StoneLock Delivers Speed and Agility Through Innovation

StoneLock Brings Speed and Agility Through Innovation

StoneLock, an innovative designer, and manufacturer of secure facial-recognition access control solutions, marked 2016 as a pivotal year for the company. The year was characterized by their entry into new markets, including government, and the forging of new partnerships and integrations with nearly all the leading physical access control manufacturers.

“The success we have gained in the commercial space is really starting to bleed over into the government space as well. Not only at the federal level but trickling down to the state level also,” Jeff Sebek, Vice President, Business Development at StoneLock, told the Security Industry Association (SIA).

StoneLock now has integrations in place with almost all leading access control manufacturers, many of which will be making their debut at ISC West, and the company has brought on new staff members to meet the growing demand, including a Vice President for Government and Regulatory Affairs.

The story of StoneLock’s success begins with the launch of its products in 2013. Soon after, StoneLock joined SIA and began growing its customer base. Now, more than a third of Fortune 100 companies have installed StoneLock technology. And one of the factors that excite clients most is something that StoneLock Pro doesn’t do. Although StoneLock offers facial recognition technology, the tech doesn’t utilize photos.

“Some people tend to shy away from biometrics because they think that once their biometric is captured, then it can be used against them,” Sebek explained.  “And in some cases, this concern is well-founded.”

“In our case, StoneLock is not image-based, like most examples of facial recognition you might be familiar with. We’re not comparing pictures. We’re not attempting to match live video to faces.  And we are a bit unique in that StoneLock protects a person’s identity, leaving no personally identifiable information [PII] behind whatsoever,” he added.

This feature, or lack of a feature perhaps, has spurred interest among companies and agencies concerned about protecting privacy. Customers applaud the fact that StoneLock retains no PII but still verifies identity through facial recognition.

Commercial and government prospects alike also have been impressed by StoneLock’s uniquely scalable solution.  “StoneLock Pro is also unique in that it can be used as a standalone device or integrated with the vast majority of the leading physical access control companies. Because of StoneLock’s ability to scale, organizations can seamlessly secure their entire enterprise now, along with their most critical locations, while managing permissions across the entire network,” Sebek said.

Many large companies maintain servers in their IT departments, and security staff must “buy” space on those servers to host services and support.

“It becomes somewhat of a bureaucratic struggle. Often you see things come to a halt when changes are made because the IT infrastructure as it exists today in many organizations aren’t capable of supporting security upgrade development paths,” Sebek said. By contrast, StoneLock allows customers to manage their network independent of such red tape while enforcing strong security measures.

StoneLock has taken extraordinary care also to make its services accessible and secure.

“From a fundamental technology perspective, the summer of 2013 was when we released the current version of this product as it is today when we added the HID iClass reader. But in this space and with cybersecurity concerns, you never stop developing your product or making modifications to it to make sure that you meet and exceed your customer’s needs,” Sebek said.

StoneLock will display its StoneLock Pro facial recognition technology at ISC West, exhibiting in Booth 040. Representatives of the company nearly locked up their entire schedules with meetings at ISC West very early (although still encourage you to stop by to see it for yourself). In addition to StoneLock Pro, those reps also will talk about the company’s backend technology.

“We also are showcasing our backend infrastructure, where we have the ability to hand off an identity in real time as we interface and integrate to large access control manufacturers. Now we have positioned ourselves to integrate in a scalable fashion with ERP systems and various types of cloud-based systems,” Sebek said.

Although the backend may seem “less sexy” than the impressive demo of the StoneLock Pro unit in action, the tech is truly critical to differentiating StoneLock in the marketplace as a biometric edge reader.

Based just outside Kansas City, Kansas, StoneLock has been growing at a rapid pace under CEO Colleen Dunlap. Not only is StoneLock the face of recognition, as its slogan says, but the company strives to be a responsible corporate contributor to its local economy.

“We are a small business that is doing big things,” Sebek said. “And we have the personal touch of a small business that cares about taking care of its employees but also about delivering a great product that’s changing the market and meeting the challenge of clients’ security needs today.”

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).