A space where ideas are created: The Ship integrated BlueID in their digital space management concept
29. April 2021
“The seamless integration, the support of the BlueID team and the usability for both our tenants and for our employees are aspects that truly impressed us.“ Mathias Heinz, Head of IT of FOND OF.
Who:
The Ship was designed by FOND OF with a focus on people. With High-End Technology and a special atmosphere, the building stands for a new way of working: networked, agile, collaborative, and innovative. The concept is supported by a digital space management and the rental units can be divided into modules as needed, from creative labs to phone capsules.
Location:
Cologne, Germany
Challenges:
The Ship was idealized by FOND OF with a focus on people and their development. Built on a High-End Technology foundation, a single smart building core runs all processes of the fully digitized office property. Among other technologies such as the automatic temperature and lighting optimization and a workspace booking system, a keyless entry system was needed for the access to all doors. The requirements were clear: compatibility with existing systems, state-of-art usability for both tenants and employees of The Ship, and convenient in-house hardware maintenance.
The Ship uses Thing-it’s Building Operation System as the smart building core; and Thing-it’s app as the app for end-users to manage the various processes within the building. Therefore, a prerequisite was the compatibility of the access control solution with the so-called “brain of the building” and with the end-user app. On top of that, the ease of integration was taken into consideration, as keyless entry was just one of the many technologies to be employed within the building.
With 13.749m2 of rentable space divided into 6 floors, The Ship can receive up to 300 people daily. Consequently, there were four main usability challenges: the access control system needed 1. to support the high entry-exit flow rates of the building, 2. to offer the users different entry instruments, so users could pick according to their personal preferences, 3. to enable the receptionists to quickly create and revoke access permissions for the users, and 4. to offer in-house maintenance.
Solution:
The tried and tested interoperability of BlueID’s solution has made it easy to integrate the necessary access control solution into The Ship. Open APIs were used to seamlessly integrate BlueID’s functionalities into Thing-it’s smart building core, while mobile SDKs enabled the Thing-it end user app with keyless entry.
The high entry-exit flow rates of the building were easily tackled with BlueID onTouch®. The technology enables users of The Ship to open doors in about one second by simply touching an Android or iOS smartphone to a wall reader, which is activated by either NFC or Bluetooth.
Even if preferred by most users, smartphones are not the only available instrument to open doors. Regardless whether equipped with wall readers or with smart cylinders: with BlueID, all doors can also be conveniently accessed with cards and fobs – it is up to the user to pick what they prefer.
Not only the tenants, but also the employees were the focus of The Ship. With BlueID’s ACCESS User Interface and Token Writer App, receptionists are now able to manage access permissions to users’ smartphones and cards/fobs straightforwardly with a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
In like manner, the building maintenance team now benefits from BlueID’s Lock Admin App. With a single application, they can manage and service all locks in-house, including installing locks, replacing battery, and updating firmware.
„With The Ship, we wanted to have a space where technology acts as a supporter of people, as something that underlines their daily activities and helps them strive. BlueID’s access control solution was the addition we needed for our digital space management concept. The seamless integration, the support of the BlueID team and the usability for both our tenants and for our employees are aspects that truly impressed us. “ observed Mathias Heinz, Head of IT of FOND OF.
BlueID CEO Philipp Spangenberg added, „The Ship is truly a space for new entrepreneurial spirits. The building concept fits perfectly with BlueID’s mission of offering smart locks for professionals, which are easy to install, manage and maintain.“
Results:
- Average entry time: 01 seconds
- Average key handling time saved: 02 hours of key management saved per month
- Key handling costs saved: up to €200 saved for each lost key