Integrator's Access Control Solution Trumps Client's Internet Purchase

By Pedro Pereira, Business Solutions magazine.

When Whole Foods was getting ready to replace its Aurora, CO, distribution center's door locks and keys, all the company wanted its integrator, Security Install Solutions Inc. (SIS), to do was to run wire and install equipment bought over the Internet. "They already had researched a traditional server-based access control system and had ordered and received all the new equipment for the system," says SIS Principal Rueben Orr. When Orr saw what the client had bought, however, he told Whole Foods he couldn't vouch for it. Whole Foods was looking to improve warehouse security and compliance with FDA regulations, and Orr had his doubts the system would deliver.

So, he gave the client an alternative — a Brivo physical access control system (PACS) solution with electronic locks, access card readers, and a software-as-a-service (SaaS) management solution. Once he explained how the SaaS application worked and that it required no new physical equipment or expensive software to purchase, the client was on board, Orr recalls.