Before the advent and widespread use of electronic key control systems, key control was often a haphazard routine. Many organizations used an honor system to store and control building keys, while institutions such as correctional facilities or medical campuses used a more formal system requiring access activity to be hand-written in a log book. The procedures were often ineffective, mostly laborious and frequently left the organization exposed and vulnerable because keys could not be one hundred percent accounted for.

Security guards are often assigned additional duties outside the formal scope of their jobs that, over time, can become integrated into their regular operational tasks. For example, in a shopping mall guards may provide information desk services; on a university campus they may be responsible for lost and found; or, at a casino they may provide emergency automotive assistance.

It has been said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail and nowhere is this more true than in the management of physical security operations. In any organization, growth can trigger the need for significant changes and/or upgrades to physical security systems, including established key control systems. For the scalability of key control, as with other systems, the degree to which the needed changes can be met is determined by the plans put in place.

Automated key management systems used in motor pools and other vehicle fleet operations are an effective tool for helping to improve efficiencies in fleet practices. Along with other new technologies that lead to fleet management best practices, fleet key control enables management to regulate and track vehicle usage and ultimately to contain costs.

The recent bouts of violent weather in the American southeast and Midwest had many car dealerships scrambling to protect their exposed inventory from damaging hail and severe winds. Easy and fast access to keys, held in car key management systems, enabled the dealerships to more quickly move cars to protected areas and limit the amount of potential damage.