South African healthcare insurance provider uses Net2 from Paxton

Bestmed is South Africa’s largest self-administered medical scheme and is among the fastest growing medical schemes in the past three years, reports Paxton.

The company provides a wide range of benefit options that cover both in and out of hospital benefits.

Bestmed’s award-winning service has received numerous healthcare industry awards.

The company is headquartered in Pretoria and also has offices in Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha, Nelspruit and Polokwane.

The previous access control system

In 2020, Bestmed’s headquarters in Pretoria underwent renovation.

The access control system they were using at the time ran on Windows XP which now no longer exists.

The previous system had limited features and did not offer remote management and allowed only one system administrator login.

These restrictions created challenges for the IT team at Bestmed, so they decided to upgrade the access control system.

There are three buildings on Bestmed’s Pretoria site, so the new system needed to run on a network to allow remote access management.

The IT team wanted a system that is flexible and intuitive to ensure employee safety and manage user and visitor access as well as reporting functionality and having system integration with other security systems and products.

Net2

Ricky Sumares, Sales Manager at Active Motion, was responsible for the Bestmed installation project, where he recommended the Paxton’s access control system, Net2.

Net2 is a PC-based access control solution that offers centralised administration and control of sites with up to 1,000 doors and 50,000 users.

Sumares said that the reasons he recommended the system was due to the simplicity of installing Net2 and that it is easier for end-users to navigate the software.

Sumares commented: “Paxton’s 5-year warranty was a big selling point for the client as it shows Paxton’s level of confidence in the reliability of Net2.”

Net2 Pro

The team at Bestmed are currently using Net2 Pro which is the advanced version of Paxton’s software that provides extra features and more flexibility.

Paxton Connect allows system administrators to access the Net2 system from a smart device allowing users to remotely manage the system via the Net2Online interface or the free Paxton Connect app.

“At least five days to get the reports”

Rentia Aspeling, IT Manager, Bestmed said: “Our previous system was PC-based only, so we had to literally go to the server room to access the system.

“Now we can use Net2 from wherever we want, to manage users, generate reports and open doors remotely across our three buildings.”

“Previously one of our directors owned the access control system and we had to ask him to generate the reports. It used to take us at least five days to get the reports ready to submit.”

Benefits from using Net2

Net2 allows an unlimited number of system administrators to manage the software with an option to set different operator levels.

The team can now generate reports whenever they need, which can be customised based on individuals’ specification, departments or areas.

Aspeling said: “The benefit of being able to see live events and generate reports on demand is huge. Because we work hybrid days, it is important to be able to see who’s in the office and in what areas, in the event of an emergency.”

Bestmed uses Net2’s card designer feature to create employee IDs with their picture and details.

Employees need to present their IDs to the reader on each door to gain access. For visitors, the team issues temporary access cards which is a feature available in Net2.

Third party readers

Third-party Virdi Biometric Readers and ZKTeco Proximity Readers have been integrated into Net2.

The Virdi Biometric Readers are installed at their high-risk areas, such as the IT infrastructure room, data centre, on-site gym facility as well as HR and Finance areas where confidential information are stored.

It requires employees to present their IDs and verify their biometric characteristics before being granted access.

The ZKTeco Proximity Readers are installed at Bestmed’s main entrance and automated emergency doors.

The IT team integrated multifunctional printers to Net2 via Active Directory as employees need to present their IDs to print documents from the printers.

“Innovative access management”

Aspeling, IT Manager, Bestmed later said: “Net2 is such as a powerful product. We are not yet using its full capacity.

“Looking at where we were with the old system to where we are now with Net2, it is way better than what we had, providing innovative access management.”

Ricky Sumares, Sales Manager, Active Motion also added: “Paxton’s Technical Support and Sales team have helped us hugely through the whole project; before, during and after the installation.

“This gives our client the peace of mind that the manufacturer is on hand to support us at Active Motion to deliver our client’s needs.”

The IT team at Bestmed has plans to integrate their existing CCTV system into Net2 to further maximise the benefits of their new security solution.