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Electronic key management
for vehicle keys and object keys

Customer

Stadtwerke Norderstedt

Market

Public Service & Administration

Company size

Medium-sized company

Country

Germany

Daily commitment to a good local life.
Electronic key management reduces organisational effort.

Stadtwerke Norderstedt is a modern utility company. Around 500 employees are committed to a good life in the city every day. They supply the people of Norderstedt with electricity, gas, water and district heating and also with telephony, internet, cable TV and mobile telephony via wilhelm.tel GmbH‘s own fibre optic network. As an economically independent group of companies, they also include the ARRIBA adventure pool, Verkehrsgesellschaft Norderstedt mbH and Stadtpark Norderstedt GmbH.

Electronic key management systems from ecos now replace time-consuming manual key issuing. As the key cabinets are available around the clock, employees can now access their work equipment at any time in a controlled manner

Products used:

electronic key cabinet of 3 different sizes from ecos systems

Key cabinets

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ecos webman


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“In the past, the receptionist had to hand out the keys. It was not possible to check which person took which key and it could not be ensured that all returned keys were conscientiously entered in the key book. The time invested in key management was totally unnecessary.”

Ralf Ohlbrecht – Operations Manager Data Center


The challenge:
Manage vehicle keys and object keys together

With around 2000 keys to manage and monitor, the manual organisation before the introduction of the electronic key cabinets was very time-consuming and error-prone. To make matters worse, the 3 key categories “vehicle keys”, “internal” as well as “external object keys” have different characteristics that have to be taken into account.

The on-call service in particular also suffered from the missing entries and keys, as the reception and thus the key issuing is only manned from 7 am to 4 pm and the administrators are also not available by default in other respects. Accordingly, effectiveness came up short and no regulated process could be ensured.

With the vehicle keys, on the other hand, the problem arose that the key books were rarely in the same location as the vehicle. As a result, it was often necessary to ask around and it took longer to find a vehicle.

In order to be able to improve all three application areas as efficiently as possible, several electronic key management systems with up to 720 slots each were to be used. Above all, the differentiation between the various types of keys and a traceability of all key movements should be guaranteed.

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Our solution:
Electronic key management with access rights

Since 2015, Stadtwerke Norderstedt and its 500 employees have relied on more efficient and secure processes with the help of electronic key management. With 5 key cabinets, including 2 XXL cabinets with 720 slots each, keys of various types can be managed. Keys for regular rooms as well as for cellars, electricity meters and locks are part of the administration. This extends over the entire perimeter and includes buildings such as the heating plant, computer center or sports facilities.

Furthermore, the vehicle fleet consisting of hundreds of vehicles and electric bicycles can be managed elegantly. Using the RFID reader, the reservation module and the driver‘s licence control, „we were able to […] quickly achieve a great added value without investing a lot,“ explains Oliver Bethmann, workshop and fleet manager.

In addition, potential security gaps have been minimized through the use of the key cabinets. In the event that the locker is forced open or left open for too long, an alarm is immediately triggered and the person in charge is notified by e-mail


The result:
Transparent output of all keys

“The issue of keys has been reduced to 0 in everyday life thanks to the ecos key cabinets” emphasises Ralf Ohlbrecht, head of operations at the computer centre. The municipal utilities can now fully commit themselves to supporting the people on site instead of worrying about organising their keys. Above all, the possibility of having created a secured and controlled 24/7 access to relevant work resources with the electronic key management is something the Stadtwerke is particularly pleased about.

In order to control the issuing of the different types of keys, the right access rights can be easily assigned to the different user groups such as the cleaning staff, the security service, the caretakers or the persons in the heat/gas area with the help of the ecos webman software.


Recommendation
of our customer

“One of the biggest advantages for us is transparency and compatibility. The result was full control. Now it was possible to prove exactly who, when, took out which key and when it was returned. There were no more problems with missing keys and no more locks had to be changed.” – Oliver Bethmann, Workshop Manager / Fleet Manager

Key numbers

300

Uses per week

5

Cabinets

1560

Slots