Report: Opportunities abound for access control in smart building environments

According to a new report from IHS Markit, partnering with building management system (BMS) providers or developing proprietary BMS technology will become an important part of the product roadmaps of access control vendors over the next five years as the systems become more intertwined with the construction of smart buildings.

In a research note, Jim Dearing, senior analyst for security and building technology at IHS, said that electronic access control systems are the leading type of security system being integrated into BMS platforms today. In fact, according to Dearing, nearly 30 percent of access control shipments – including readers, door controllers and electronic locks — were installed and connected to a BMS platform in 2017.

Additionally, unit shipments of access control equipment that is connected to a BMS platform are expected to outpace the rest of the market by a considerable margin, increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5 percent over the next five years. Conversely, total market unit shipments for access control equipment in general are forecast to rise at a CAGR of just 8.8 percent over that same time period.

Dearing said that access control providers will need to remain vigilant as full command-and-control –style BMS platforms become more popular. And while developing a proprietary BMS solution would enable access control vendors to shield themselves against this threat, few companies possess the financial resources and existing product portfolio to compete against market incumbents in the space.

Growth Drivers for BMS Platform Integration

Among the primary reasons IHS cited as to why BMS platform integration is becoming more popular include:

• Interoperability —BMS platforms are capable of aggregating significant amounts of data from equipment across many domains, which allows end-users to manage a wide variety of building management functions via a single platform. As the process is centralized and simplified, it can be completed using fewer resources.
• Data visualization — Accumulated data from multiple domains can be categorized, structured and presented to end users in a series of charts, graphs and other visual tools designed to easily communicate complex information to viewers. As dashboards and data visualization directly affect a user’s experience with BMS platforms, these tools have also become crucial differentiators for competing products in the market.
• Analytics — BMS platforms offer automated testing, reporting and fault detection and preventative diagnostics functionality to end users. These offerings improve building security by ensuring all devices are working optimally. They also allow end users to compare historical data and recalibrate individual subsystems to improve efficiency.
• Changes to the supplier base — Many leading security manufacturers are investing heavily in developing their wider building managing portfolios, to ensure their competitive advantages are not eroded by rivals offering more complete solutions.

Access Control vs. Other Security Equipment

According to Dearing, access control systems are considered to be an important piece of the smart building puzzle, due to the quality of information they can provide the BMS platform regarding the location of building occupants and how they move through the building.

In addition, BMS platform integration can allow the access control authentication decision to become smarter, by taking into account information from other connected security or building-management systems. A simple example is using video surveillance feeds to verify access-control card swipes.

Access control integration is essential to unlocking the potential of higher-level BMS platform functionality, Dearing said. As more BMS solutions move towards command-and-control-style features, which enable buildings to adjust building management subsystems to respond to individual occupants’ actions, the need for access control integration is expected to grow exponentially. Physical access-control systems and identity management platforms are the key to initializing many BMS processes, since they provide the starting command that lists the tasks users must accomplish once a specific person has entered the building.

Barriers to Wider Adoption

Dearing said one of the main barriers to adoption is concern over who is actually in charge. In centralized architectures, the BMS platform provider will always want to exert ultimate authority, as the building’s intelligence and its analytics supersede orders from software in access control and other subordinate domains. However, many access control suppliers are uncomfortable relinquishing this authority to third-party BMS platforms, because their software feature sets are what enables them to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Another barrier, according to Dearing, is the fact that end-users can often be slow to adapt to new technologies. During the past decade, the access control industry has struggled to bring security and IT departments together. Smart building integration would likely add a third entity into the mix: facility managers. Due to the slow speed at which large organizations often restructure, getting these three departments to effectively collaborate to leverage the true capability of full building integration is an issue that is unlikely to be resolved in the next five years.

For more information about IHS’ 2018 Smart Buildings Report, click here.