SIAXMA® access control for the cantonal administration of Zug

Complexity that you can't see

The dimensions of this SIAXMA^® Systems are impressive: around 3,500 active users at over 40 locations, almost 60 control centers (KomPros), almost 600 readers and 26 key depots. For over 25 years, Siaxma has been able to support the cantonal administration of Zug with Time recording and Access control We support our customers, implement expansion and renovation projects and ensure the safe operation of the installation. The focus is always on finding solutions together with the customer.

Always keep an overview

If you listen to Mike Schuler, who has been working as a project manager for safety technology at SIAXMA^® infrastructure throughout the canton of Zug, you quickly become immersed in a very complex and widely ramified security and time recording system. This has grown organically over decades: new features have been integrated into the old or vice versa, updates and upgrades have been implemented in such a way that existing installations continue to run. This task includes ensuring operation and managing alarms, long-term planning of hardware and software updates and system expansion in connection with new or newly rented buildings and premises. Programming and printing badges right in his office is also part of the job. It is important to maintain a balance between essential and desirable updates. After all, it is always a question of budget. In this way, the great flexibility and staging options of the modular system can be optimally utilized, and there is always sufficient scope for expansion.

Customer needs as a driver of innovation

The most recent renewal step consisted of replacing 300 of the over 20-year-old readers in order to switch from Legic^® prime on Legic^® advant and thus further increase security. The replacement of Windows with Linux without having to replace the hardware is only a little further back. This has noticeably improved operational security and response times.

The Cantonal Administration of Zug is not above thinking ahead and looking for sensible optimizations and, as a pioneer, trying out something new from time to time. For example, in 1998, when the PLC control system was used for the first time as a supplement to KomPro during the construction of the police building in Zug. Or the loan management system, which emerged from the key management system at the suggestion of Mike Schuler. The approximately 10,000 keys and several thousand items on loan (including cell phones, SIM cards, garage door openers, etc.) could not be managed any other way. The evacuation plan, in turn, is based on the loan management system and was also Schuler's idea. This means that it is documented at all times who is pulling the strings in which building and on which floor in an emergency. These initially individual applications have found their way into the SIAXMA^® standard catalog and have been available to all customers ever since.

Everything that the SIAXMA^® System can

"What I appreciate is the scope and flexibility of the system," explains Schuler. "I can simply add a new 'Lego brick' wherever it's needed, and that's it. The partnership is based on equality, everyone has the same level of information, the same expertise". He is referring here not least to the direct line to the Siaxma project manager and even to the development department. Numerous interfaces to third-party systems, such as the police, the burglar alarm system or financial accounting, make SIAXMA^® has become an indispensable cornerstone of Zug's administrative apparatus. The project manager summarizes the scope of services as follows: "This is the only SIAXMA^® installation that utilizes practically all the functions and features that our product offers."

All locations are prepared for an unlikely, but not impossible, power failure: thanks to the offline-capable KomPros, they can also be operated autonomously on a temporary basis. In addition to the PC workstation, Mike Schuler can also have alarms, or rather fault messages, such as a door that has been open too long, displayed on any decentralized touchscreen terminal and on his cell phone. When asked whether the SIAXMA^® system is stable, he cites a few impressive figures: "We have around 600 doors, some with four or five contacts and functions each. With all the other diverse applications in access control and time recording, this adds up to around 3.5 million bookings per year. I can't remember any incidents worth mentioning."

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