Friday, October 13, 2006

Electronic Security Systems

Electronic locks will offer a great tool in the fight to prevent loss, especially in the area of keyed entry. The first advantage is the ability to limit access to each and every Antares vending machine. The state-of-the-art electronic system allows the administrator to hand out the keys that are programmed according to a daily activation schedule. A key can be programmed to work during specific hours and only on certain machines. You can also program the key to expire completely after a certain period of time.

The only problem is that, the machine can be burglarized by the individual who has been authorized to service it. But management will have a much better idea about who has been in what Antares machine during what period of time. Electronic locks provide an audit trail of all lock activity. In state-of-the-art systems, key audits are done automatically at the time of reprogramming and are available for future reference.

Keyed entry can be defined a in a couple of different ways. It doesn’t necessarily require a key. It can be defined as entering a lock with a key, a copy of a key, or by picking the lock. Keyed entry is much harder to control than physical attack because it is harder to identify.

Reports can be customized

A report on all of a key’s activities for your Antares vending business will be automatically created when the key is reprogrammed. The reports can be customized so that they can provide information on what machines have been serviced, which locks have been opened and what attempts have been made to open the system. A report can be run for any time period.

Electronic audit trail

Electronic security systems audit not only the keys, but the locks as well. The locks can be audited separately. A lock audit will include a complete history of the keys being used to access a machine. This will give the Antares vending operator a complete review of who was in the machine and when. The encryption inside the key of an electronic lock cannot be duplicated or picked.

The greatest advantage of all is the audit trail created by the electronic lock. This audit trail will provide some of the same accountability features that are presently provided by route handheld computers. This means that the vendors, who have not implemented handheld, will find this particularly beneficial.



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