residential access control

PAC keeps Gloucester City Homes’ residents as safe as houses

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March 18, 2019

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Gloucester City Homes is an independent registered housing association that owns and manages rented homes, leasehold properties, shared ownership properties, commercial units and homeless units.

It recently upgraded access control within a number of its dwellings with pioneering technology from PAC by STANLEY Products & Solutions.

Now recognised as one of the best housing providers in the country through accreditations including the Customer Service Excellence Standard, Gloucester City Homes has a proud record of delivering high quality services to its tenants and leaseholders.

It owns and manages around 4,450 rented homes, 500 sheltered housing properties, 270 leasehold properties, 30 commercial units and 52 homeless units, all of which meet the requirements of the government’s Decent Homes Standard.

Plan of action

The organisation has a 30-year financial business plan to deliver around £100m of investment in new homes in the region. It is also working to improve its existing portfolio and support the economic wellbeing of the area through housing regeneration and the creation of new jobs.

Gloucester City Homes provides the highest standards of security and safety in its dwellings.

“We aim to respond to the changing needs and expectations of our tenants and this means that we must keep up with the technology that is available to help us achieve that objective,” said David Wainwright, Gloucester City Homes’ IT operations manager.

“Innovations in access control have moved on apace in the 20 years since the previous PAC system was installed.” David Wainwright, Gloucester City Homes

“It was obvious to me that innovations in access control had moved on apace in the 20 years since the previous PAC system had been installed in 236 of our buildings across the city.

“Although the system had served us well I decided to invite in PAC’s area manager, Lloyd Palmer, to look at what we could do to upgrade it.”

Great minds think alike

The previous access control system was based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) dial up modem technology. This used a standard phone line to manage a portfolio of over 4,500 key fobs, which often proved a slow and laborious process that also meant that the key fob database was not as accurate as David Wainwright wanted it to be.

After taking a comprehensive brief that took into account Gloucester City Homes’ long-term objectives, Lloyd Palmer put together a proposal that involved the installation of PAC 512 controllers and modems to create a highly innovative remote monitoring platform that could be accessed via a PC, tablet or smartphone.

He explains: “PAC 512 devices utilise the general packet radio service (GPRS) platform, which is a faster and cost effective means of connecting remote sites via a mobile network. It provides an enhanced service over traditional mobile/landline telephone connections and makes administration of the system more flexible.”

The proposal was then put out to tender, with Birmingham based Harrold-Jones Services emerging victorious.

The company’s sales manager, Phil Povey, said: “With significant experience in installing security and access control equipment in the residential sector for almost 20 years, we were delighted to have the opportunity to work with Gloucester City Homes and PAC, whose products have high levels of innovation, reliability and ease of use.”

Compare and contrast

Over a three-month period HJS engineers installed the new system to an agreed programme.  Each site remained operational in order to ensure consistency of service until the new system was installed, commissioned and tested and a successful switchover completed.

During that time representatives from Gloucester City Homes familiarised themselves with the operation of the system at PAC’s training centre in Stockport.

The new system has been fully integrated with the PAC Residential Cloud, which allows designated personnel to access information remotely.

Said David Wainwright: “The previous system’s limitations meant that any problems and issues had to be dealt with by two or three centrally located individuals. This was obviously restrictive and meant a delayed response.

“The new technology allows remote diagnostics, servicing and key fob management.” David Wainwright, Gloucester City Homes

“By contrast, the new technology allows remote diagnostics, servicing and key fob management to be carried out by a team of over 25 people. It’s also possible to remotely view status, unlock a door and access an event log.

“It has made a massive difference to response times and using the cloud also means that a dedicated technical team can address connection issues, manage the system and be proactive by highlighting problems and putting contingencies in place.”

The PAC Residential Cloud uses a virtual private network (VPN) to keep data safe and is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant. Information is stored with The Bunker, a trusted PAC partner for highly secure, compliant and high availability outsourced infrastructure. The Bunker’s fully owned UK data centres are secure by their design and certified to the ISO 27001 standard for information security management.

Key features

Not surprisingly, from time to time residents lose their key fobs. Said David Wainwright: “If this happens, we can quickly access their information, carry out an authorisation check, let them into their block and, if necessary, deactivate the missing fob. Instantly deleting key fobs that are lost makes our buildings more secure.  We have also configured key fobs to activate barriers to allocated parking spaces in car parks, equipment stores and communal facilities.”

Above and beyond

The new PAC access control system surpassed all of Wainwright’s initial expectations. “The improvements to our responsiveness, flexibility and overall efficiency have been significant,” he continued. “This has positive implications for tenant satisfaction and means that we now have a future proof system that keeps residents as safe as possible.

“Working in true partnership with PAC by STANLEY Products & Solutions and Harrold-Jones Services was a pleasure and the entire installation process was seamless.”

About STANLEY Products & Solutions

STANLEY Products & Solutions specialises in security, access control and door entry solutions. Our systems are designed for a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from small enterprises which require complete plug-and-play solutions, to extremely demanding, complex and boundless environments with a need for seamless and effective 3rd-party integrations.

Our world-class portfolio comprises of four trusted brands: 3XLOGIC, PACOM, PAC and GDX which have a combined experience of over 100 years in the security industry. Driven by constant innovation and continuously evolving physical and cyber threats, our solutions provide unparalleled quality of products and services to protect people, property and assets.

STANLEY Products & Solutions is part of STANLEY Black & Decker, one of the 500 largest public companies in the USA, worth over 10 billion USD.  STANLEY Black & Decker operates in 131 locations worldwide, with 45,000+ employees and 50,000 products.

PACOM Systems is exhibiting at IFSEC International 2019, Europe’s leading integrated security event, taking place 18-20 June 2019 at ExCeL London (stand IF2930). Book your free ticket now.

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