Morse Watchmans

U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota is a 66,200-person venue, hosting regular football games for the NFL and NCAA as well as baseball and soccer games, concerts, weddings, and many other events. Approximately 3,500 people make up the staff on a game day or during a major event. These concession workers, cleaning personnel, police, guest experience team, security officers and supervisors, operations managers and more are on site to deliver not only a safe and secure event, but also a memorable experience for all guests in the stadium. Access control systems While under construction, U.S. Bank Stadium managed their keys by using a complicated pencil-and-paper system that required key users to provide collateral against key removal; this proved to be both time-consuming and inefficient. When looking to upgrade their internal access control systems to provide the security and efficiency they required at such a large facility, U.S. Bank Stadium while working with Hoffman Security Solutions, chose Morse Watchmans’ KeyBank system for cost-effective, highly capable key management throughout their facility. Automated key control systems “There were a few different automated key control systems we looked at,” said Billy Langenstein, Director Event Services, U.S. Bank Stadium. “But when it came down to not only the financials, but also the capabilities, reporting and infrastructure that Morse Watchmans KeyBank has, I personally believe there’s nothing comparable on the market that amounts to how we wanted to use the system here at the stadium. This is the first time I’ve used this system in my career, and if I have the opportunity to open up another stadium, Morse Watchmans will be installed there as well.” In February 2016, Hoffman Security Solutions installed one KeyBank managing 120 key locations throughout U.S. Bank Stadium. In June 2017, they added 2 expansion cabinets to fill out the system, bringing their total managed key locations to 360. Maintaining business operations Each day, U.S. Bank Stadium has different staff working throughout the stadium to fulfill the varied roles needed for their many events. Contractors working on the facility itself, temporary staff, and other day-to-day workers all require access to different workspaces. By requiring that staff check out a key from the KeyBank system, U.S. Bank Stadium security staff are able to account for all the keys in the system, who removed each key, and what time they were checked out or returned through the KeyBank’s timestamp feature. At the end of each day, a report is delivered to security staff that displays this data in an easy-to-read manner, allowing staff to account for the many keys they use throughout the stadium during the day. With access control a strong component of U.S. Bank Stadium’s security, consistent reporting of key access is essential to maintaining business operations. Guest experience team U.S. Bank Stadium’s guest experience team, consisting of ushers, lobby hosts, ticket takers, scan ambassadors, and others, arrives early each morning and requires their own separate access. Through the KeyBank system, they are allowed to prepare for a game while simultaneously reporting that access to security staff. Each team member is given access to the keys they require, while ensuring safety throughout the stadium by keeping other keys restricted. This ease of use and reporting ability are what have made KeyBank an essential element of U.S. Bank Stadium’s access control and security systems. “We’re looking at installing another Morse Watchmans KeyBank here at the Stadium because we’re already outgrowing the one we have, and we want to start creating efficiencies within our own departments,” said Mr. Langenstein. “Having a Morse Watchmans KeyBank gives us a sense of security and a sense of convenience while providing the level of accountability that we want. It’s a fantastic product that we’re very proud to have here.”

Blacktown City is a bustling suburban community located approximately 22 miles west of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Comprising 48 separate communities with a total population of 350,000, the city is the second largest city by population in NSW. The area is governed by Blacktown City Council which is responsible for all aspects of the city’s day-to-day operation, project development initiatives and legislative activities. Along with the City Council headquarters in the Civic Center, Council facilities also include the Main Works Depot located in the Blacktown City community of Rooty Hill. Council vehicles, heavy machinery and trucks as well as an operational work site for crews and other Depot employees are housed at this location. The Depot supports the operation of numerous city venues and development of zoned and serviced industrial and commercial land. Asset management system To help maintain usage accountability and eliminate the problem of missing or overdue vehicles, machinery and/or building keys, the Depot recently implemented a key control and asset management system from Morse Watchmans. The new KeyWatcher® Touch is designed to securely store physical keys in tamper-proof cabinets, only allowing access to keys by authorised individuals with a verified code, badge, or biometric identification. Access to the key cabinet and to individual keys is under the complete control of Depot management and the automatic tracking provides full accountability for who has which key at any time. “We manage keys for at least 500 vehicles and machines here at the Depot and each of them has at least two to three sets of keys,” said Joe Haddad, Facility Manager, Main Works Depot. “Without the KeyWatcher Touch automated control and tracking, the job of accurately keeping track of these many keys would be almost impossible.” Several key cabinets An important aspect of managing the large Depot is employee productivity and the design of the KeyWatcher Touch conforms to this by making the process of accessing or returning keys faster and easier for employees. Keys can be returned to any of the several key cabinets on site rather than having to return the key to the cabinet from which it was removed. Biometric identification, large, easy to read touch screens, voice cues, and status bar guides help to ensure a fast and easy procedure when accessing or returning keys to the cabinet. Key reservations ensure that staff will have guaranteed access to a vehicle or machine when needed. Special alert notifications The system automatically tracks the location of each key stored in a key cabinet or, if the key has been removed, the system can determine who has it out. Access to live information via the desktop or mobile lets department managers see which keys are out, if any keys are overdue, and when keys will become overdue. And for immediate information regarding a key, special alert notifications using email or SMS text provides the data instantly. Network integration of the KeyWatcher Touch with the Depot’s access control and video surveillance system further adds to its ease of use and productivity. User access programming including add/modify/delete cardholders and badge data is managed through Inner Range’s Integriti access control system and all changes are automatically synchronised. Alarms and transactions are passed to the Integriti system via the Depot’s TCP/IP connection. Key control problems “The single platform for control of our video surveillance, access and key management streamlines the operation, keeps costs down and helps to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks,” adds Mr. Haddad. “We are very pleased with this state of the art system and it has more than met our needs both today and, we expect, going forward.” The system was designed and built by system integrator Australian Security Technology (AST), a provider of key and asset management solutions in the Pacific region. Working with AST, Ryalex Security, a commercial security specialists company, helped bring the project together for Blacktown City Council. “Blacktown City Council is a long-time customer and it was important that we help them solve their key control problems as efficiently and cost effectively as possible,” said David Ishak, General Manager, AST. “The KeyWatcher Touch provided the solution to the great satisfaction of both the Depot and ourselves.”

Bell Ambulance Company, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been in operation since 1977 and grown into the largest provider of ambulance services in the state. The company responds to around 75,000 calls per year and provides a range of services including, basic life support, advanced life support, critical care paramedics, long-distance ground transportation and more. To accommodate its vast fleet of ambulances, the company operates 9 remote stations throughout the greater Milwaukee area. Each of these stations is a hive of activity, with ambulances coming and going 24/7, responding to calls around the city. Given the geographical area Bell Ambulance serves, vehicles often return to a different station from where they were dispatched – making the tracking and managing of keys a major challenge. Critical care paramedics Another main issue for Bell Ambulance was accountability. Video surveillance and access control systems are installed at each of its stations, but some are located in high-crime areas of Milwaukee. So while the company had deployed a great deal of security measures externally, anyone who managed to breach that security would have free access to keys, which were stored on hooks out in the open. An additional concern was the fact that ambulance drivers based at these stations are always out on the road, leaving stations unoccupied most of the time. This further underscored the need for a way to distribute keys securely without having a person responsible for that task. Newer ignition technologies The cost of lost keys had also become a pain point for Bell Ambulance. Whereas in the past, replacing a key may have been relatively inexpensive, the secure key fobs used with today’s newer ignition technologies are much more costly, around $300 each. In addition to this cost, when a key goes missing the ambulance’s ignition system must also be reprogrammed to prevent someone from starting and potentially stealing the vehicle. For any company that operates a large fleet of vehicles like Bell Ambulance, these costs can add up quickly. All of these factors created greater concern for key management, making it clear the company needed a better solution for securing keys at all of its locations. As Bell Ambulance worked with Hoffman Security Solutions to compare products from a number of manufacturers to find the best solution for their needs, finding exactly what the company was looking for proved to be a challenge. To Bell, it seemed that the perfect solution hadn’t yet been invented, which was indeed the case – sort of. Developing new solution Having established a strong relationship with Morse Watchmans, Nick Hoffman, co-owner of Hoffman Security Solutions, knew the company was developing a new solution that would be perfect for Bell Ambulance. “Their biggest hurdle was finding a system that would be flexible and scalable for the capacity of their fleet across all of their stations throughout Milwaukee, but while some of the products we looked at were close, none were quite right,” Hoffman said. “KeyWatcher Touch, which was in the first stage of beta testing at the time, opened the door to make this application feasible and provide exactly what they were looking for.” Extensive and exhaustive process Not surprisingly, flexibility was a key feature that made KeyWatcher Touch the right choice. Keys were rotating constantly throughout the system from location to location. Because the KeyAnywhere feature of KeyWatcher Touch addressed this, Hoffman knew he’d found exactly what Bell Ambulance needed. After an extensive and exhaustive process of qualifying KeyWatcher Touch, Bell Ambulance was so confident the solution was perfect for meeting their goals that they were willing to wait and pull the trigger once the solution hit the market. As a result, Bell ended up being one of the earliest adopters of KeyWatcher Touch. Transaction gathering functions “We were willing to be the first to implement KeyWatcher Touch when it came out and it’s worked out very well,” said Jason Becker, Senior Systems Administrator for Bell Ambulance. “We’ve had the system for about five years and as we’ve outgrown the initial system size, we’ve been able to add stations very easily.” Bell Ambulance currently has nine KeyWatcher Touch stations installed, three of which were purchased in the last 12 months. “We really like the KeyAnywhere feature and the automatic reporting and transaction gathering functions. Not having to go out to each of the nine locations to collect reports and other information is a major benefit,” Becker said. First-generation processor Two of these latest cabinets are equipped with the new second-generation CPU, which will be slowly phased into the remaining seven cabinets moving forward. Hoffman recommended the upgrade based on the growing size of Bell Ambulance’s systems, particularly in its busy maintenance department. With all of the company’s ambulances going in and out of the shop for repairs, oil changes, new tires and other services in a relatively short time, the volume and speed of transactions was going beyond the capabilities of KeyWatcher Touch’s first-generation processor. “Now the system is lightning fast – about four or five times faster than before,” he said. Because the KeyWatcher Touch system is networked and sends data in real time, Bell Ambulance has been able to integrate it with additional networked systems for more complete reporting. Key management system Networking the systems this way also helps Bell Ambulance monitor the safe driving profile of each of their drivers. As each driver checks in and out, they place a road safety fob into a reader in the ambulance, which logs driving habits to ensure safety. The fobs are stored in the KeyWatcher cabinets along with keys, and the system is programmed to prevent a driver from clocking out until both are returned. “When they go to check out, KeyWatcher Touch pulls up the key use report and will let the employee know that they need to return the key or safety fob to the cabinet,” Becker says. “By making sure keys and fobs remain on the premises, KeyWatcher Touch has had a huge impact on reducing and even eliminating the problems and high costs we were having with lost keys.” “Bell Ambulance is at the cutting edge of fleet management. They’ve created a cool integration that ties their time and attendance system and road safety fobs into the key management system,” Hoffman said.