Electronic key management system benefits

Keys are everywhere, and every company can tell a story of how a misplaced key caused unnecessary headaches. A lost or even just misplaced key can affect your employee’s time, your project timeline, and, most importantly, your bottom line.

The name of the game here is prevention. Once a critical key is lost, you don’t really have a choice except to rekey the building. We often hear from companies that the financial impact of losing a key runs into the thousands of dollars, not including the time wasted.

Electronic key management systems help you avoid those expenses and the lost time coordinating with locksmiths and insurance.

And that’s just the topline costs. This article details 8 other advantages your business gains from using electronic key cabinets to manage your keys.

1. Greater facility security

Without a reliable automated way to manage keys, you do not really know who has access to rooms and assets. The disadvantage of physical keys is their analog nature. When you’re working with dozens or hundreds of keys, it quickly becomes cumbersome to manage and secure them properly.

There always is a trade-off between security and efficiency. An electronic key cabinet avoids this trade-off as you can store important keys for maintenance rooms, server rooms, or storage rooms in a central, secure location. Electronic key cabinets have robust metal housings, so keys are protected against brute-force attacks.

2. Human errors drop to zero

Manually organizing more than a dozen keys usually requires a lot of lists, documents, guidelines, and communication. With so many different elements, it is nearly impossible to keep them all up to date and to be sure that each employee knows everything they’re allowed—and not allowed—to access. If you’re using simple key boxes or peg boards, that means it’s incredibly easy for someone to take a key by accident, including ones they shouldn’t be able to get.

Electronic key control systems eliminate this problem. Employees only have physical access to the keys they have permission to use. No ambiguity and no stress. You can also configure the system to set time limits on how long someone can sign out important keys. Advanced systems even allow employees to add notes when they sign out or return for more accountability and tracking.

3. Detailed audit trails

When things get busy, your employees might forget to log their signouts or skip it if they feel rushed. Multiply that over weeks and months, and suddenly you’re left with massive gaps in your key use logs.

By automating the key transaction process, you remove the need to log their signouts and ensure you get a complete record of all transactions. This documentation happens in the backend, your employees never have to think about it.

What isn’t obvious to many at first is that these logs can provide a wealth of useful insights into your operations. Modern electronic key cabinet providers also offer a cloud-based backup solution, so you never have to worry about losing this data and running afoul of regulators.

4. Easily find keys

Having access to detailed audit trails makes tracking down keys a piece of cake. With a few clicks in the key management software, you can see who took the key and when. In our over 20 years in business, our customers have consistently reported that they’re able to find 95% of their missing keys within one hour. And most of the other 5% actually reveal inconsistent business processes and undocumented communication to the administration that they need to resolve elsewhere.

5. Reduced key losses

Administrators can set alerts on the return time of key removals. When exceeded, the supervisor or employee receives an email, text, or pop-up alert on their phone. That allows you to act immediately and drastically increase your chances of recovering the key.

Most importantly, reducing lost keys means reducing direct and indirect costs. Especially when a master or submaster key is lost, rekeying every lock in the facility can become a major business expense. Not only should you factor in the direct cost of replacing locks, but you should also consider the hours your employees spent on that work, which could have been invested in more productive tasks.

6. Easier compliance

Losing a master key can also entail further headaches down the line. In our 20 years of experience, customers told us that insurance companies are very wary of these events because of the potential legal repercussions. In some industries and countries—such as car dealers in the UK or home care services in Germany—insurance companies offer better rates to businesses that use an electronic key cabinet.

7. Digitally “upgrade” physical keys

Modern electronic key management systems provide customers with a smartphone app for managers to receive real-time information on the go. Quickly releasing a key remotely in an emergency, receiving push notifications when someone returns a key late, can all reduce administrative workload. It’s like your managers gain a virtual presence in multiple locations, so employees aren’t left waiting.

8. Enhance your internal support infrastructure

Video communication directly on the electronic key cabinet provides your business with all the tools to support your workers quickly and efficiently. If a vehicle breaks down, the employee can immediately call for assistance from the key cabinet. If there is an issue in the server room that needs to be managed quickly, rather than finding the right contact, you just call the administrator group through the electronic key cabinet.

Contact ecos systems today to see how electronic key cabinets can revolutionize your operations.