When an employee arrives at the office and realizes they left their phone at home, they would make the drive home to retrieve it. Phones are essential to everyday life, but a forgotten physical badge would not necessarily prompt an employee to take the time to retrieve their credentials before returning to the office. Instead, their day is filled with friction from a temporary access pass to an inability to navigate secured endpoints as seamlessly – not to mention the added time for IT to manage temporary access on the backend. Because phones are less likely to be left behind, they are the ideal credential solution to utilize for authentication across the workplace. This makes it easier for employees to have quick access to their networks and workstations while enhancing security at vulnerable shared endpoints like printers. Besides enhanced security and user experience, mobile authentication can save a lot of time.

Below we’ll walk you through an employee’s day to showcase how mobile authentication saves time for employees and how traditional authentication methods can cause friction in ways you may not have considered before.

 

Provisioning Employee Permissions: Streamlined Digital Identity Management

 

When a new employee begins at a company they are given certain access through their credentials. An organization has two options – a physical badge like a proximity or smart card, or a mobile credential like employee ID in Apple Wallet. Many organizations and companies are adopting mobile or passwordless authentication methods as it provides a higher level of security and user-friendly experience. While it may seem like the shift to mobile is happening slowly, HID’s 2024 State of Security and Identity reports that two thirds of organizations (64%) reported some level of mobile ID deployment, with that number expected to increase to 79% within the next five years.

Let’s take a look at how provisioning a new employee’s credential occurs with traditional physical ID badges compared to mobile credentials.

 

Proximity Badge Vs. Mobile Credential
In this proximity badge scenario, a new employee or contractor is starting and to get them set up they need to be issued a temporary badge. Not only does that access need to be manually limited based on their role, it will also have to be passed along to them in person. When their contract is up, there is a manual retrieval of the badge in addition to the revoking of access within the active directory.   Through the provisioning of mobile credentials, the employee can spend less of their onboarding time getting their credentials set up and can jump into more essential training that pertains to their job functions. The IT team member simply provisions certain permissions from the start of their time at the organization, so they can access appropriate end points across the workplace like conference rooms, printers, building amenities and more. Because mobile credentials are provisioned remotely, permissions can be updated and revoked instantly too.

 

Clocking in & Signing On: Ease of Access

 

Now that we’ve onboarded a new employee, it’s time for them to operate in the physical and digital infrastructure set up by the enterprise. This is how the process looks for mobile users and non-mobile users.

 

Passwords Vs. Mobile Credential

Traditional security protocols like proximity badges and passwords are time-consuming for employees and IT teams. When a badge is lost, day passes only get users through the turnstiles causing much more fiction throughout their day at various other end points where authentication is required such as elevators, workstations, printers and cashless vending.

For IT, administering the temporary physical badge and monitoring the lost or forgotten one is additional work. IT may also have to further assist the employee in enabling different MFA policies or helping to access different applications with their temporary badge.

   Mobile authentication and use of digital wallets offers increased flexibility and security for employees and IT teams. The credential in their wallet gets them into the building and further authenticates their access around secure end points in the workplace. Our partners, such as SwiftConnect, Alert Enterprise and Soloinsight ,help provision credentials that provide seamless mobile authentication in the workplace. rf IDEAS collaborates with these partners to find customers the end-to-end mobile solution they’ve been searching for.

 

The Employee Journey at Each End Point

 

Once an employee is up and running with their mobile credential and can now access physical entrance into the building, the verification doesn’t stop there. See what mobile access can do beyond the door.

 

Smart Cards Vs. Mobile Credential

Legacy hardware can cause friction for end users:

 

  1. A coworker asks to grab lunch in the building café, but you forget your badge sitting on your desk. Now you are unable to scan for your organization paid lunch without going back to retrieve your badge.
  2. You send some papers to print before a meeting and, on your way, to obtain them you realize you forgot your badge at your desk. After heading back to get your badge to release your print job you end up being late to your meeting.
  3. You book a conference room for an important meeting, but your badge was misplaced during the day and now you cannot get into the room. You end up waiting fifteen minutes for another team member to assist.
  

Mobile authentication allows the worker to seamlessly access everything they will need throughout their workday:

 

  1. Stopping to pick up a coffee in the building café, you can use your mobile credential to pay.
  2. You are able to ensure that the important report for the afternoon meeting is only released to you via a secure print reader.
  3. Reserving and accessing the conference room via your phone allows the focus to remain on the meeting and not on logistical matters.

 

While deploying a mobile solution may seem like a heavy lift for the organization, with the right partners and customizable solutions that integrate best within the existing security infrastructure the investment provides a long-term solution that allows effortless movement throughout digital and physical spaces. Whether in the office, at home, or on the go, mobile access keeps workflows efficient from the top down of an enterprise.

 

Ready to Move to Mobile?

 

For stronger security, better user experiences and simplified distribution and management of credentials, visit our Mobile Access page to discover how rf IDEAS can be part of your mobile solution.

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