To complicate the security picture, sites associated with utilities tend to be dispersed and remote. They rely on a vast array of contractors and service teams to keep them running. Physical security at these sites is especially difficult, yet equally crucial. Utilities need to guard against sabotage, theft and trespass, while guaranteeing access to those who need it—at any time of day or night, and often at short notice.

With Cliq administrators can tailor the access rights of every key, so that it opens certain locks in a facility, but not others, or it only grants access rights at certain times. This allows security managers to introduce fine-grained permissions for employees, service crews and contractors.

For Annica Strandberg, Security Manager at Eskilstuna Energi och Miljö—a Cliq customer—this flexibility is vital: “Programmable keys allow us to give access to certain doors, to certain people and at a certain time.” Where previously some employees had to carry an enormous bunch of keys for their day-to-day work, one single Cliq key has both lightened their load and upgraded company security.

On the access control software side, the Cliq Web Manager allows administrators to programme, amend or delete keys remotely and instantly. It is straightforward for security managers to generate time-stamped audit trails for any lock or key, and trace access workflows. Remote programming devices enable users to update keys anywhere.

“Cliq locks and keys are also designed to withstand working in the harshest environments. They can be easily retrofitted to interior and exterior openings, with minimum disruption, and work across multiple types of enclosure,” says Kevin Hoare, Cliq Business Development Director at Assa Abloy EMEA.

The Cliq range includes cylinders for doors, gates, windows, machine guards, equipment enclosures, elevators and many other internal and external structures, as well as cylinders for explosion-prone areas. Because there is no cabling required, nor the need to visit the cylinders to maintain batteries, installation in remote settings presents no problems.