Gustavo Gassmann, the Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets at HID, speaks about his company’s participation at Intersec 2023

Tell us about your participation in Intersec.
HID has been participating in Intersec for many years now, and the event provides us with a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and connect with security professionals across the region. This year, we are focusing on helping customers to understand the benefits of merging security and convenience through HID Mobile Access. Today, identity authentication and access can be granted via smartphones and smartwatches safely and conveniently. And as this technology evolves, it can play a far greater part to enhance the operational engineering, maintenance, and functioning of buildings.

Which products and solutions did you showcase at the event?
This year, our key focus is HID Mobile Access and readers, our premium solution that addresses protection, disruption, and sustainability. We also showcased other access control innovations like the cloud-based physical access control system HID Origo—a cloud-based mobile credential lifecycle management platform that’s integrated with an access control system and leverages HID’s Seos credential technology—and visitor management systems.

With many companies now adopting a hybrid work environment, what has changed in terms of security requirements and policies?
Today’s hybrid workplace is more complex, and the security of workspaces, people, and data is even more demanding. Security isn’t just a technical problem—and businesses face challenges in limiting and securing access to sensitive information and systems, adopting technologies to maintain employee productivity and ensure security, and enforcing security policies among other things.

But managing this risk is more about a change in the security mindset rather than trying to change systems, policies, and organizational behavior. There is often a misconception that security systems must be upgraded to meet the changes in policies and that upgrading to modern systems is complex and expensive. It is important to highlight that modern physical access control solutions today make the migration from older systems to digital IDs easy.

There are millions of HID readers installed already that are capable of using HID Mobile Access—either instantly or via a simple on-site upgrade. We can work with end users and partners to provide a free trial of HID Mobile Access to help them better understand the value it brings across an organization.

What sort of major trends have you seen in the Physical Access Control business area?
Key mobile access trends include the continued and growing need for future-proof solutions that provide contactless experiences and optimize flexibility through a greater choice of credential technologies. One example of what’s ahead in terms of technological trends can be seen in the growing popularity of digital wallets from major players such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. Expanded capabilities allow smartphone users, for example, to add keys, IDs, and digital documents directly in the wallet app. These include, but are not limited to, driver’s licenses, verifiable COVID-19 vaccination information, employee badges, student IDs, and hotel room keys.

Tell us about your presence and channel community in the region.
The Middle East and North Africa regions are culturally and economically diverse. Businesses in countries within the same region can have different budgetary constraints and technology demands. The good news for security professionals is that security is essential to every successful business.

HID counts on a close relationship with regional channel partners. We continue to focus on having a strong presence in the region, and thanks to our Advantage Partner Program, we’ve successfully accomplished that. Through our elite Advantage Partner Program, our channel marketing teams are closely aligned with our channel partners to support them with marketing and sales enablement materials, training, and resources.