After spending two hours a day, every day, walking around six buildings with an outdated handheld device, Jason Green was fed up. Everytime a new badge was added or deleted at Pacific Science Center’s Seattle campus, Green had to physically go to each and every lock to delete and reload them, and it was a pain.
Green, the educational non-profit’s Facility Manager, knew there was a better way. While doing some research, he found just what he was looking for; a cloud-based access control solution that could be managed from anywhere and updated through any device, without the wasted time of walking around.
After meeting with electronic security integrator Region-6, Green decided Brivo’s unified security platform was a perfect fit. He put together a proposal and presented it to his CFO, with Region-6’s assistance. Unfortunately, Green had a hard time getting his CFO to agree to allocate funds to make it happen. “I was at the point of ripping all of the existing locks out to replace with hard keys,” says Green.
However, Green was able to turn things around with a few resources designed to help his CFO see the light. Here are some of his tips:
Step 1: Show A Demo – With Emphasis on Cloud
Showing the system, and how it works, helps visualize its convenience and ease of use. “The thing that got him on board was the cloud-based functionality. More specifically, being able to access the system from anywhere and make changes if something happens and I’m not on site,” explained Green. If somebody lost a high access badge and he was in Hawaii (hypothetically), he could take care of it right from his phone without having to wait for somebody to come back to work and reload the locks. Once Green’s CFO learned there was a cloud-based security system on the market, something he hadn’t seen before, he was totally on board.
Step 2: Compare Prices
“I showed him the prices, and once he saw how expensive other vendors were for the same number of locks, it was easy to convince him,” explains Green. See for yourself, how to calculate your return on investment (ROI) of moving to cloud security.
Step 3: Get Buy-In From the IT Department
Like most IT professionals, Pacific Science Center’s IT department had taken great care in keeping their security system totally isolated from everything else. “When they first heard we were bringing a cloud-based security system in, they were worried about losing control,” explained Green. What changed their minds was working with Region-6 in setting up the hardware and wiring so they knew exactly where things were and how it worked. Once they understood Brivo’s system wouldn’t be connected to the other servers in the building, they were on board. Even better, system updates and maintenance are managed by Brivo in the background through the cloud, resulting in minimal involvement and upkeep from IT. “It was getting them involved and having them help that was key,” said Green.
Everyone at Pacific Science Center is thrilled with their new access control system. They’ve even added an additional door since installation and are contemplating the idea of integrating a camera system with Brivo. IT is happy, the CFO is happy, but more importantly, Jason Green is happy.