LokiTime to become new standard in key management

People today are using all sorts of keys, electronic tags and other security tokens regularly to access locked and restricted areas such as blocks of flats, office buildings, schools and sports centres.

Many, if not all, of the keys have been issued and are managed – at times fastidiously, at others haphazardly – by lessors, locksmiths, property owners and managers, and building maintenance and security service providers. It is a lot of work, especially as much of it is still done manually with a spreadsheet or, even, pen and paper.

“It’s very inefficient,” says Tuomas Pohjola, the CEO of Sowellus. 

He is stating the obvious, but he is doing so to call attention to the problems that arise from such practices.

“When you issue and manage keys manually – using a pen and paper, spreadsheet or oral agreement – the security risks become high if a key is lost, information is misentered or a piece of paper goes missing,” he explains. “And of course all kinds of costs arise from the contract lapses caused by broken promises.”

Simple, secure…

Sowellus has the answer: LokiTime. Developed in co-operation with locksmiths and security industry operators, the cloud service promises to ease the daily life of anyone responsible for issuing and managing keys.

Pohjola says LokiTime is an easy-to-use service that makes it possible to add, issue and manage keys with a mobile device. The app generates an issuance agreement automatically whenever a new key is issued and saves the agreement immediately in the cloud, allowing the administrator to manage the data securely.

“All the data is safe in the cloud. That’s the most important thing,” he stresses.

The availability of real-time information on all keys, in turn, enables the administrator to deliver on its security promise, increase the efficiency of its operations, and develop and offer new services to its customers, according to Pohjola.

“What makes the service unique is its suitability for shared use. With monitoring views and sub-accounts, you can offer everyone real-time information on all keys to a particular property.”

Sowellus, he reveals, has conducted a questionnaire that found that switching from manual to automated digital key management practices creates weekly work time savings of a couple of hours per property. “The direct savings in work time add up to 240 euros a year per building. The indirect savings arising from the minimisation of claims, re-serialisations and loss of data can amount to thousands of euros a year,” he adds.

The potential savings, naturally, vary depending on the number of properties managed by the client.

“The suppliers of different lock systems often provide their own management systems, meaning that if someone is responsible for managing keys to 100 properties they will have to use a variety of tools to do so. LokiTime makes it possible for them to manage all keys with a single system,” tells Pohjola.

…and surprisingly versatile

LokiTime is presently used by hundreds of public and private organisations, as well as local administrations, to manage almost 350 000 keys to 4 000 properties in Finland. Although Finland remains the main market for the company, the service has been adopted also in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Sowellus has already developed an understanding of the competitive and regulatory environment in key markets in the Nordics and Central Europe, with the help of internationalisation funding from Business Finland.

“We’re are pursuing rapid international growth in the coming years,” states Pohjola. We’re now looking for growth funding to enter the markets as soon as possible. We’ll expand our sales organisation during the course of this year and also make recruitments to customer service and support positions.”

The benefits offered by the service have recently been recognised also by large international property management companies, such as Newsec, the largest specialised real estate company in Northern Europe.

“They’re using LokiTime to protect their most valuable assets, their master keys,” says Pohjola.

Also the existing clientele has helped to unlock new growth potential for Sowellus, realising that the cloud-based service is a convenient way to issue and manage not only keys, but also a variety of other borrowable items such as tools and equipment.

“LokiTime can be used to sign and create receipts of the delivery of postal parcels to the reception of a hotel, for example,” says Pohjola. “We ran with the idea and successfully expanded our operations.”

“Our message in the future will be that you can issue and manage anything with LokiTime. Not just keys, even though they’ll have a big role also going forward,” he envisions.

Good News from Finland is published by Finnfacts, which is part of Business Finland.