What increases the cost of operating access control systems? What identification technology to choose? Where is the balance of software functionality and complexity? What are consumers willing to sacrifice to reduce the cost of access control systems? Here we have presented the answers to these questions that are not usually covered in technical manuals.
Any object on which an access control system is deployed and put into operation can be called real and bear a certain cost, expressed in operating costs. Not always do we quantify the costs of maintaining ACSs in the total cost of all operating costs. But, nevertheless, they are and understanding what may affect their increase seems pretty important.
The main points that affect the cost increase are errors in the design of the access control system. For example, an erroneous decision on the use of access cards without the use of Smart-technologies. In the future, if the complex changes, involving the use of technology for storing data on cards, you will need a banal purchase of a new type of card, and this is the cost associated with the acquisition, the reissue of new and disposal of old cards.
A very expensive reason for increasing the cost of operating an ACS is the absence of a redundancy factor in the designed system for adding, flexible reconfiguration, or removal and transfer of equipment. If the redundancy factor is not laid, then the cost of laying communications in the already built system, installation and commissioning will exceed the initial costs.
The choice of data transmission method for connecting controllers and modules, the choice of systems and methods of data storage – all affect the cost of operating an ACS.
Over the entire period of existence of access control systems (from the creation of the simplest system consisting of a door and a lock with a key to the present day, when technologies have stepped far ahead and their capabilities are sometimes limited only by imagination), a large number of identification technologies have been accumulated:
- Barcode card readers;
- Magnetic card readers;
- Radiofrequency readers;
- Pattern recognition readers;
- Biometric readers.
The use of these technologies is caused not only by the customer’s needs (desires and capabilities) but also by the restrictions that are imposed during the operation of identification systems – normal or extreme operating conditions in terms of humidity, temperature, media aggressiveness, normal execution or explosion-proof, etc. You can go into wild debate, which of the above methods is more preferable for a particular type of object.
In our opinion, the most rational approach is the approach stipulated by the principle of reasonable sufficiency, taking into account all operating factors.
Sacrificing initial requirements and getting a substantial price reduction at the same time, at least, looks a little strange. Initial requirements determine the composition of the equipment and its functionality. Probably, the choice of a supplier of cheaper equipment can reduce a certain part of the cost while maintaining the functionality of the ACS.