Collega’s 2019-9876-2
Wesley Keegstra
Technology Partner Manager

Introducing Wesley Keegstra

Wesley Keegstra is an integration manager at Nedap Security Management. He’s a fully-fledged technophile but hasn’t lost sight of the value of sometimes doing things the old way. Instead of posting a life on Snapchat, he fancies polaroid. While his garden lights are automated, and his indoor lighting’s controlled by his smartphone, he still waters his plants with an empty soda bottle. Wesley likes to think of it as taking the best of both worlds and it’s a philosophy he brings to his work on Nedap’s Technology Partner Programme.

Why integrations are the future for access control

Wesley Keegstra talks to us about Nedap’s work with technology partners, and how the resulting integrations elevate what AEOS access control can offer.

What are you responsible for at Nedap Security Management, Wesley?

I initiate collaborations with potential technology partners and help them to create high-quality, high-value integrations with AEOS, our access control system. This might, for example, be identity management or video monitoring systems. Or something very relevant for the time we’re living in now – facial recognition, which enables touch-free entry.

I believe the best integrations are made in unison, so it’s important to find partners with a good fit in terms of vision and technology. Our ultimate aim is to provide the best value possible to our end customers.

Once we’ve identified a technology partner to work with, we set short and long-term goals and I guide them through our Technology Partner Programme and give them any support they need.

When a technology partner has finished their development work, we verify the integration to mutually check that it meets both parties’ quality demands. And, once it’s verified, we begin joint marketing activities to launch the integration.

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Why are integrations important for Nedap?

Everybody wants the best of the best, and I truly believe you can achieve this. We provide best-of-breed solutions by working with other market-leading partners. This enables us to future-proof our platform and create the flexibility and scalability AEOS users are looking for.

What value do you bring to end customers of AEOS access control?

We have a very powerful access control system in AEOS. It has a great authorisation model, it’s flexible, it offers a rich array of functionalities and it’s based on open architecture. But we always want to offer more options to end users. By partnering with other market-leading technology companies, we can achieve this and extend access control to its fullest.

Integrations have, for example, enabled organisations to extend their AEOS access control to incorporate self-registration kiosks for visitors, video management systems, fingerprint readers, facial recognition and so on. By ensuring AEOS has a reliable, up to date and wide-ranging ecosystem, I enable end users to choose the functionality and extensions to suit their specific needs.

With every integration, I strive for one-platform management to ensure it’s user friendly. So if, for example, you have AEOS with a biometric integration, the enrolment and management of scanned fingers or other biometric characteristics is all handled within AEOS.

What are the biggest challenges in your work and in the security industry in general?

One of my biggest challenges is to ensure the growing number of AEOS integrations remain up to date. How do we make sure an integration created today is valid for use in the future? I also think this is one of the major challenges for security in general. How do you keep up with the constant rate of change within both your organisation and technology? This is one of the reasons we make AEOS as flexible and future-proof as possible – when you’re investing in a system for long-term use, you need to know it can adapt to your changing needs.

Another challenge is to meet a wide range of requirements. We’re creating this amazing ecosystem with lots of different technology partners offering great solutions and added value. But how do we fulfil all the varying needs created by differing cultures, regulations, environments, uses and so on?

In my opinion, the challenges mentioned above can only be solved by real best-of-breed solutions. Integrations that are created through close collaboration with us and technology partners, ensuring we adapt to ongoing changes and find new opportunities in future developments.

What trends do you feel will have the biggest impact for access control?

I really like the vision of implementing access control with a positive rather than negative approach. In practice, only a small percentage of people trying to move through an entrance aren’t authorised for access. Which means that maybe out of 100 people, 99 people have to perform an action when only one person isn’t authorised.

What if this could be turned around? Everybody gets access, and action is only taken when an unauthorised person is identified. This could be realised through facial recognition, for instance. Maybe it’s not relevant for everybody now, but I’m really enthusiastic about the possibilities of these kinds of solutions.

 

How do you believe the role of access control will change in the coming years?

I really think, and hope, that access control will move from a situation where every door’s closed until access is granted to every door’s open until someone unauthorised is detected.

You know the feeling you get at an airport, when you’re going through security? You get a bit nervous, even though you know you’ve done nothing wrong. What if we turn this around so everybody gets a warm welcome by an open infrastructure? No more relying on people to present badges or close doors behind them, and no tailgating by unwanted guests.

How do you think organisations can improve their return on investment into access control?

I believe organisations can improve ROI through automation and linking systems together. When a new employee starts, there are tasks for HR, ICT, the card management system, access control, internal and external communications, and more. Often, these systems are relatively easy to connect with one another. Then, all that’s needed is for HR to set up a new employee and this will automatically trigger the necessary tasks in other systems.

Perhaps even more important in terms of this type of automation is when an employee leaves the organisation. It’s not unusual for HR to be aware that an employee’s leaving, but the access control system and ICT aren’t – which can cause potentially serious risk. This is a very basic example, but I bet you’ve experienced it once. The same goes for running two applications side by side to link an intrusion alarm with recorded camera footage.

Put all of this together, and I believe having one single unified application is a great way to improve return on investment.

What does security for life mean for you at work?

Life is constantly changing but we, as people, adapt. Security should be similar. You never know what the future might hold, but I’m convinced that with Nedap you’ll be ready for it.

Want to explore our technology partners or find out more about becoming a technology partner? Please get in touch.

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