A government department in Malaysia sought to upgrade their access control system and integrate the new system with their internal human resource system, HRMIS. With the proliferation of smart devices in the country, the agency took advantage of the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend by moving their access control system to an innovative mobile solution.
Public service human resources
This government department in Malaysia is one of Malaysia’s federal government offices. The department is responsible for the development and implementation of public service human resources in the country. Their functions include planning, development and management of all areas pertaining to human resources for the public sector, to ensure that Malaysia’s public agencies have the human capital and infrastructure to function at optimal efficiency and effectiveness.
As the functions of the agency continue to expand in breadth and scope, in accordance with the demand for the public services in the country, their staff has steadily grown over the past years. And, similar to other organisations, an increase in personnel also means an increase in management challenges.
Improving security with integrated access control
By early 2015, this department had a total of 350 civil servants under its employ. Looking to upgrade its time and attendance system that was tied to a card-based access control system, they sought a new, innovative solution to provide a better user experience for its staff. According to the facility officer in government department of Malaysia, the old access control system had been in place since 2002, and it was a perfect time to upgrade based on current technological developments.
“We’ve had a card-based access control system at our entrance for a while, one which has served us well since the requirements we had were very basic,” said the officer. “However, with new technology comes new ways for us to improve our system. It is time for us to embrace change.”
Minimising security threats from lost cards
Improving security was another goal this department wanted to accomplish with a new solution. With a card-based system, a misplaced access card could result in a security threat – anyone who picked up a lost card could gain access to the department. Also, due to their small form factor, the loss of cards often went unnoticed and was reported late. Thus, another requirement of the new access control system was that it had to minimise the possibility and magnitude of security threats from lost and misplaced cards.
The department also wanted a solution that can be integrated into their HRMIS human resources portal |
The department also wanted a solution that can be integrated into their HRMIS human resources portal, so information about staff attendance and schedules could be viewed online under a unified platform. “In addition to improving the user experience, we also wanted to tie our previously siloed systems together to provide the management with better information about our staff’s time in and out of the office. This would allow us to have the complete picture of each staff member’s availability for better manpower allocation,” said this officer.
HID Mobile Access control system
The government department in Malaysia procured the services of Prymax Technologies Sdn Bhd, an HID Global partner that provides ICT system integration in the education, government and private sectors. After assessing HID Global’s products and solutions, they chose to deploy HID Mobile Access to enhance its access control system at their building’s entrance. The solution includes HID Mobile IDs and multiCLASS SE RP40 mobile enabled readers, as well as a VertX EVO V2000 reader interface and a network gateway controller. The deployment took less than three months.
With more and more staff bringing and using their own smart devices to the office, this department embraced the BYOD trend fully through its new access control system. By deploying HID Mobile Access, the department enabled the staff to use their own mobile phones to replace cards for office access.
Connected smart devices
The multiCLASS SE RP40 mobile enabled card readers support Bluetooth and work with both iOS and Android devices, as well as a range of credential technologies. The readers are connected to the VertX EVO V2000 controller via a TCP/IP network wired with CAT6 cabling to processes all access control decisions in real-time. At the entrance, the staff member can conveniently tap their mobile device to the reader or use HID Global’s patented “Twist and Go” gesture technology, an option configurable by department’s IT staff.
"The HID Mobile Access solution provides and exceeds the level of security we were looking for, while improving the convenience of our staff" |
The users’ HID Mobile IDs and access rights are provisioned over-the-air to end-user mobile devices via the intuitive HID Mobile Access Portal administration, and can be revoked remotely by the administrators in case the devices are lost or stolen. HID Mobile Access also communicates with their HRMIS portal and relays staff attendance data to the server. Their staff can now view and remark on attendance, as well as send records online through the portal.
Integrated resource management solution
“The majority of our staff welcomes the change, citing the convenience of using their own mobile phones to check in at work is a great improvement over carrying yet another card for this purpose. From the management perspective, using mobile devices to verify a staff member’s attendance ensures that we are getting the real attendance records, as it completely eliminates card skimming. Also, since reporting is done on a browser, the administrators can generate reports easily at any time,” said the facility officer.
HID Mobile Access integration with HRMIS also means that management can view of all staff records on one platform, streamlining the evaluation and allocation of personnel for projects. This also provides management with unprecedented insights into staff productivity to identify highly productive workers.
“Like any other government agency around the world, we take security very seriously. Hence, any solution we deploy has to fulfill a stringent set of requirements. The HID Mobile Access solution not only provides and exceeds the level of security we were looking for, but it also does so while improving the convenience of our staff members. We are very pleased with the results of this project,” said the officer.
