A dramatic shift is happening right now in the world of digital credentialing and it has the potential to impact all of us in rapid succession. According to Juniper Research, as many as 3 billion citizens around the world will be equipped with a government initiated mobile ID app by 2024. In many countries today, there are government initiatives in motion for the adoption of a national mobile ID, including in New South Wales where the Digital Driver License has already hit the road.
Mobile credentials offer the opportunity to expand frictionless access beyond the parking barriers and into every access point along our daily journeys.
Why Mobile Credentials Matter
Take a look at the collection of physical credentials you lug around with you on a daily basis that are weighing down each step you take. Keys, credit cards, access cards, key fobs, ID, and an excessive amount of mints. Maybe the last one is just me, but we all have our own vices. It all adds up, quickly. Then imagine the office parking lot card, door access fob, bathroom key, etc. and you start to get a picture of how weighed down we all are with physical credentials; not to mention the complexity this creates and the cost of administering it all.
Security is also quite important, as well. Lost keys, unauthorized sharing, and card replacement all carry associated cost, as well as significant risk. Then there’s tailgating concerns as a door reader might read one badge swiped, but if four people enter after that swipe the data is significantly hindered.
A Frictionless Life
Mobile credentials can resolve many of the above concerns and more with proper applications. We’ve long discussed the benefits of frictionless parking, but mobile credentials offer the opportunity to expand this frictionless access beyond the parking barriers and into every access point along our daily journeys. With app enabled secure mobile access credentials it’s possible, today, to lock your front door at home, close the garage, enter the parking facility at work, credential into the building, open your office, rent a scooter, pay the fare on the train, pay for lunch, tip the valet, and much more all with only your smartphone.
Now, if you are like me, you are adding up all the cost savings along that journey with no physical credentials to issue, administer, replace, manually monitor, and maintain. The equipment to utilize these digital credentials is also often much more cost effective to maintain because there are few, if any, moving parts. Plus, we are much more likely to always have our smartphone, while we may often forget a set of keys or leave our access card in another vehicle, so it’s also more convenient.
Want to go gateless in your parking facility, expand monthly parking to your network of locations with a single credential, or be prepared for autonomous vehicles? There’s an app for that!
Will the Public Adopt Mobile Credentials?
NexKey surveyed over 1,200 U.S. office workers and found that 41 percent admitted to having lost their credentials; 31 percent let someone borrow them, and 34 percent said physical locks had to be changed due to lost keys. They also found that 98 percent of those surveyed always carried their smartphone and would welcome a shift to mobile credentials. Most of us use mobile credentials today in some form whether it’s a boarding pass, digital wallet, or MFA tool. So yes, we will, and already do, utilize mobile credentials.
Brooks Ellis, CPP, is President, Americas, ZipBy LLC USA He can be reached at Brooks.Ellis@zipby.company.
