Working with SwiftConnect, Bridge Investment Group’s (Bridge) commercial brokerage subsidiary Bridge Commercial Real Estate has introduced contactless access enablement through employee badges in Apple Wallet at its 1277 Lenox Park office in Atlanta. Authorized users can now easily access flex office spaces, tenant floors and amenity spaces using their iPhone or Apple Watch.
Bridge’s Lenox Park location addresses a growing shift among leading companies that are transitioning from traditional corporate office space for more nimble and flexible layouts that boost collaboration and employee engagement, while reducing overall real estate costs. By leveraging their iPhone or Apple Watch for building access, users will have easier ways to navigate in the new way of work and flex office spaces, Bridge said.
“Our move to put employee badges in Apple Wallet is a transformative step in our long-term strategy to enable self-service, unfettered access to office and amenity spaces for the benefits of our tenants across our portfolio of Class A buildings nationwide,” said Mark Ferris, chief operating officer at Bridge Commercial Real Estate. “We selected SwiftConnect based on its leadership in connected access enablement and its open approach to integrating with a broad range of building and suite-level management systems. This allows us to operate our diverse environment of building access solutions as a unified network rather than a portfolio of disparate assets.”
Employee badges in Apple Wallet are provisioned from the BridgeEngage app using SwiftConnect AccessCloud, which brings together the building and business solutions that govern physical access. NextGen Security, an integrated physical and electronic security provider, played an integral role in the installation and configuration of the access control system.
“SwiftConnect’s mission is to help landlords and enterprises adapt to the new way of work and optimize their offices by removing the complexity related to connecting people to the right place at the right time,” said Matt Kopel, co-CEO of SwiftConnect. “Our latest project at Bridge’s Lenox Park location reinforces the value of helping landlords provide a street-to-seat experience for users, while immediately automating building access management and enhancing their overall security posture.”
Employees and tenants can add their employee badge to Apple Wallet after an initial set-up through the BridgeEngage app, developed by Equiem. Once added, the badge will give them access to their office building, tenant floor, flex office spaces and amenities. Users can simply tap their iPhone or Apple Watch on Wavelynx Ethos Readers to unlock access to secured areas. With Express Mode, tenants do not need to unlock their device to use their badge in Apple Wallet. Even if the phone needs to be charged, the device can be used in Power Reserve mode.