Introduction
This case study focuses on a world-renowned museum located in Chicago, Illinois that welcomes over a million visitors annually through its doors. It is a large, complex facility with multiple buildings, galleries, and public spaces for visitors to enjoy (and employees to manage). The museum’s workforce includes hundreds of full time and part time employees, volunteers, interns, and seasonal staff. It is of the utmost importance to the museum leadership to prioritize staff and volunteer safety, emergency preparedness, and regulatory compliance.
Challenges
The museum needed a way to quickly and accurately account for all personnel during emergency evacuations and drills. Previously they were using traditional methods including manual headcounts, paper rosters, and verbal communication. These methods were time consuming, error prone, and difficult to manage across large indoor and outdoor spaces. In addition, the volunteer docents and interns frequently moved between the galleries and departments further complicating accountability. The museum sought to extend its Acre AccessIt! access control system to ensure visibility of who had safely evacuated during an incident.
Solution
XPressEntry was introduced by their security integrator SMG Security Holdings, LLC as a trusted solution that integrated with their existing Acre AccessIt! access control system. The museum was immediately impressed with XPressEntry’s ability to extend existing badge data beyond doors to support emergency mustering at assembly areas. The XPressEntry handhelds were deployed to safety personnel and designated muster leaders for use during drills or real emergencies to scan badges of staff, volunteers, and interns at muster points and instantly mark individuals as safely evacuated. The museum really appreciates having a modern solution that is faster, delivers more accurate accountability, and increases confidence throughout the organization in emergency response procedures.
“We had a very successful evacuation drill. The XPressEntry devices were amazing!! Thank you so much for your help.” – Environmental Safety, Planning and Sustainability Manager
Benefits
XPressEntry handheld badge and biometric readers significantly enhance Acre AccessIt! access control systems, offering new levels of convenience, flexibility, intelligence, and functionality for safety personnel and designated muster leaders at the museum. XPressEntry delivers a consistent mustering process for all full-time staff, volunteer docents, and interns / temporary personnel on-site.
- Real-time visibility into who has been accounted for and who may still be missing
- If missing, who they are, what they look like, where they were last scanned in the museum to help first responders focus resources and potentially save lives
- Offline operation if the network connectivity is unavailable
- Automatic synchronization once connectivity is restored
- In the event that an assembly area / muster point has become unsafe and needs to be moved, XPressEntry can be still used from any location on or off-site
Conclusion
Following the implementation of XPressEntry, the museum continues to use their XPressEntry handheld badge and biometric readers for regular drills, emergency preparedness, and regulatory compliance. In the event of a real emergency, the museum is confident and ready to manage the evacuation.
XPressEntry handheld badge and biometric readers proudly lead the industry with:
- The most access control system integrations
- The broadest support for badges, biometrics, and mobile credentials
- The first handheld badge reader using Android 15 for enhanced security
CONTACT US to learn how XPressEntry can enhance your operations.
