One French town just north of Paris faced familiar key management challenges. Each person in their Municipal Technical Center had to carry approximately forty physical keys. If a single key was lost or stolen, for even one door, all compromised cylinders had to be changed. To prevent unauthorized access, all the keys had to be replaced, too — at great expense. Key duplication costs were mounting.
“One lost key cost from €3,000 to €4,000 for changing cylinders and replacing the keys,” explains Fabrice Girard, Territorial Technician at the Villiers-le-Bel Municipal Technical Centre.
To fix their expensive lost key problem, Villiers-le-Bel city administrators chose to combine
ABLOY’s mechanical PROTEC and CLIQ electromechanical locking within the same flexible, key-based access control system. Almost 500 CLIQ wireless cylinders, 850 programmable, battery-powered CLIQ keys, plus programming devices and wireless CLIQ padlocks, have been deployed in a multi-year, rolling upgrade program.
Now, with CLIQ, lost or stolen keys are canceled instantly using the CLIQ Web Manager software. The Web Manager works securely inside a standard browser, with no software installation needed. Administrators can program access rights for every CLIQ key, padlock or cylinder using the Web Manager. They filter access to specific sites and doors according to the precise needs of every city employee.
Efficient workflows and rollout
CLIQ also saves time for the city’s security team, because staff no longer must return to the Technical Center to collect the keys for multiple sites. Authorized users carry a single, programmable, battery-powered CLIQ key, where all their individually tailored access rights are stored.
“We wanted a wireless system with reduced maintenance costs and increased safety,” adds Fabrice Girard. “CLIQ met all these requirements.”
The city has already rolled out CLIQ beyond their Municipal Technical Center to 10 local schools. Using the CLIQ Web Manager, security staff can track exactly who has been granted access to every school site — critical for these sensitive premises and to improving overall school safety.
Plans are in place to equip Villiers-le-Bel’s 12 remaining schools with CLIQ within 2 to 3 years, including canteens and boiler rooms. Because CLIQ can be deployed and scaled flexibly, the city’s dedicated security budget funds this gradual extension of their CLIQ system.