It has been over a decade since the first mobile access solutions began transforming how the world operates — including how people gain access to secured doors, gates, networks, services and more. 

The biggest leaps in mobile-access adoption have coincided with the adoption of mobile wallets for payment and other applications. Wallets have re-defined what simplicity means compared to previous app-based models, and given organizations new issues to consider when deploying and upgrading their mobile access infrastructure to improve operational efficiency while also staying ahead of threats, adding new capabilities, and deliver the desired user experience. 

Defining Operational Efficiency

Mobile access improves operational efficiency through centralized identity management. Managing mobile credentials remotely is significantly easier than distributing physical cards. Plus, integrating mobile access with facility management systems can help optimize building efficiency through real-time data about access and occupancy trends.

To realize these efficiency gains, organizations generally provision mobile credentials alongside traditional physical cards that are carried as backup. Supporting both types of credentials requires readers that support both technologies. Reader management is simplified through centralized firmware upgrades.

The time is ripe for mobile access. According to the Journal of Consumer Affairs report, “Cell Phone Statistics 2025,” almost all Americans (98%) own a mobile phone, and Apple devices represents more than half of the market share. Each day Americans spend 4 hours and 30 minutes on their mobile phones, and over half (62.79%) of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile phones. 

One could argue that mobile phones have become the world’s user experience benchmark. College students, for example, expect to enter their dorm room in the same way they buy a sandwich: with their phones. 

Deployment Basics

As they navigate the migration to mobile access, organizations have three priorities: 1) securing all access transactions between credential and reader, 2) streamlining the credential provisioning process, and 3) delivering the best possible user experience. 

Many organizations ensure credential-to-reader security by specifying 13.56 MHz (NFC) mobile credentials — the equivalent of creating a VPN connection — or more secure options that go beyond encryption to add mutual authentication. The desired provisioning experience is a remotely administered self-service model using an emailed link to a downloadable credential. Revoking credentials and upgrading software is equally easy.

To optimize the user experience, organizations must consider issues including the installed base of mobile devices. Android phones may not support the NFC connection required for wallets and other use cases. There are also decisions about the types of doors where mobile access will be used. Readers in close proximity to each other may need to use short-range NFC connectivity to avoid users opening the wrong doors. But parking garages, main entrance doors and elevators can benefit from the convenience of Bluetooth’s longer read range. 

App or Wallet? 

This is one of the most important user-experience questions to answer. The app environment has worked well for mobile-access users that were given clear instructions. Even so, many users prefer the wallet model based on their experiences with Google and Apple products. One of the biggest perceived wallet advantages is they work in background without having to activate an app. But apps often have more capabilities than wallets, so there can be a trade-off. Most organizations prefer to support both.

It is important to note that the choice of underlying communication protocol — whether longer-range Bluetooth or shorter-range NFC — has nothing to do with the choice of an app or wallet experience. There is no such thing as a Bluetooth credential or NFC credential, nor is there an app or wallet credential. But frequency matters: the only way to give users wallet capabilities is with 13.56 MHz secure credentials — they operate at the same frequency as NFC. This is also more power-efficient technology. Migrating to these credentials offers the triple benefit of improving security, reducing the phone’s battery usage, and paving the way for the short-range wallet tap experience.

Organizations should also be aware that the wallet experience can be delivered directly through today’s existing mobile-access app environment. As an example, users can simply log into their company’s mobile app with single-sign-on plus multi-factor authentication and then add their employee badge to Apple Wallet by tapping “Add to Apple Wallet.” From then on, they experience all the benefits of being able to tap their phone to a reader and it just works — as long as that reader is NFC-enabled.

This in-app mobile-access wallet functionality is useful for many types of organizations. The integration work includes ensuring that all the necessary validation steps for a wallet experience are executed correctly, including sending the right ID to the right mobile device and to any other access-control software and additional solutions for extended use cases, such as secure print. 

With this approach, organizations that still need to deploy NFC readers to support a wallet experience can continue to use their mobile-access app while they migrate their infrastructure. When the infrastructure is ready, users who want a wallet experience simply download the app and hit “add pass to wallet” to complete the migration.

There is no single “right” approach for deploying mobile access. Organizations have as many mobile-access needs as they have mobile users, so how mobile access is deployed is as important as why. Best practices encourage a phased migration and also encompass ample personalization options to support a variety of use cases and security requirements with an easy path to upgrades and new capabilities in the future. This requires flexibility and a broad range of choices for readers, credentials, communications protocols and other vital options like the ability to use increasingly popular mobile wallets.

Wallets have changed so much about the mobile experience, and mobile access control is no exception. But the basic rules of access-control deployment still apply — organizations must focus on future-proofing their infrastructure for easy upgrades so they can stay ahead of threats and offer an ever-expanding array of new capabilities — including a wallet experience.