There are obvious benefits to a Smartphone Access Control Solution that can be managed from the cloud without a local network connection, including easier and cheaper installation, as well as the eliminated risk of it being used to hack into the corporate network. But is there a downside?

That’s a question we hear a lot at VIZpin, and the only potential downside, some claim, is that you can’t “buzz someone in” with a Smartphone Access Control System that doesn’t rely on a local network connection.  Most network-based access systems – provided that both the network and the internet connection are working well – allow you to go into the management portal and simply press a button to release the door. The problem with this convenience, however, is that you only have a record of who buzzed someone in, not of who walked through the door and when.

As we see it, this so-called benefit could actually be a downside of network-based access systems.

With the VIZpin Smartphone Access Control Solution system, when someone without credentials needs access, you must instead open the management portal and press a button to send a temporary key so they can open the door.  When the door is accessed, you have a record of who used the key and when.                    

The difference? Providing a temporary VIZpin key takes about a minute versus the 20 seconds it takes to buzz someone in with a network-based access control system. Is 40 seconds saved once in a blue moon to buzz someone in for whom you have no record worth spending two to three times the cost of a VIZpin system? The decision is yours.