Company Profile

camden-1.jpg

The London Borough of Camden provide a host of public services to the inhabitants and stakeholders within Camden. The council are actively involved in many areas such as local education, housing, the environment, transport, policing and public safety. The council currently employ over 1,000 members of staff across its different functions. The Security division are tasked with managing the security for the councils’ main administrative building in central Camden.

Technology Objective

The council needed a solution that would provide greater key control and would reduce the need for a manual logging system.

The Challenge

Like many other companies, Camden Council have an array of keys that are used daily by different team members. Within the main administrative building security staff were occasionally forgetting to sign keys in and out. Issues were also becoming apparent with contractors who were failing to return keys at the end of duty. The solution had to be delivered within a defined budget and be fully auditable to give an insight into the whereabouts of any key at any particular time.

Morse Watchmans Solution

In order to address the needs of Camden Council, Morse Watchmans introduced the KeyWatcher® Key Control System. The KeyWatcher® is a custom-tailored solution designed to record the access history of each key, including user, date and time of checkout and return.

In order to release an assigned key, each user needs an individual authorisation code. By having individual authorisation codes, the risk of a key being misplaced is greatly reduced. The risk of unauthorised people removing keys is completely eradicated.

The KeyWatcher® comes with its unique KeyPro® Performance Software. This userfriendly PC application delivers real time information concerning the total accountability and history of any key for the KeyWatcher® system. Activity reports are easily produced that can trace a keys’ movements by date and time, authorisation code or biometric access data.

Constructed in rugged metal the slimline design eliminates the need for outdated lock boxes, unreliable manual logs and messy key identification tabs and unreliable key recording manuals.

Due to the success of the first KeyWatcher® system, Camden Council have installed the system across 7 sites in various sizes.

In Action

The KeyWatcher® Key Control System, complete with fingerprint access control option is now used across the whole of the London borough. The KeyWatcher® controls access to the keys which are tracked while in use, including check out times and user names. Staff are assigned various levels of access to the keys which helps to maintain effective key control and guard against carelessness or oversight. Any contractors that need access to keys are logged by date, time and user to ensure that no contractor can forget to return a key. The KeyPro® Software is used regularly to produce reports concerning usability and any security alerts.

The Results

By implementing the KeyWatcher® Key Control System, the team have been able to work much smarter and faster i.e. if a key is overdue or missing the KeyPro® Software will notify the manager immediately. As the system only releases keys to authorised people, the risk of keys being lost or taken by an authorised person is reduced. Finally, as the KeyPro® Software produces detailed reports on the KeyWatcher® system, a full audit trail is avaliable at the touch of a button saving valuable time and resource.

Learn more about key control solutions for municipalities.

 

Back to Case Studies   Contact Us