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Co-created by KONE
and dorma+kaba:
KONE Access featured
in KONE Turnstile.
21
partnership
“Security has to be
effortless for the
user, otherwise it
will not be secure
because it will be
overridden.”
LESS INTERFACING, MORE EFFICIENCY
Whereas most building control systems
require separately-developed software
packages to interface with one another,
KONE Access represents a leap forward in
that it was developed as a single, integrated
system, Cadonau says.
“That makes it unique in the sense that you
can look in the application and immediately
see the person’s privileges in the elevator, his
or her authorised floors and the elevator’s
default behaviours in addition to the person’s
access to private rooms,” he says, adding that
the single-system approach also means that
updates and changes are easier to implement.
In addition to flexibility and modularity,
Cadonau says that a key element of
Kaba-backed systems like KONE Access is
convenience. “Security has to be effortless
for the user, otherwise it will not be secure
because it will be overridden,” he notes.
The collaboration with dorma+kaba
reinforces just how important it is to work
together with the right partners in today’s
industry. By working together, new ideas, new
innovations and new value can be created
quickly and brought to market much faster,
compared to a single company going-it alone.
The ability to partner and innovate
together is a prerequisite for success.
PEOPLE-ORIENTED BUILDINGS
The convenience issue is also one that
Ari
Virtanen
, KONE’s Senior Vice President for
Access Control and Integrated Solutions,
believes is central to the people flow
equation.
“Fundamentally, buildings need to serve
their users,” says Virtanen, noting that few of
them, even among the modern ones, are up
to the task. “First, users experience an access
control system, then a security gate system
then an elevator system. That is not very
good end user experience at all and that’s
something we want to change.”
One goal of developing KONE Access,
Virtanen says, was to have users interact
with a building as a single entity, rather than
technology by technology, throughout their
entire journey.
That same integration can also boost
efficiency, he says, pointing to the Al Fattan
Currency House in Dubai as a challenging
example. The building was converted from
residential to office use, but there was no
option to rebuild the small elevator shafts or
widen the lobby space to accommodate the
peaks in traffic flows.
KONE Access, however, was able to
increase people flow through strategic
placement of security turnstiles, also
developed by Kaba, which also automatically
call elevators for the users as they enter. The
system then groups travellers into the same
elevator if they are going to the same floor.
THE DIGITAL HORIZON
In addition to generating better functionality
for users and, by extension, a higher-value offer
from owners to tenants, KONE Access saves
architects and construction companies the cost
of dealing with separate providers during the
building phase, Virtanen points out.
The construction industry is still very
partitioned, he says, with building systems
that control elevators, escalators, doors,
lighting, heating and ventilation still being
developed in their individual silos. But
he predicts that the benefits of merging
these systems, now far easier thanks to
digitalization, will eventually push the trend
towards integration.
Cadonau, for his part, sees digitalization
itself as a way to keep up with changes
in society, managing the complexities of
increasing mobility and shared use, all the
while maintaining convenience and flexibility.
“Digitalization is a powerful growth driver:
Combined with other growth drivers such as
urbanization and increasing need for security,
it will have a significant impact on people
flow solutions,” he says. /