Pioneering “PSIM 2.0”: A solution for multi-family apartment managers
James Thorpe
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The multi-family apartment industry has grown tremendously over the past decade, with positive demand for more properties and spaces growing yearly. Because of this demand, properties are expanding to include hundreds of units and accommodate the growing number of people wanting to move into these spaces.
With this sudden growth comes a slew of new problems and concerns regarding management: For old properties, keeping track of hundreds of keys becomes increasingly complex, combined with the costs of rekeying locks, forging replacements and dealing with stolen assets. For fob and reader systems, there has always been the concern of people abusing access and even continuing to access resident-only spaces after they had stopped being tenants.
Even with the implementation of smart tech into many apartment buildings, which can allow managers to keep track of who is accessing properties, manufacturer-specific firmware can sometimes force apartment owners into choosing one manufacturer’s product to fill their diverse needs or to juggle numerous software and apps. These solutions to access control can also end up costing property owners lots of money in the long run.
​There needs to be a way to bridge the management software and security of smart tech solutions with the flexibility and simplicity allowed by having a lock and key system. This one management solution is an upgraded version of the physical security information management (PSIM) system.
According to Champion, a PSIM system is specialised software that connects numerous unrelated devices under a single comprehensive master control. It has allowed buildings to connect video, access control, sensors, analytics, networks and building systems to a single access point. This kind of system has a lot of capabilities, including integrating with numerous types of tech, analysing and auditing data, reporting issues and resolving problems without switching software.
While this used to be run by a large in-building system, companies such as Geokey are pioneering “PSIM 2.0”, allowing all the benefits and capabilities of a one-management PSIM system from your phone.
How does this system solve the problem?
​Utilising smart access control, PSIM 2.0 allows for the benefits of a cloud-based solution while giving managers the flexibility to attend to the needs of their property, audit data and even present options to increase their property’s net operating income (NOI). By having PSIM 2.0 integrated into the smart access control solutions of numerous manufacturers, all serving their unique purposes, your phone can act as a single control point that gives managers and tenants the ability to access the property.
From this point, managers can grant and remove tenant access, see who accessed a door and when and unlock doors for people without being nearby or under the same WiFi. Smart access control is a simple and secure way to manage access control; having it all run under a PSIM system allows for different devices that could not all be controlled at once to be managed from one device.
​Utilising PSIM 2.0’s control solution also allows managers to decrease operational costs while increasing efficiency. Based on data collected on a 350-unit complex, key management costs apartment complexes over 400 team hours a year. PSIM 2.0 eliminates the need to commit hundreds of hours to these tasks by making access control as simple as a swipe.
​PSIM 2.0 can also increase NOI by giving properties an attractive and monetisable amenity. In a study on 221,000 renters by NMHC/Grace Hill concerning amenity preferences, over 62% of people wanted smart access control and security implemented in their multi-family.
With smart access control becoming more accessible and awareness of its security benefits spreading (with the National Apartment Association estimating that the number of people interested could rise to 83% by the end of 2023), having it under a PSIM system could increase an apartment’s chances of people choosing one property over another. Despite this approach to the traditional PSIM system presenting the flexible solution many property managers want, only certain manufacturers or developers are following this thread currently.
Geokey, however, has come to be a pioneer in this change to access control. As a company that utilises a hardware-agnostic approach, Geokey has partnered with many manufacturers to create a program that allows users to access a wide range of access controls.
Geokey’s patent uses location services to authenticate access while acting as both a credential and a reader. Combining these three elements eliminates the need for hardware such as readers and managed Wi-Fi.
This article was originally published in the April edition of ISJ. To read your free digital edition, click here.
