One door at a time: Modular approach keeps day care centers safe at low cost

Apr 1, 2000 12:00 PM, ACCESS CONTROL & SECURITY SYSTEMS INTEGRATION STAFF

"The budgets in this industry are so tight."

"We continuously emphasize doing everything to protect the kids."

Seemingly contradictory, these two statements are central to success in the competitive and rapidly growing childcare industry. Alan Leonard, director of facilities for Mulberry Child Care and Preschool, made both statements while discussing the measures Mulberry has taken to maintain safety in its network of 85 daycare facilities in Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey.

In Maynard, Mass., child care center director Rob Hatch and his staff care for approximately 60 children each day. Leonard points out that no one can enter the Mulberry building without entering his or her PIN (personal identification number) on the digital keypads installed at every entry door. The keypads are connected to a HubMax access control system, manufactured by International Electronics (IEI), Canton, Mass. The HubMax system is installed into each new Mulberry facility.

The decision to standardize on IEI's HubMax was based on numerous factors important to the operation of a childcare facility and to a growing multiple-site business. Factors include system installation cost, ease of operation, ability to network to a corporate location, capacity to handle a separate PIN for each parent, activity tracking and reports, and the ability to use a variety of user interfaces or readers.

One door at a time The model used to design the systems for the Mulberry facilities is called One Door At A Time, a modular, building-block approach that simplifies the process.

Brad Sampson, IEI access control product manager, says many access control systems are designed for large facilities with many doors. When used in smaller applications, the initial fixed cost of such systems is high and the system is complex. Modular single-door systems create a linear relationship between cost and the number of doors.

Leonard attests to the cost advantage. A proposal developed by Honeywell Home and Building Systems using HubMax cost half the price of other quotes. Most of the Mulberry locations need access control on two doors. Honeywell now has secured about 170 doors (85 locations).

Leonard worked with Mike Michaud, Mulberry's national account executive at Honeywell, to choose the HubMax for its simple operating program. The user's software called HubMan, is designed to make day-to-day operations as straightforward as possible.

Todd Hammond, technical support manager for IEI, says the software is intuitive and easy-to-use.

What does the local manager think? Mulberry's childcare center in Maynard occupies about 10,000 square feet in a one-million-square-foot old mill building that once was the headquarters for Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC). Since Digital left in the early 1990s, the building and surrounding area have experienced a metamorphosis. Hundreds of smaller businesses have moved in to the void left by DEC. With new businesses come new employees and the need for day care.

Mulberry's director in Maynard, Rob Hatch, says that having a secure facility is extremely important to parents. He recommends that all childcare centers invest in access control.

With up to 500-PIN capability, Hatch says HubMax has the capacity he needs. A benefit of the system is the ability to delete or add client PINs.

Access control as a management tool The core business for the childcare industry - and Mulberry in particular - is the selling of blocks of time to parents. Managing parent access to comply with these blocks of time is critical to staffing and other resource planning (i.e., utilities, etc). Early drop-offs and late pick-ups, if not controlled, can leave a childcare center with inadequate staff to care for the number of children in the facility. It is a potential safety issue, but also a business issue.

Hatch and other managers in the Mulberry organization use the HubMan software as a tracking and reporting tool for keeping early drops-offs and late pick-ups to a minimum. The system enables Mulberry to track who enters a facility and at what time. It allows managers to charge for additional time, which provides an economic incentive for the parents to stick to a plan.

Another issue for the childcare industry is compliance with licensing requirements of state and national agencies. At the heart of these regulations are required minimum staff-to-children ratios. The system's ability to track activity and produce reports enables Mulberry to document the comings and going of staff and parents with children, thus establishing a record of compliance.

Leonard has a longer-term vision regarding the role of the access control system as well as other building system. In the future he hopes to bring the control and data gathering aspects of these systems to a central location. Honeywell building systems can be networked to a remote central office or headquarters through software called SiteMan multi-site management tool.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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