Latch and Comelit unite to bring security intercom into the smart delivery era

Latch is excited to announce its partnership with Comelit, a provider of building intercom solutions, to introduce the first complete intercom and access integration. This new partnership will enable building owners and residents to manage and receive their guests and deliveries, safely and securely, from anywhere in the world.

Comelit background

Comelit, based in Italy, has been developing security and intercom products since the 1950s and is a widely-known and respected brand in the industry. Through its partnership, building managers and residents will be able to grant real-time access to anyone who does not already have the necessary security credentials to enter a Latch and Comelit-installed building. Combining access with the intercom seems like an obvious integration, but it hasn’t been available until now.

How it works

When a guest, delivery personnel, or other third-party service provider arrives at a Latch and Comelit-installed building without a security credential, they can simply call the unit they want to reach on the Comelit entry panel which will send an alert to the resident of that unit’s mobile phone, via the Latch app, as well as the hard-wired Comelit intercom panel in their apartment. The resident will then be able to both see the person requesting access to their building and/or unit and choose whether to grant access to that individual via the Latch app no matter where they are.

Challenges in the industry

Latch has been looking closely at the intercom industry even before it was founded. The hardware demo that helped Latch land investment from R/GA and Techstars in 2014 was a Twilio-controlled intercom solution that enabled a user to unlock their building entry intercom from their mobile phone. As Latch dug further into the industry, it found that there were some major challenges around delivering a world-class product in the category:

Access. For Latch, everything is about access. Latch believes in a world where every user and service will be given the digital access they need in advance of arriving at a building. Whether you’re a resident, a guest, a repair person, or a major delivery company, Latch provides access that is secure and flexible. However, Latch knows that providing a credential in advance isn’t going to work in every instance, and therefore wanted to provide a simple solution for on-demand, real-time access since the beginning. By pairing Comelit’s intercom capabilities with Latch’s access capabilities, Latch has a system that works for every person that arrives at a building.

Compliance. While it may seem like a simple product, there are significant regulatory and compliance standards for intercoms in urban environments to ensure safety and reliability. Many cities require that intercoms provide hard-wired connections to a door station in the individual apartment to make sure that someone in an apartment could always grant access to an emergency service at the front door. This means that an intercom solution that only offers a smartphone app for control can’t perform for many buildings. That’s a challenge. Combining Comelit’s hard-wired door and apartment stations with Latch’s remote capabilities is the perfect solution that works for every building and every regulatory environment.

Simplicity. In the past, every building has had to deal with three separate systems to manage their staff and residents: one to let people into the building and common areas, another to handle keys for every individual apartment, and a third to safely communicate with someone requesting access--an intercom system. These three systems have never talked to each other or worked together to create one simple, complete system. Now they do.

With this partnership, Latch takes one more step towards creating the perfect system to manage everything that needs to happen in a modern multi-family and commercial building. Latch is thrilled to be partnered with Comelit to deliver this experience and can’t wait for the first customers to roll-out this new offering in 2018.