City College Coventry leads the way with converged security solution choosing HID Global’s Crescendo™ application with iCLASS®

Bringing vision and mission together

The college's mission of "Responding to Diversity; Raising the Standard; Taking Education Further," was something reflected in the development and choice of a suitable logical and physical access control solution.

Satel Naik, Technical Services Manager, explained that the college had not previously used access control except for a few door code locks. He also identified that there was no information technology (IT) security solution in place. Satel's vision for the future of the City College was to bring security technology to the forefront, by selecting the best possible solution and creating a truly intelligent building.

In adapting a new security solution, the college faced many challenges, including a culture of staff and students who were used to not wearing ID badges, in addition to limited secure parking, no real physical access control (some doors were being left open), limited control of IT user accounts and some abuse of photocopying and printing privileges.

Satel Naik explained that it was important for the college that current laborious and manual processes, such as library book inventory and fine payments, could also be automated and simplified in the future and be part of the planned ID solution. For the safety and convenience of students and staff, the college was also keen on reducing cash handling on site by introducing a cashless payment solution for the canteen.