London, May 2021 – Leisure and business travellers enjoy the convenience of flexible check-in and the safety of contactless arrival. Switching mechanical locking for a wireless electronic system can offer both without disrupting hotel aesthetics or day-to-day operations. Guests can enter their room without queueing at reception: It is perfect for hospitality settings where 24/7 staffing is not cost-effective, as managers of one luxury apartment complex in Spain discovered.

Safety and convenience are now central to traveller expectations. In 2019, 78% of respondents to a Travel Leaders Group survey wanted to see more self-service check-in*. Making this available can save a business money and reduce unnecessary staff workload.

At Harpazul — new holiday apartments close to Galicia’s beaches — stylish electronic locks with integrated PIN keypads now secure the main entrances, recreation areas and individual apartments. Wireless, PIN-operated escutcheons complement the aesthetics. Rooms also have a wall-mounted Energy Saver, which helps Harpazul to minimize wasted energy.

Easy installation and convenient operation
TESA Hotel’s Check-In by PIN solution makes arrival safe and stress-free. The guest enters without delay and settles in immediately. Contactless arrival also saves costs, because 24-hour hotel reception staffing is not required.

Before they even leave home, guests receive an email with a unique PIN to enter Harpazul; move through its common areas; and unlock their room. The code expires automatically on scheduled check-out. “This way we offer a better service to the customer because they don’t have to queue at reception,” says Harpazul’s Roi Casal. “Our guests move around without any need to carry a key-card.”

“We have a long, strong record in supplying innovative, trusted locking solutions to hotels and holiday rentals,” explains Iñigo Aldalur, Sales Manager at TESA Hotel. “Our entire range of locking devices is wireless, so a structure and its interior design are never disrupted by ugly cabling. Wireless locks are also faster and more cost-effective to install, which helps smooth the transition from mechanical locking to an electronic solution which appeals to the modern traveller.”

Improving service and guest satisfaction
Harpazul’s wireless locking system is managed easily and in real time with TESA Hotel software. Every lock can be controlled or monitored remotely. The same locks are compatible with key-card and smartphone app unlocking, if Harpazul introduce either option in future.

Harpazul’s system administrator automatically receives alerts when a door is opened, a guest turns on privacy mode (DND) or a lock’s battery is low — a rare event, as TESA Hotel locks have a typical battery life of 3 years or at least 75,000 cycles. PIN expiration dates and times are easily amended to facilitate an extended stay or late check-out.

Designed for accommodation of almost any size and type, the TESA Hotel solution is a simple upgrade which unifies locks and software in one system. A broad hardware range includes robust door and in-room devices, all with modern aesthetics. Battery powered and wireless, they come in multiple finishes and designs.

For guests who stay at Harpazul, the inconvenience of room keys is a distant memory — perhaps one reason why these apartments rate 4.8/5 on Google Reviews and 9.5/10 on Booking.com**.

To learn more, visit https://campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/tesa-hospitality

London – May 2021 – When Brunelleschi built his famous dome on Florence cathedral, he had to design his own scaffolding. He built lifts for moving materials above ground level. He created airborne kitchens, so workers needn’t descend all the way just to eat lunch.

Plug-and-play building technologies have improved since the 1400s. Yet a surprising amount of any project is still administered manually, in a way Brunelleschi might have recognized. A disruptive, digital revolution is imminent.

Every building project demands coordination of vast amounts of information. Realizing a vision from brain to bricks and mortar depends on marshalling it successfully. For architects and engineers, building owners and contractors, digitization is here to help — and to stay.

Building Information Modelling (or BIM) sits at the heart of a project. BIM is not just a 3D design or virtual model of a finished building. It is a data-rich collaboration process. The goal is to place every product and component within a comprehensive model. BIM creates a virtual building, long before anyone puts a spade in the ground.

The benefits of BIM
BIM may sound daunting at first, yet its purpose is total transparency. BIM marshals all relevant information about a project and makes it accessible to everyone who needs it, whatever their job. BIM makes building design intelligent and adaptive.

The digital model — end-point of a successful BIM process — becomes a centralized store for up-to-date information on specifications. An accurate model minimizes design and engineering errors down the line. It smooths the process of multidisciplinary collaboration which is essential to almost any build. Mistakes can be costly; effective BIM helps eliminate them before they happen.

The result? Boosted productivity. Architects freed to focus on design — and builders on construction. Evidence suggests BIM has substantial business benefits, reducing project costs and improving a final building’s design and function*. Studies in the USA suggest BIM also improves site safety during construction**.

Because everyone is working from the same “living” model, delays are cut, correction loops are minimized and completion times are shortened.

Here to help? Where to onboard BIM expertise
For those with BIM experience, and others venturing into it for the first time, embedding BIM consultants from the outset could streamline a project. The right BIM team will coordinate specification and design — ensuring the implications of changes to either are fully understood. Specification becomes integrated and efficient, rather than a bolt-on once creative work is complete. This can be especially valuable for door and security specification, which is often complex and time-consuming. To render door solutions accurately, architects can then introduce security solutions as soon as possible in their design, so building aesthetics and usability are not disrupted at the last minute. Practical solutions are agreed before any building work takes place.

Consultants from ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions can bring additional, independent security and safety expertise. They help to coordinate knowledge transfer between stakeholders through the full planning and construction life-cycle of a building.

ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Specification consultants offer a comprehensive BIM library with specifications and objects formatted for seamless integration with architectural design software. Each object in the library has detailed geometry and specifications to populate a design. Comprehensive product information in place as early as possible means fewer revisions down the line.

Where relevant, the specifications include manuals and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), required for green building certification schemes. Everything for regulatory approval and compliance is included within objects and time-saving ready-made libraries.

Making software work for the BIM process
Specialist BIM software also plays a key role. It can serve as a conduit between architectural design software and databases holding specification data. Openings Studio, for example, delivers detailed door solution specifications directly to popular packages such as Revit® and ARCHICAD.

Instead of Excel spreadsheets and PDF floorplans, Openings Studio updates everything automatically with the latest design or specification information — resulting in fewer errors and less time wasted. It eliminates hand-keying door by door as well as the constant juggling of multiple versions of documents.

To save time, users can easily add new door hardware into place to compare alternatives or run simulations for different hardware, access control devices or entire door solutions. “What if…” questions become quick and easy to answer. Openings Studio automates electrical elevations in Revit and other popular formats.

“Openings Studio software introduced us to a whole new way of thinking and efficiency,” says David Zarhy, whose firm Zarhy Architects designed the Broadcom R&D Center at Tel Aviv University.

Openings Studio becomes a digital resource for everyone involved in the project, as well as an always-open communications channel. “A direct channel between requirements and supplied solutions was very important,” adds David Zarhy. “The software allowed us to manage all the data efficiently and keep it up to date.”

Over the lifetime of a project and building, Openings Studio remains current and accessible. Handover from construction to facility management is smoother. Everyone working on the building, now and in the future, finds the information they need quickly in Openings Studio. This final resource can inform site audits, health and safety policy, maintenance schedules, refurbishment projects and more through the lifetime of a typical building. The digital model helps a building to keep living.

ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Specification and BIM consultants have experience supporting projects from a single door to more complex buildings. To learn more, please visit: https://www.assaabloyopeningsolutions.co.uk/en/project-specification/specification-bim/assa-abloy-openings-studio/

London, May 2021 – Could the data your access control system generates reveal priceless business insights? In many businesses today, the answer is Yes. The problem is how to analyse that data quickly and accurately to bring valuable, digestible business benefits.

As reported by the Houston Chronicle, “Data is at the core of nearly every business decision made”*. A new Reporting & Analytics Tool for CLIQ access control systems enables security and facility managers to extract, visualize and analyse the data from their own premises.

CLIQ is a wireless access control system based on programmable electronic and electromechanical keys, cylinders and padlocks. The system can be managed securely from anywhere with an internet connection via the CLIQ Web Manager (CWM).

The CWM’s new Reporting & Analytics Tool makes all system data easy to understand and to export, to share with staff and stakeholders across the business. If data really is the “new oil of the digital economy”, this new Tool helps CLIQ wireless access control customers tap it efficiently**.

The new CWM Tool streamlines decision-making, informing it with data drawn from the security system. It also frees security managers from their desk: All the Tool’s data and functionality are available inside the Amazon QuickSight app for Apple and Android systems***. Any authorized person within the organization can access its valuable insights, from anywhere in the world.

Visual dashboards for faster analysis
This new Tool helps an access control system to do more than just keep people and assets safe. Data the system generates every day can contribute to business success.

A clear, visual layout helps managers to spot relevant data — and any anomalies — at a glance. A bespoke dashboard offers a rapid system overview to help identify the most used keys, view heat- and cold-maps of lock usage, and spot keys whose access has been denied most often, for example. Drilling down to a more granular, single lock or key level helps managers identify who is using which openings and when — and decide whether staff or contractors have the appropriate access rights. These tasks become simpler, even instant.

At a glance, the Tool helps security managers track relevant business activity. They will spot critical patterns in weekly or monthly access use to help plan maintenance schedules more efficiently, for example, among many more bespoke insights into what is happening on-site.

The new Reporting and Analytics Tool is available as a simple subscription add-on to new or current CWM users. CWM already enables a wide range of security workflows, including real-time access management. It can integrate access management with existing business process software to build a single interface which controls everything. Now, its new Reporting & Analytics Tool can help businesses make smarter, better, data-informed decisions.

To learn more about the new Reporting & Analytics Tool for CLIQ Web Manager, download a free 6-page brochure at https://campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/hubfs/AA_CLIQ_Reporting_&_Analytics_Tool_Brochure_04_2021_ENG_EMEA.pdf