There is a common question in the security industry when it comes to site surveys: How can the door survey process be streamlined to increase productivity, improve accuracy and enhance key system deployment capabilities?
It’s no secret that site surveys can often be a challenge. Most door surveys are done the old-fashioned way - with pen and paper. This is very time consuming both on-site while capturing information, and at the office doing data entry. Technicians, institutional locksmiths and salespeople can spend days, even weeks, properly documenting openings for a project. This leaves little time to focus on other installations, projects and sales calls that drive revenue and profit, which can rapidly increase your cost for the project.
Today’s security professional is looking for a faster and easier way to complete the sometimes intensive level of documentation that accompanies a site survey. In response to this need, Medeco has developed the Site Survey Wizard mobile site surveying tool.
Medeco’s Site Survey Wizard is a mobile application (app) that is powered by the iOS and Android software platforms for smart phones and tablets. No matter which device is used in the field to do a survey, an iPhone, iPad or Android, any of these devices can be used to document projects. The Site Survey Wizard app is free of charge and is available from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore.
Benefits of the Medeco Site Survey Wizard are a streamlined site survey process and increased productivity in the field and office.
In a typical site survey, capturing door hardware data and keying details is documented manually with pen and paper. Sometimes, a voice recorder is used to capture the survey information. Either way, the written or recorded data must be formatted into an electronic format that can be imported into an internal system for processing, or formatted in a way that makes the order crystal clear to the Wholesaler or Manufacturer. Imagine if all that data entry could be done without doing double work (once at the door, secondly at the computer).
The Site Survey Wizard app streamlines the data entry process by capturing the necessary door data electronically using a mobile device. This eliminates the need to transfer and translate often cryptic handwritten notes from paper survey forms into electronic spreadsheets, reducing errors while increasing efficiency.
Improving Key & Door Schedule Quality
Working for a manufacturing for the past 18 years (both inside and outside the factory), the one challenge that I continue to face on a project-by-project basis lies in the quality of the keying schedules I see. The quality and clarity of the keying schedules submitted with product orders can impact system design, customer service and the manufacturing process. All of this ultimately leads to impacting one of the most important elements: lead times. Extended lead times created by poorly communicated keying schedules alters the customer experience we hope to deliver.
The Site Survey Wizard app takes keying data collected from the survey and produces it in an organized format that can be easily understood by staff and wholesalers or manufacturers. Producing keying data in an organized format helps the factory understand what the exact keying needs are. A clear understanding of keying needs speeds up the design process, leading to faster order turnaround, and meeting the original delivery expectations of your customer, enhancing their overall experience.
Medeco Technical Support Assistant
Planning to upgrade a building’s mechanical key system to high security or key control cylinders or cores? Medeco’s Site Survey Wizard comes equipped with a Medeco technical support assistant to help with the conversion. Pull from Medeco’s extensive cross-reference database of hundreds of Medeco3 and Medeco X4 cylinder retrofits to ensure cylinders are ordered accurately, the first time.
Even if a full-fledge keying schedule isn’t needed, technicians can use the Site Survey Wizard app on smaller projects to quickly identify the right Medeco cylinder for the application.
Medeco’s Site Survey Wizard app is a more efficient and more productive tool for capturing the information that is important during a site survey. The Site Survey Wizard app puts all the little elements of key and door detail together so jobs are quoted accurately, awarded more frequently and delivered on time. Download your copy of the Site Survey App Wizard.
Dale L. Bowman
Dale L. Bowman, CML, CPP, PSP, PCI, LEED BD+C, is Medeco’s director of business development, OEM and international sales.
