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Tishman Speyer owns properties around the globe. For the last 7 years, they have trusted K&A for expert solutions across over a dozen Class-A properties to date in an ongoing secure ID vetting process that deals with multi-tenant PACS solutions.
Tishman Speyer’s property portfolio spans the globe, from Boston to Shanghai and everywhere in between. Their landmark properties are famous, with household names like the “30 Rock” building; while their real estate houses big-name tenants including Pfizer, Debevoise & Plimpton, and NBC.
In 2017, they began a hefty project to elevate their entire impressive portfolio up to the most secure ID standards, one property at a time. The goal is to bring a modern-day standard to their physical access control systems (PACS) and access control cards, enhancing their buildings’ security while paving the road for future upgrades. The project began in the US but would reach across the globe.
Each of Tishman Speyer’s landmark properties has a history of being independently operated. In terms of physical access control, each building uses its own independently researched and implemented standards, which cater to that particular building’s tenants. For instance, 30 Rockefeller Plaza in NYC maintains a deal with its landmark tenants (NBC and Deloitte) to have independent elevator entrances and turnstiles. While Tishman has no jurisdiction or need to upgrade tenant-controlled spaces, Tishman-controlled spaces, common areas, and co-shared studio offices needed a security upgrade.
When Tishman Speyer started their worldwide project to standardize the same high-security levels across all its properties, they faced a massive puzzle. Issuing a new building access control for the common areas in the building was a project in itself, but readers that once accepted the old proximity technology would also need to be shored up to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access through downgrade attacks.
Ultimately, whatever initiative Tishman Speyer takes must put the tenant experience first. Everything — from the lobby to the synchronized elevator music — pushes the “wow factor” for residents of these historic buildings, and nothing would break a tenant’s trust in Tishman more than getting locked out of their own office space. As such, any building-wide access control migration must balance security with tenant needs and happen seamlessly; a high order for a single building housing more than 3-4k people on average, let alone when considering Tishman’s entire global portfolio. Nevertheless, Tishman Speyer set out on a mission towards secure ID and was determined to preserve their “street to seat” experience for their corporate tenants.
In 2017, Tishman Speyer came to K&A with this extraordinary project; one that is almost unrivaled in scope and which must hit a delicate security–tenant balance. As a specialized and nimble company, K&A Industries brings agility, speed, and an unmatched ability to customize services for the unique needs of both Tishman as a corporation and the individual buildings within their portfolio.
Today — after 7 years of navigating each building’s specialized needs, coordinating with property management offices, and overcoming the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, K&A is proud to be Tishman Speyer’s trusted secure credential custodian. But the process towards truly secure and future-proof access control — like any worthwhile initiative — started with a plan. Full-service secure credential management from K&A Industries stands out with a 3-step application & key planning process.
2017
An enterprise-wide security upgrade is not only daunting — it is expensive. To save past investments in access control readers, K&A performs an in-depth analysis of existing cards and readers before planning a migration. Current and future applications are roadmapped in a whiteboarding process that considers all applications today and into the future. This process started immediately, but before a migration could take place, COVID-19 hit. Even New York City became a ghost town; buildings that once housed 3-4k people were empty, and any upgrades to access control were put on hold.
2022
As people began to emerge from COVID lockdowns, the project started up again with a new challenge. While access control keeps people and properties physically safe, 2022 was a new post-epidemic world that prioritized the contactless work experience. In response to the demand for touch-free access, K&A and Tishman re-evaluated their plans to integrate more contactless access control and the capability for mobile credential technology.
Today
Tishman continues to prioritize their tenants’ needs, but the corporate workforce has undergone massive changes, with more remote work than ever and the introduction of co-shared spaces. These constantly changing expectations make the work that K&A does to future-proof secure ID solutions more critical now than ever. K&A takes pride in solving today’s problems while anticipating future challenges and takes care to value our client’s investments.
New and Re-Configured Readers
Once a plan for Tishman’s secure credential future was in place, every building across their portfolio would require a specialized approach. Each building is managed by a separate property management office with its own security director and has historically managed its own access control. That meant that there wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to upgrading readers, and with a strategy to only touch every reader once (saving Tishman loads of money), every building gets its own reader migration testing phase.
Multi-Tech Credentials in a Multi-Tenant Building
Unlike readers throughout the common spaces, Tishman has no jurisdiction to upgrade readers in tenant-controlled areas. With each tenant utilizing their own (and sometimes unknown) technologies, the prototyping and testing phase is paramount for rolling out new multi-tech credentials that allow tenants to use one card for building and office access (maintaining that quality “street-to-seat” experience). The flagship of this great initiative was 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NYC, which hosts dozens of corporate A-list tenants expecting a seamless migration plan. To pull it off, K&A worked directly with tenants to understand their technology and coordinated with the building’s security personnel to constantly prototype, test, and refine the perfectly configured access card. By 2019, the first deployment of custom multi-tech tenant IDs and re-configured readers was ready to launch.
Deployment of Physical Access Control Readers
Since the 30 Rock building, K&A has adapted Tishman Speyer’s secure ID plan to incorporate new technology for a new post-Covid era. Once the project started again in 2022, buildings throughout Tishman’s entire portfolio were steadily overhauled one at a time with access readers configured to super-secure technology. When possible, K&A secures old access readers by reinforcing vulnerable backdoors to old proximity access and re-configuring for the new technology and mobile capabilities. Then, K&A works directly with building security, manufacturers, and PACS integrators to get hardware installed and operational.
Distributing Custom Secure ID Credentials
When tackling a new building, K&A and the building’s property management office work together on the initial tenant rebadging initiative. Often, K&A will work directly with tenants to understand their existing technology requirements, ensuring a seamless experience during the building migration. Once tenant badges are created, K&A expertly distributes cards across offices, buildings, and states as needed. After a building is outfitted with new cards, K&A continues to deliver on-demand dual-technology credentials encrypted with both the building’s new technology and the tech used in tenant-controlled spaces. At some locations, K&A provides printers, supplies, and maintenance for Tishman Speyer to produce new cards on-site.
K&A has been named Tishman Speyer’s sole distribution point and trusted supplier for secure ID services. When outside companies are required for anything related to access control, they go through K&A for a vetting process that understands and prioritizes Tishman Speyer’s secure ID needs. For every building that has filtered through K&A’s expert eyes (whether past or current), they rely on K&A for all their credential needs.
K&A Industries is Tishman Speyer’s secure ID custodian, managing tens of thousands of unique encryption keys and stocking custom products specifically for them. K&A keeps custom-encrypted cards, pre-configured printers, and correlating supplies on hand so that products are ready to ship ahead of the usual long lead times. When desired, K&A also updates badge art designs to suit Tishman’s branding needs and conducts both large and small runs of custom badge printing.
Delivered to Tishman Speyer to date.
An ongoing and growing partnership.
Secured and managed by K&A.
K&A Industries is currently managing over a dozen properties for Tishman Speyer. For each new migration project, K&A prototypes and rebadges every building’s main tenants and is progressively securing Tishman’s properties, one tenant at a time.
Each building in Tishman’s portfolio is a new challenge, as every property is independently managed by the location’s property management office and faces unique situations due to its tenants. Whatever the challenge, whenever a need for secure ID service arises at Tishman Speyer, K&A Industries is there.
“We do ID right.” Our tagline says it all – we know what we are doing and are good at what we do.
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