Village of Hoffman Estates Standardizes on Brivo Access Control

Seven-year project continues to expand as Village adds more sites, functionality

Brivo Systems LLC, the leader in Software as a Service applications for security management, today announced that the Village of Hoffman Estates (IL) has standardized on Brivo ACS WebService™ as they continue to expand the reach and functionality of their Brivo installation. Red Hawk Security is the integrator for the latest phase of project expansion.

Brivo ACS panels and readers were originally installed at the Village Police Station and Brivo wireless panels were installed to control access to 13 sites including the Village’s water towers, pumping stations, and the chlorine rooms. As the project progressed, the Village has also installed Brivo in the Village Hall, Public Works Center, Vehicle Maintenance building, and four fire stations, and is planning to further expand with the construction of a new Police Department building. Upon completion of the Police Department building, the Brivo system will manage more than 180 access points spread throughout the Village’s 21 square miles. At present, the system manages access for more than 700 users divided into 80 unique groups, all with different access location, day, and time privileges.

In the post-9/11 world, the Village began planning in earnest both to protect its water supply and other infrastructure, and the staff who serve its more than 51,000 residents. The Department of Public Works faced multiple challenges to cost-effectively upgrade access control over such a large area without installing and maintaining a lot more phone lines. Budget considerations also dictated that the system would have to be implemented over a number of years as well as be capable of integrating with other systems and video surveillance.

With Brivo, the Village has used a phased implementation over seven years in which they have been able to upgrade software along the way. Paul Petrenko, Village of Hoffman Estates Facilities Manager, oversees the system on a day-to-day basis, and is also involved in system design and implementation, “I don’t want to mix and match disparate systems, we want everything under one system interface. Everyone is happy with Brivo and the hosted feature. Brivo has become our standard access control system.”

Petrenko and his team use many of the Brivo system’s advanced features, such as customizing alerts to send an alarm in the event of a chlorine leak or enable staff to open gates and doors from hundreds of miles away. The Village has also been pleased at being able to use multiple vendors for installation and integration, as sometimes dictated by procurement policies, but everything remains unified under a single, familiar Brivo interface.

The Village utilizes a NEDAP system that amplifies approaching vehicle signals to an access point. The Brivo system authenticates the vehicle and the driver and opens the door or gate. Currently, such technology is used at the Public Works Center building but plans call to expand such functionality to other locations.

As a long-time Brivo user, Petrenko knows that the system offers tremendous scalability and functionality. He is currently adding a reader at the Department of Public Works to capture when employees arrive and depart each day. In addition to the Brivo system controlling access for security, it will now also provide time clock information without the Village needing to add the expense of another completely different technology. If the DPW deployment is successful, Petrenko plans to expand the deployment to other buildings.

The Village recently took ownership of an 11,400-seat arena and Petrenko is investigating using Brivo for this building, “This way police and fire response would all use the same card system,” he related.

“The Brivo system is working great. Each organization has particular needs and requests, and so far Brivo has been very responsive to our needs in terms of features we’ve requested,” reported Petrenko. “I appreciate the system’s simplicity; with minimal training from me I’ve been able to easily train other administrators. The fact that Brivo works so well by itself means it’s out of sight and out of mind, but when we need it, it’s there.”

“The Village of Hoffman Estates shows the best of what we offer,” said Steve Van Till, Brivo President and CEO. “Our flexible Software as a Service platform can be upgraded and integrated with, so the Village has been able to successfully protect its investment, expand their system to fit their budget and timing, and add new and unique functionality at little or no cost.”