VAR Experiences 20% Growth Selling Access Controls
Integrator combines custom applications with physical access controllers to provide security for petroleum plants.
For the last 19 years, Lincoln Systems has designed custom time and attendance and access control solutions for customers all over the world. It’s safe to say there isn’t a security or time and attendance challenge that Lincoln Systems President David Lincoln hasn’t seen. Recently, Lincoln worked with Accu-Time Systems, a company that specializes in biometric and nonbiometric workforce management tools, to design a custom access control system for a large construction company.
Lincoln had a nine-year relationship with the customer, which builds and refurbishes petroleum processing plants. The customer has up to 30 sites operating simultaneously throughout the world. The construction company approached Lincoln Systems when it was looking to install access security in a new LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant in Wales, United Kingdom.
“Many companies have unique labor data collection requirements other than traditional time and attendance data such as employee-specific accounting information,” explains Lincoln. “This customer wanted to collect additional employee data while making access to the facility as easy as possible for its 1,500 employees.” Lincoln recommended six Accu-Time Series 7010 PACs (physical access controllers) to control the six access security turnstiles at the facility’s main entry gate. Each 7010 contains two HID proximity readers, one on each side. Each employee carries an HID badge that contains the necessary data to activate the turnstile when within one inch of the PAC. When the PAC reads the badge, it collects other specific information as required by the employer. The PAC also prevents unauthorized use of the card, such as one employee passing the card to another to gain entry.
At other points in the building, Lincoln used Accu-Time Systems CS2 units for access control and labor tracking. For instance, Lincoln located a CS2 on a post outside the loading dock so that truck drivers could gain access to the loading dock with their ID badges. Lincoln programmed the system so that when the credential is verified, a light goes on and the gate opens automatically. In other locations within the facility, Lincoln located four additional CS2s for employees to clock in when they arrive near their work areas. The 7010 and the CS2s are all connected to a central PC via Ethernet cable. That PC polls all of the time clocks for new data and then passes that data onto Lincoln’s custom time and attendance software.
This installation was so successful the petroleum company is planning to add two more large facilities. Lincoln says that additional business has increased his revenue by 20% this year. He already has enough business booked to ensure 20% growth in sales for 2007 as well. In addition, Lincoln is in the process of finalizing an OEM agreement with a company that manufactures mobile construction offices and mobile turnstiles. Lincoln will provide the access control solutions that will be included with those offices.