HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, has recently launched its Signo line of readers that support various credential technologies, including mobile credentials that are gaining momentum.
HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, has recently launched its Signo line of readers that support various credential technologies, including mobile credentials that are gaining momentum. With this new solution, the company looks to make further inroads into the smart building and smart office spaces to meet end user demands for smarter, more secure access control.
One of the major trends fast on the rise in the access control space is the use of mobile credentials, which have various advantages. For starters, the phone is almost always carried by the user. When the phone is lost, the user will immediately realize it and take action, as opposed to traditional cards and keyfobs.
In fact, growing enthusiasm for mobile access, coupled with the emergence of smarter workforces and smarter buildings around the world, are expected to drive up demands. According to a recent survey by HID Global, the adoption of mobile access continued to rise, with 25 percent of organizations having them fully or partially deployed, with others citing strong interest in their current and planned migration usage to mobile access technologies.
Alex Tan, ASEAN Sales
Director, Physical Access
Control Solutions,
HID Global
Further, mobile credentials are easier to issue or revoke, making things easier for the administrator. “They can at the comfort of their home or office easily issue the credential virtually over the air to the users anytime and anywhere. This helps save time and money without requiring employees coming to site or office for receiving and enrolment,” said Alex Tan, ASEAN Sales Director for Physical Access Control Solutions at HID Global.
Enhanced mobile access experience
To meet the demands for a new generation of solutions that meet the user’s complex access control needs, including mobile access, HID Global has launched HID Signo, the new signature line of physical access readers and the successor to the popular iCLASS SE product line. With enhanced mobile access features, the Signo reader supports HID Global’s own mobile credentials via Bluetooth and NFC as well as mobile credentials in Apple Wallet. Aside from that, the reader includes various new mobile access functions such as support for the Apple iBeacon technology, which wakes up the HID Mobile Access app when in range and allows the Signo reader to read in a much user intuitive way. Further, every Signo reader now supports enhanced contactless polling by Apple, allowing HID mobile access to have the same user experience as credit card payment via Apple Wallet.
Readers under HID Global's new Signo series.
Beyond mobile access, the reader has other highlights that are highly demanded by users. These include:
Security – The reader supports ultra-secure storage of cryptographic keys on certified secure element hardware for enhanced security;
Surface tuning – The readers detects the metallic material of the surface it is mounted on and automatically adjusts settings to optimize performance;
Power management – The reader has an intelligent power management feature that allows the reader to be more energy efficient, saving power up to 43 percent when in idle state;
Future-proof – The reader is designed with future proof in mind with out-of-the box support for OSDP and mobile access allowing users to move to mobile access whenever needed without having to change the readers on the wall. HID’s lifetime warranty on SIGNO helps end users protect and future-proof their investment too.
These features make the Signo reader especially suitable for end user entities such Grade A buildings with large tenant mix, smart buildings and modern offices, BSFI (banking, financial services and insurance), medium-to-large facilities and public infrastructural sites that HID Global will initially target with the product’s launch, Alex Tan, ASEAN Sales Director for Physical Access Control Solutions, HID Global said.
Demand uptake encouraging
According to Tan, initial market enthusiasm towards the new reader, along with new security and privacy requirements issued by various end user agencies, give him reason to believe the future success of the product. “Since its launch in March 2020, the demand uptake for Signo readers has been very encouraging and is expected to be bright and increasing by the month underpinned by the rave reviews received and positive booked orders thus far. This, together with the rising trend of a mobile-first world, rapid digitization for richer user experience and the tightening requirement on data privacy compliance through acts like GDPR and PDPA and regulatory frameworks like NIST and PCI-DSS, will create and spur sustainable and equitable solutions like this going forward,” he said.
Signo line of readers that support various
credential technologies, including
mobile credentials.
Asia potential huge
The solution’s potential for success is also huge in Asia, where market acceptance for mobile credentialing is on the rise. This is indicated by a recent IHS report which suggests that shipments of mobile credentials in APAC are growing at a compound annual growth rate of 152 percent from 2018 to 2023. “Our foray with Signo with mobile access into Asia is stronger than ever before,” Tan said. “The adoption towards mobile access is fast gaining traction with many companies, and institutions have successfully implemented this innovative solution in their workforce. As more millennials are entering the workforce, companies are beginning to see and understand the new shift and thinking and how such solutions can help bring more engagement and collaboration, increase business productivity and improve employer branding through the use of mobile phones and smart apps.”
Further, the rise of a new generation of smart buildings in Asia is further expected to accelerate advanced mobile access solutions like Signo. “In countries like Singapore and even Thailand, there is a growing need to bring new innovation to smart buildings of multiple tenant mix and high-end smart living communities to deliver deep behavioral insights to property operators/managers in assisting them to deliver better value and bespoke services to their customers,” Tan said. “And now with Signo, the mobile experience to new installations can expect to get even better.”
Going forward, HID Global hopes to work with an ecosystem of partners to deliver cutting edge applications with Signo. “Our plan in ASEAN will be collaborating with partners that has the foresight and ability to deliver solutions such as the above mentioned in new ways and areas we have not envisioned before,” Tan said. “Through the availability of our API solutioning program, we aspire to create an ecosystem of partners and new solutions in the mission to bring change and trusted security on one single platform.”
Leading status further solidified
HID Global has been a leader in the arenas of access control and identity management. Now, the company has rolled out its newest solution, Signo readers, to satisfy the growing mobile access and other sophisticated access control needs of the user, be they in Asia or elsewhere. With Signo, HID Global’s leading status in access control and identity management is further solidified.