Access control solutions within multi-tenant commercial properties pose unique system management challenges for property managers and tenants alike, as well as for the systems integrators who install and support them. Property managers are tasked with overseeing security throughout the base building, which includes lobbies, elevators, stairwells and other public, shared spaces used by tenants and visitors. Tenants are responsible for their leased space. 

It’s easy to imagine the many ways dysfunction can occur when disparate systems are used to manage each. Employees, for example, need to juggle multiple credentials to access the building as well as their individual office suite. From the perspective of a tenant’s HR department, there’s the frustration of coordinating with property management every time an employee is hired or let go. Tracking credentials is time-consuming and property managers share these same frustrations. 

Partitioning, a feature available from cloud-based access control manufacturer ProdataKey (PDK), now promises to help resolve this conundrum, providing all stakeholders within multi-tenant buildings the autonomy and privacy they need to manage their respective security functions, combined with the convenience of a unified, building-wide solution.

Partitioning also offers systems integrators a gateway into supporting much larger accounts — essentially selling access solutions to entire buildings rather than to the individual tenants within — and gives building owners a new high-tech service to offer their tenants. 

The pdk io cloud access control solution, with partitioning, delivers a building-wide access solution that provides each tenant with the ability to fully control and manage all access points used by its respective employees — within its suite and throughout the base building — with no access to or visibility into the use of doors that belong to other tenants. Partitioning creates the experience of many separate systems while, in fact, the entire building’s access control is supported by just one network connected to a single pdk io Cloud Node.

Tenants no longer need their own systems and servers. The Cloud Node unifies the entire building’s access control system and securely connects it all to the cloud. This single solution allows integrators to pre-wire and install an access control system for an entire commercial building, including lobbies, elevators, stairwells, restrooms and individual office suites. A single pdk Cloud Node can support thousands of doors.

This partitioning solution removes the credentialing headache from property management. The only folks they need to manage are building maintenance and service staff. Property managers provide each tenant with a block of access credentials to be issued — and revoked — from employees as needed.

Each tenant then has access to define their own user groups and varying permissions based on their particular business needs, and to review full reporting within their partition, giving them the ability to directly audit access to their secure areas.

The Pdk io cloud connectivity, paired with partitioning, simplifies support all around, enabling a single security integrator to serve as the trusted resource for the entire property. If tenants wish to customize configurations within their individual suites, the integrator can easily add the needed access points to the system, which instantly become available to be controlled and monitored by all authorized administrators, including the property manager and security staff. 

With the PDK single-door controller mounted at the door, door hardware can easily be recovered and redeployed as needed when reconfiguring an existing unit for a new tenant, often with no changes necessary to the controllers. As long as door counts remain relatively steady, a redeployable inventory of controllers can save both owners and tenants significant hardware capital expenditure, an already familiar tactic used with doors, their frames and opening hardware. 

Landing commercial, multi-tenant building clients doesn't have to be a daunting task for integrators. With a cloud-based access control solution complete with partitioning capabilities, integrators can open new doors with property manager prospects and realize additional revenues in the process.

Visit www.prodatakey.com/platform-dnu for more information. — By Josh Perry, CTO, ProdataKey