7 Costly Pitfalls of Physical Locks and Keys
1) Physical Keys are Easy to Copy
As long as you continue to use traditional locks and keys to secure your sites, you can never know how many unauthorized copies have been made - or who is holding them.
2) Lost Keys Force You to Change the Locks
If you lose a traditional key, the only way to maintain security is to change all the locks that it can access. If you lose a multi-site key, the cost can quickly become outrageous. Imagine the cost of losing an entire ring of keys, necessitating the replacement of multiple locks at your sites.
3) Forgetting a Key is a Major Hassle
Every time a technician forgets to take a key on a truck roll, your travel time and expense doubles. That tech has to drive back to the office, pick up a key, then drive all the way back out to the site. The same situation can occur if that tech simply picks up the wrong key, as large organizations will have at the very least dozens of similar looking keys.
4) Keys Inhibit In-Field Dispatch
If you already have a tech in the field near the site of an alarm, it's almost always best to dispatch them from their current location. If they don't have the right key on hand, however, they'll have to drive all the way back to the NOC to pick up the key they need.
5) Key Usage Can't Be Logged or Tracked
Physical keys make it impossible to log entries to your sites.
6) Locks and Keys Can't Efficiently Provide User-Level Access Control
With physical locks and keys, your options for user-level access rights are severely limited. "Master" keys are just about the best you can do. Keys always work, even when you don't want them to on Sundays at 3 a.m.
7) Phyisical Locks Don't Support Remote "Buzz In"
If an unexpected event comes up and you want to allow access to a site immediately, you can't if you use traditional, physical locks.
