Securing the Front Door Starts With Smarter Entryway Access

Organizations today have access to more advanced tools and technologies than ever to help them protect their people. Among these, some of the most foundational and important are the solutions that protect the entryway. 

An entrance is where you have the greatest opportunity to control access, verify identities and set the tone for a secure environment. Ultimately, it’s the first line in your layered defense. Yet far too often, we learn after a devastating security incident that the entryway was overlooked, undersecured, or simply not built to address the threats of today’s environment.

What’s happening on your doorstep

Workplace violence is only becoming a more pervasive issue. The most recent BLS data revealed that fatalities due to violent acts against workers accounted for 8.8% of workplace deaths. This isn’t a challenge confined to any one industry; it’s a growing issue across sectors, each with its own unique vulnerabilities at the front door. 

In healthcare, that vulnerability often stems from not knowing who someone is or what they’re permitted to do. Someone arriving to visit a patient might seem routine, until it turns out they're legally barred from making contact. A contractor might be cleared to enter the building but not authorized to access sensitive areas.

In high-traffic environments like hospitals, where people are constantly coming and going, real-time identity and access management isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a critical layer of protection for staff and patients alike. 

In manufacturing facilities and warehouses, the risk often lies in who can access the floor – and when. With sprawling facilities, multiple entry points, and a rotating shift-based workforce, it’s all too easy for someone with malicious intent to slip through unnoticed. A former employee returning after hours or a contractor lingering beyond their scheduled time can pose serious threats to safety and operations. In these settings, entryway security plays a dual role: keeping operations running smoothly while protecting workers from harm. 

In facilities with critical infrastructure, the consequences of unauthorized access can extend far beyond the workplace. Power plants, water treatment facilities, and transportation hubs are essential to public safety and national security, and they’re often the subject of targeted threats. A disgruntled former employee gaining access to a control room or an outsider exploiting a poorly monitored entry point can jeopardize the safety of entire communities. Take, for instance, when an unauthorized individual gained access to a Las Vegas wastewater treatment plant. This disrupted operations at a facility that processes nearly 100 million gallons of wastewater each day. It’s a stark reminder that security failures at entryways can have far-reaching, real-world consequences. 

Each of these sectors illustrates the same point: physical access is a foundational security challenge, and the consequences of underinvesting in it can be far-reaching.

Designing your layered defense

There’s a common misconception that robust entryway security measures inevitably create friction or make visitors feel unwelcome. In reality, organizations can create an entryway experience that enhances safety and convenience rather than getting in the way. 

The key is mixing and matching solutions that meet your organization's specific entryway requirements. Cloud-based access control solutions managed on a centralized platform can create this kind of mix-and-match flexibility not just at the front door, but throughout a facility. 

For organizations with a high volume of foot traffic and more open public access, main entrances can be programmed to remain unlocked during set business hours while doors to more sensitive interior areas have custom unlock permissions via badges or mobile credentials. With cloud-based solutions, it’s easy to change these permissions in real-time, if, for example, inclement weather forces an unexpected facility closure or an organization hosts an after-hours event. 

For buildings or organizations where higher levels of entrance security are needed and exterior doors are typically locked, intercoms provide a seamless way for visitors, delivery personnel, or other guests to request initial access – and for the right teams to respond to those requests. With integrated audio and video, staff can remotely verify identities and unlock doors through an intercom without needing to be physically present.

Additionally, these systems can go a step further by detecting individuals who have been flagged as a person of interest as they approach an entryway and triggering an alert to security teams or law enforcement, who can take immediate action.  

From that first layer of access at the entry, managing those guests should be fast, easy, and secure. Pairing your entryway security with a visitor management system that integrates with your access control system makes that a reality. Upon check-in, guests can be granted unique, time-bound access credentials directly to their mobile devices, giving them permission to visit the spaces they need, when they need them – and nothing more.

GRAND Mental Health’s integrated approach to entryway security

GRAND Mental Health, a healthcare provider serving more than 30,000 clients across 13 counties in Oklahoma, demonstrates how an integrated approach to entryway security can make a meaningful difference. Like many organizations, they were managing a patchwork of disconnected systems, including six different access control platforms and paper-based visitor logs, which created operational inefficiencies, added unnecessary complexity, and made it difficult to maintain consistent security across sites.

To simplify and strengthen their approach, GRAND Mental Health adopted a unified, cloud-based solution that brought access control, intercoms, and visitor management onto a single platform. By consolidating everything into one system, they not only eliminated nearly 90% of the tools they had been managing, but also gained the centralized visibility and control needed to enforce consistent, secure access across every facility. Staff can easily customize door schedules across all of their locations, verify visitors remotely, and quickly issue mobile credentials to let them access the appropriate spaces during their visit. The result is a smarter, more efficient entryway experience that is standardized across all of their facilities. And with fewer systems to manage, their teams can focus more on what matters most: delivering critical mental health services to the communities they serve.

Ultimately, great entryway security isn't just about having one system that can adapt to the changing needs of your organization. It’s about having a collection of solutions that integrate and extend the same level of security throughout your organization’s spaces, but it all starts at the front door.