Brivo Systems announced that Country Maid, manufacturer of the Butter Braid braided pastry product line, has installed Brivo ACS WebService throughout its new production and administration complex, located in West Bend, Iowa. Strauss Security Solutions is the dealer and installer for this growing project.
What started 21 years ago as a pastry-making project to help a couple with six children mak...
Brivo Systems announced that Country Maid, manufacturer of the Butter Braid braided pastry product line, has installed Brivo ACS WebService throughout its new production and administration complex, located in West Bend, Iowa. Strauss Security Solutions is the dealer and installer for this growing project.
What started 21 years ago as a pastry-making project to help a couple with six children make it through the Farm Crisis has now grown into Country Maid, a successful manufacturing and service company with approximately 70 independent dealerships in 44 states.
Country Maid recently completed a major expansion, moving into a new 28,000-square foot production facility, a 15,000-square foot headquarters building, and a new warehouse. During the planning and construction, Marc Banwart, Systems Integration Specialist, was keenly aware that the new facilities would require upgraded security in order to successfully comply with FDA regulations and the requirements of the Bioterrorism Act.
For access control in the new buildings, the project architect, guided by Banwart's requirements, brought in three providers to demonstrate various access system options. “Strauss Security Solutions came out on top with flying colors,” recalled Banwart. “They introduced us to the Brivo system, which gave us a hosted solution and enabled us to put access control exactly where we needed it. With Brivo, we had no servers, no software; they handled that—that was very appealing to us.”
As someone with IT expertise and a good amount of IT resources, Banwart and his team did consider an in-house solution; however, “We weighed the pros and cons of hosted. One thing I think we do really well is decide where we are going to stay in-house and rely on our own resources, and when we're going to look for the right partner to provide the solution to get us to the level we want to be. We felt Brivo was that partner.”
In choosing a new access control system, Banwart wanted to provide all staff and contractors with key fob access and to achieve a level of control and visibility to collect data on everyone's movement within the facility to both ensure FDA compliance and to improve operations. Also, with Country Maid's impressive growth, the system would have to provide flexibility and scalability. Another important advantage is the Brivo system's ability to integrate with video surveillance, which the company plans to add in the near future.
At this time, Country Maid is managing 35 doors and 10 door-like access points, such as roll-up doors and freezers. For the latter, Banwart and staff monitor if a delivery door, emergency door, or a freezer door is open or shut. Banwart is managing access for approximately 100 employees and contractors divided into 17 groups, each with unique privileges based on areas and time periods for approved access. Only eight of the 45 doors are external, the majority are internal doors and access points.
After initial installation of the Brivo ACS WebService system, Country Maid has scaled to add more internal doors at the HQ, as well as adding the warehouse to the system. Banwart related that as the company expands, currently un-used office space will be brought on-line and more doors will be added to the system.