SIA New Member Profile: Synguard

New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Synguard is a leading European technology company specializing in access management solutions. The company is headquartered in Beringen, Belgium, with a growing presence in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the Nordics, Southern Europe and the Middle East.

SIA spoke with Bert Meert, managing director of Synguard, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

Tell us the story of your company.

Bert Meert: Synguard’s story began with four passionate engineers who shared a dream: to build smarter, more flexible systems for managing both people and security. What started in 2007 as Syntegro quickly evolved into a successful technology company, developing modern solutions that bridged operational management and access control.

As the demand for high-security, integrated environments grew, our focus naturally shifted toward access management. In 2022, Synguard was born, an independent company dedicated entirely to access control and the digital transformation of physical security.

Today, we’re a fast-growing European manufacturer known for our open, flexible and secure access management platform. Working closely with customers, partners and technology innovators, we co-create tailored solutions that truly make a difference. Our guiding belief, “Always with you,” reflects our commitment to partnership, reliability and continuous innovation, helping organizations protect what matters most while embracing the future of security.

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings or your company unique?

BM: Synguard offers an open and flexible access management platform that unites all essential access management functions within one intuitive interface. Our modular solution covers access control, visitor registration, parking and reservation management, security management and alarm handling, all seamlessly integrated and easy to manage. Customers can choose between cloud or on-premises deployment, with the freedom to migrate at any time.

We focus on software development but also design and manufacture our own intelligent controllers. Having embedded software development fully in house is crucial to us—it ensures everything continues to operate locally, giving us maximum reliability and flexibility. Following a best-of-breed approach, for example, we don’t build wireless locks ourselves but integrate the best solutions available in the market into our platform.

What makes Synguard unique is how we combine advanced technology with partnership and flexibility. We co-create with customers and technology partners to deliver secure, future-ready solutions that perfectly fit each environment. Always reliable, always with you.

What is something we might not know about your company—or something new you are doing in security?

BM:What many don’t realize is how far Synguard has already advanced in cloud-based access management. While many players in our industry are just starting to explore the cloud, more than 75% of our new installations are already cloud based. With over 13 years of experience managing large-scale cloud environments, we’ve built a proven foundation of reliability and security.

We’re now taking this a step further by combining our open platform with advanced integrations, bringing together access control, alarm management and other security domains in one secure, user-friendly platform. It’s our way of shaping the future of access management: open, connected and always with you.

What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

BM: At Synguard, we’re passionate about access management, innovation and co-creation. Our vision is to shape the future of security with an open, flexible and secure access management platform that’s always evolving. We combine automation, efficiency and digitalization to bridge the gap between physical security and our customers’ daily operations.

Our goal is to accelerate the digital transformation of security by creating safe, efficient environments where systems, people and data work seamlessly together. Through strong partnerships, technological excellence and our “Always with you” mindset, we aim to deliver best-in-class solutions that go beyond expectations. Together with our passionate team, we’re building a future where access truly becomes the key to success.

Access to the Future is our trademark.

What do you think are the biggest opportunities in the security industry right now?

BM: The biggest opportunity in the security industry is the continued shift toward cloud-based systems. We’ve seen strong growth in this area for several years. Our success rate is highest when we’re involved early in the process, sitting at the table as a software manufacturer to help design future-proof, integrated solutions from the start.

What are your predictions for the security industry in the short and long term?

BM: In both the short and long term, we believe true openness will be the key driver of innovation in the security industry. Access control systems like ours must seamlessly connect with many different systems at each customer site, such as local reservation tools, data warehouses and IT environments like Entra ID or Microsoft Active Directory.

This approach ensures that employee data only needs to be entered once during IT onboarding and then automatically flows through all other systems, keeping data accurate and offboarding secure. Access rights should also be assigned automatically based on an employee’s role and attributes. The future of security will be open, connected and intelligent.

What are the biggest challenges facing your company and/or others in the security industry?

BM: Some of the biggest challenges in our industry are compliance and cybersecurity. They are absolutely necessary, and we invest a lot in them through standards like ISO 27000. But the effort we put into this cannot go to developing new integrations or features. Another key challenge is finding the right balance between flexibility and standardization, which is essential to keep delivering secure and adaptable solutions.

What do you enjoy most about being at your company—and in the security industry?

BM: What I enjoy most is the passion and drive within our team and the constant evolution of the security industry. Every day brings new challenges and opportunities to innovate, collaborate and create real value for our customers. Working in security gives a strong sense of purpose, knowing that what we build protects people, assets and organizations.

Our industry, which has always been quite traditional, is now moving faster than ever. I am genuinely excited to see how this acceleration will shape the future and what new innovations it will bring. At Synguard, being part of that change is what truly inspires us.

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

BM: For us, the most important contribution from SIA is the Open Supervised Device Protocol, which has become the standard for secure communication in our industry. We see great value in its adoption and continuous development.

What we hope to gain from our membership is the opportunity to actively join discussions about the protocol and the broader challenges within our field. We believe there is still a lot more potential in what can be achieved with OSDP, and we want to help drive that progress together with other industry leaders.

How does your organization engage with SIA? What are your plans for involvement in the next year?

BM: We want to engage with SIA by actively participating in discussions and working groups around OSDP and related security standards. Our goal is to share our practical experience as a European manufacturer and to contribute to the ongoing improvement of open communication standards. For us, it is about learning, contributing and connecting with others who share the same vision for open and secure access management.

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.