When a French town just north of Paris faced key management challenges, ASSA ABLOY was able to supply a solution that both increased security and efficiency.

Each person in their Municipal Technical Centre previously had to carry approximately forty physical keys and if a single key was lost or stolen, for even one door, all compromised cylinders had to be changed. Fabrice Girard, Territorial Technician at the Villiers-le-Bel Municipal Technical Centre explains: “One lost key cost from €3,000 to €4,000 for changing cylinders and replacing the keys”.

To fix their expensive lost key problem, Villiers-le-Bel city administrators chose to combine ABLOY’s mechanical PROTEC 2 and CLIQ ® electromechanical locking within the same flexible, key-based access control system. Almost 500 CLIQ ® wireless cylinders, 850 programmable, battery-powered CLIQ ® keys, plus programming devices and wireless CLIQ ® padlocks, have been deployed in a multi-year, rolling upgrade programme.

Now, with CLIQ ® , lost or stolen keys are cancelled instantly using the CLIQ ® Web Manager software. The Web Manager works securely inside a standard browser, with no software installation needed. Administrators can program access rights for every CLIQ ® key, padlock or cylinder using the Web Manager. They filter access to specific sites and doors according to the precise needs of every city employee.

CLIQ ® also saves time for the city’s security team, because staff no longer must return to the Technical Centre to collect the keys for multiple sites. Authorized users carry a single, programmable, battery-powered CLIQ ® key, where all their individually tailored access rights are stored. “We wanted a wireless system with reduced maintenance costs and increased safety,” adds Fabrice Girard. “CLIQ ® met all these requirements.”

The city has already rolled out CLIQ ® beyond their Municipal Technical Centre to 10 local schools. Using the CLIQ ® Web Manager, security staff can track exactly who has been granted access to every school site — critical for these sensitive premises and to improving overall school safety.

Plans are in place to equip Villiers-le-Bel’s 12 remaining schools with CLIQ ® within 2 to 3 years, including canteens and boiler rooms. Because CLIQ ® can be deployed and scaled flexibly, the city’s dedicated security budget funds this gradual extension of their CLIQ ® system.