From offering stand-alone access control solutions, Codelocks is now joining forces with its customers to offer integrated solutions – coded locks that form part of the customers’ product. Joanne Milne-Rowe, sales director at Codelocks, reports
Giving customers access to a locked product – whether that’s a location, a facility or a locker – can be a tricky balance. You want people to be able to use your product or service, but at the same time you don’t want the wrong people to gain access. Physical keys take a lot of effort to coordinate as you have to physically hand them over and collect them afterwards. While static combinations and codes can be reused or passed on to other people and taken out of your control. So, you’ve got to balance two things: access and control. Those keywords are central to everything we do at Codelocks.
Companies want to give their customers the most straightforward, seamless way to use their products, while being assured that only the right people have access. It might seem small, but it plays a big part in how customers view you. Talking to customers across several industries, we’ve come to appreciate that Codelocks’ products are an integral part of the experience of their own customers. So it makes perfect sense to incorporate our technology into their products.
This is what we have done for a number of clients already, and it’s an exciting part of the job for us. We are increasingly talking with end-users and entrepreneurs who see controlling access to their service as a problem, and we’re more than happy to share our knowledge and expertise to come up with a creative integrated solution based on our NetCode® technology.
Generating time-sensitive codes
Codelocks NetCode® Technology is the smart way to generate time-sensitive codes for doors, gates, lockers and cabinets. It allows businesses to control access by creating codes that have a specified start date, time and duration that will automatically expire at the end of the period. Sending the code to the customer is straightforward and can be incorporated into a booking system or custom-built app thanks to our Codelocks Connect Portal and application programming interface (API), as many companies have already done.
If we look at some examples where Codelocks Integrated Solutions play an integral part of the client’s service, we can see that it covers a lot of ground.
STOREiT LOCKERS’ customers use an online portal to book and pay for a storage locker in advance. Codelocks’ NetCode® Technology generates and delivers a six-digit code that gives the customer a specific start date, time and duration to access the lockers to deposit or retrieve their property. Because NetCode® equipped locks don’t need WiFi to operate, they can be set up anywhere – even remote locations like beaches or campsites. Which is why Mobile Locker used them to create locker arrays for festival goers to charge their phones and store their belongings.
Tennis enthusiasts who book with Parks Tennis get a code to access the company’s public tennis courts as part of the simple ‘pay as you play’ booking system. Similarly, in Portugal and Belgium, TieSports gives its members the facility to book and pay for a court using their smartphone. Thanks to the Codelocks API, their booking program automatically links to the court’s lights, so members can turn up for their game knowing that the court will be lit and ready for play. The company doesn’t need to have staff on hand to unlock the court, turn the lights on and lock up afterwards. It’s completely transparent to the user. They don’t see Codelocks’ hand in it. All they see is a much more convenient, simplified way of getting their tennis fix.
What works to make tennis courts more convenient also works for other leisure and hospitality applications. Tigh Na Bruaich is an Australian Ski Lodge that has integrated Codelocks Smart Lock and API to fully automate room management at its site. When guests make bookings, its system communicates with the API which generates a NetCode® and sends it to them a week before their stay and again on the day before they arrive. Like the tennis courts, Tigh Na Bruaich programmers created an integrated solution that used Codelocks API and its booking system to automatically save power and adjust its lighting.
There are many applications in the new hybrid online-offline retail and dining space too. For example, Yummy Box® is perfect for people who enjoy their takeout meals at the right temperature. The diner places their takeout order with the restaurant who delivers it to the thermally insulated food locker. Codelocks NetCode® Technology sits in the background and provides the verification code that allows the customer to access their locker and order. The same happens at the architectural ironmonger SDS London. Customers who make an online click-and-collect order receive an access code for their locker sent via SMS or attached to their purchase confirmation email.
For home deliveries, package box developer CITIBIN, created a delivery lock box solution, PARCELDROP. KitLock by Codelocks provides a heavy duty, weather-proof and seamlessly integrated solution to put homeowners’ minds at ease that their deliveries are kept out of temptation’s way. By simply adding a code to the delivery carrier profile it enables easy contact-less package drop-off for drivers. For CITIBIN’s founder and CEO, Liz Reisch Picarazzi, the value goes beyond the technology as CITIBIN is “always looking for partners who are excited about innovating together. This goes beyond the vendor relationship; we choose to work with companies who want to succeed along with us.”
This is certainly an aspect of the work we do at Codelocks that resonates with me and my team. We’re currently working on upcoming technology planned for 2023 that will help us and our customers take the whole idea of integrated solutions to the next level, and for their customers, the experience will get even better.
Working in harmony with our Codelocks and KitLock locking solutions, using NetCodes for flexible, temporary access enables business owners to reduce overhead costs and facilitate consumer self-service whilst simultaneously increasing staff productivity and products.
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