People’s Choice Credit Union is using a Gallagher access control and automation solution to enhance security, safety and efficiency at its head office in Adelaide.
ONE of Australia’s largest Credit Unions, with 365,000 members and 44 locations People’s Choice Credit Union (People’s Choice) is utilising new technology from Gallagher to improve service to members, be more efficient, reduce costs, and decrease its environmental footprint. People’s Choice head office in Adelaide covers 5 floors of an office with a work force of 650. With a focus on improving efficiency and collaboration, People’s Choice has successfully created a modern working environment that utilises flexible work spaces, Follow-Me Printing, visitor management kiosks, and mobile solutions.
Operating an innovative, modern working environment that utilises flexible work spaces in place of traditional desks, People’s Choice staff are not allocated a specific desk but instead choose where they wish to sit each day. They can also choose whether they wish to sit or stand, by having desks that can be raised or lowered to suit personal preference. Flexible work environments are proving popular for large corporate companies due to the ability to increase company-wide communication, support project work, improve productivity, reduce clutter, and save costs.
“With a large staff, there is always a number of people out of the office, whether it’s on sick or annual leave, or working on business outside of the office” says Mike Humphrey, manager of Property Services at People’s Choice Credit Union.
“By implementing a flexible work space model, we have been able to save approximately 3000 square metres of office space which equates to thousands of dollars each year in building costs.”
To facilitate the operation of a flexible work environment and provide employees with storage for their personal effects (work-related material is stored elsewhere). People’s Choice uses banks of brightly coloured lockers that are managed by electronic access control. Using Gallagher’s smartcard, multi-technology T20 and T10 readers on each locker bank, staff badge their access card to open their allocated locker. With the readers communicating with Gallagher’s Command Centre software management platform, People’s Choice has a simple-to-operate, customisable system that enables staff to carry just one card on site.
“We’re all about putting people first. As an organisation we’re not afraid to try new ways of doing things, and as a result we’re seeing significant improvements for our members and staff,” Humphrey said.
Gallagher’s innovative Command Centre Mobile App means key facilities management personnel are able to manage access remotely using their mobile phones.
“Occasionally staff forget their access card and I’ll get a phone call to open their locker for them,” Humphrey explains. “Being able to access the platform and administer overrides using my phone, from wherever I am at the time, is huge for me and it speeds things up considerably for the employee.”
With people working in different areas at different times, People’s Choice needed a printing solution that simply and easily enabled staff to retrieve printed documents from the nearest printer. People’s Choice was also looking for a solution that helped to cut down on unnecessary waste. To meet these needs, People’s Choice installed Follow-Me Printing. This printing solution stores print jobs electronically until a user badges their Gallagher access card at a printer to retrieve their files. At this point, the user can terminate any print jobs they no longer need, cutting down on waste. The solution further reduces waste through a configuration that deletes any printing jobs that haven’t been actioned within a 24-hour period.
“One of the truly efficient things about our set-up is that our printing integrates with our access control solution” says Humphrey. “It means that staff only have one card for all of their access needs on site; they can access the various office floors, lockers, and printers all with a single card, instead of also having keys and pin numbers to manage.”
Through a Gallagher Bacnet integration, People’s Choice has implemented an automated, continuous temperature management solution for the large data centre located at their head office. With temperature sensors communicating directly with Command Centre, any change in temperature beyond the set limits, triggers an alarm notification to be sent directly to Humphrey’s phone.
“The capability for Gallagher’s platform to send critical information, like the potential overheating of a server room, straight to my phone was a big selling point for us,” Humphrey says. “It provides a simple mobile solution to mitigate a considerable business risk.”
To support efficiency at their head office reception area, People’s Choice chose Gallagher’s Visitor Management Client and Self-Registration Kiosk. The self-registration kiosk serves as an ideal extra lane during particularly busy periods, ensuring that visitors can register their arrival quickly and effortlessly without delay. The integration between Gallagher’s visitor management solution and Command Centre, ensures that a comprehensive audit trail of all visitor management events, including visitor pre-registration, escort, host, and visitor actions, is securely stored and can be easily retrieved to produce reports.
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