‘Thinking beyond security’ is a concept the Welcome Gate team applies to everything we do. It essentially means using security solutions to solve problems, create opportunities and make working life easier for our clients – often in ways they didn’t think were possible. Here’s one example of ‘thinking beyond security’ in action.

A client had 5000 staff working in their office… but only 1000 official parking spaces. A great many of these spaces were reserved for customers and visitors only, leaving parking for just 5% of their staff. Understandably, this caused double parking and parking in areas other than designated spaces which, considering the land is privately owned and there are no wardens, was causing safety issues.

To resolve the issue, the company tried to introduce a park & ride system, alongside a dedicated bus that stopped at various places along routes to the office, but these solutions were not enforced so staff simply chose to ignore them in favour of driving.

However, following a recent event where a staff member walked out from behind an illegally parked car and suffered an injury, the client decided to take action.

Wilson James Ltd was brought on board to develop an app for the client, whereby staff would be able to book a parking space up to three weeks in advance. Staff would need to register their car number plate in order to park, and link it to their office access control card. The car park would then be controlled by an ANPR camera system and connected to the booking system.

Once office parking is fully booked, staff would be given the option to instead catch the bus at one of its dedicated stops or utilise the park & ride. In either case, they’d need to book a seat on the bus – which would be essential to prevent overcrowding.

Wilson James brought Welcome Gate on board to install access control on the bus. We ensured that the access control system perfectly integrated with the booking system, meaning that once a seat was booked, the staff member’s access control card would become valid for the time and date booked. If they hadn’t booked, the driver would be notified not to allow them onto the bus. We designed the system so that, once the staff member touched in on the access control reader, data would be collected to confirm that they had boarded and weren’t simply wasting company money.

To boost efficiency further – applying our ‘thinking beyond security’ methodology – Welcome Gate also ensured that the access control data is calibrated to see if the bus is running at full, half full or nearly empty capacity, helping the client to determine whether it continues to be viable and efficient to run the service.

Now the parking problem has been solved, and all systems are working together to guarantee safety for the staff and reliable data to inform decisions for the client.

We love working on projects with challenges to address or problems to solve. You’d be surprised at how often a seamlessly integrated security solution is actually the answer. To discuss your requirements with us, or to book a consultation to see what solutions we’d recommend, call us on 020 7620 6288 or email support@welcomegate.com.