Today, Bridge Investment Group’s (Bridge) commercial brokerage subsidiary Bridge Commercial Real Estate 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.
“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 seamlessly 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.”
How it works:
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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.
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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.
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When a Bridge employee or flex space user has an employee badge in Apple Wallet, it is never shared with Apple or stored on Apple servers. If their iPhone or Apple Watch is misplaced, the owner of the device can promptly use the Find My app to lock the device and help locate it. Employee badges in Apple Wallet are stored on personal devices and take full advantage of the privacy and security built into iPhone and Apple Watch.
The Bridge deployment leverages MIFARE DESFire credential technology to deliver an intuitive, private and secure access transaction when a user presents their iPhone or Apple Watch to Wavelynx Ethos™️ Readers. Rob Lydic, president of Wavelynx, stated, “The Bridge project at Lenox Park is a major milestone as the first launch of employee badges in Apple Wallet with Wavelynx. SwiftConnect’s shared vision and access enablement expertise made the company the ideal partner for this important and inaugural deployment.”
Lenox Park is home to a diverse array of tech and professional services tenants, and is one of six nationwide locations for Bridge’s flex office program known as Abridge, which connects businesses with move-in ready spaces quickly and efficiently without having to sacrifice the independence of their brand or workspace. Bridge plans to expand the availability of employee badge in Apple Wallet to its Abridge locations and across its entire portfolio of buildings this year.
