

Clark then showed a portion of the survey that asked which systems need to be integrated, and the top choice was identity.   

But the number of choices in this poll and others through the survey showed how even with such progress in the past few years, many are still figuring out their long-term strategies as concerns their company’s digital security.  

“There are going to be solutions that are really important, but that won’t be all of them,” Clark said. “I think that’s still shaking out. It’s important to keep in mind that any enterprise is absolutely overloaded by the number of SaaS-related solutions they utilize. There are still so many of them that people need to understand what’s going to be in the centralized system that will be driving it and that it’s imperative to be integrated with. That’s something we’ve proven over the last couple of years.”