Managing over 500 doors, 600 display cases and more than 500 metal keys was cumbersome and expensive for Auckland Museum. The legacy fob card and metal key combination weren’t overly difficult for staff to use, but behind the scenes, it was a frustrating manual system for the security team that incurred high annual maintenance costs.

Each member of staff was assigned a set of keys which they had to secure in a key cabinet each time they left the building. When a key was lost or misplaced, additional security guards had to secure the affected doors while a locksmith installed new lock barrels and replaced the keys.

"We needed to bring our door security into the twenty-first century," says the museum’s head of security, Sir Kenneth McKenzie. "But we were faced with costs of between $3,500 and $8,000 per heritage door for new electronic locks and swipe card readers. With so many doors, the cost was simply out of the question."

An affordable wireless smart locking system

Ken met with the ASSA ABLOY team to view the ABLOY Protec2 CLIQ system and evaluate its suitability. CLIQ is a connected system of wireless smart locks, operated with battery-powered keys. CLIQ locks don’t need wiring, they can fit into most existing locksets, and can be installed without damage to heritage building fabric.

"It’s difficult and expensive to run wires to heritage doors," says ASSA ABLOY consultant Neil Summons. "Being wireless, the CLIQ smart locks require no major alterations to existing doors and consequently no damage to heritage fabric."

Greater key control and visibility

All keys are numbered and assigned to an individual and activated by their user pin at the start of each workday. Keys automatically switch off a few hours after activation, so if a key is lost or goes missing (unbeknownst to the key holder), it soon expires. And if the key owner reports it missing, it can be blocked straight away.

Key data is relayed to a database for the museum team to track the audit trail of keys and doors accessed in order to manage the building.

A successful solution

"The solution meets all expectations," says Ken. "It is heritage sensitive, gives us remote access control to individual keys and individual doors, and we were able to customise it to fit our HID chip for swipe access. The system has taken our security to a whole new level."