Managing the consequences of a natural disaster or other emergency is easier with preparedness activities in place. Planning for these activities includes knowing the facilities’ vulnerabilities, identifying resources, developing policies and procedures and so on, all of which can help lessen the impact of an occurrence.

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.

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.

Access control systems for health care facilities can be designed in a number of ways and often include solutions such as card access systems (proximity or swipe styles), locks and keys, and even security guards. Along with these measures, one of the most frequently implemented and effective security solutions is an automated key control system with tracking capability.

In large, multi-building campuses such as medical centers, military bases or universities, it is not unusual for there to be thousands of doors, each with a lock that has a corresponding key. It is also not unusual for the facilities department to have responsibility for maintenance and servicing of the locks as well as having some responsibility for the keys — but not necessarily for the safekeeping or tracking of the keys. And therein lays a significant security issue which can readily be addressed with a high-volume automated key control and management system.