Bosch has further enhanced the convenience and ease of operation of its access control software Access Professional Edition (APE) in the just released version 3.7. The update adds new features such as assembly points for emergency situations, personalized permanent open and output signals, plus easier management of user access rights and data supporting companies to meet the requirements of the European Union?s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Assembly point for emergencies

Companies can easily set up assembly points where employees can show their card to register as safe during emergencies. Set-up only requires installing a Bosch access control reader in a safe area (assembly point) outside of the building, but significantly improves employee safety during evacuations.

The APE provides a real-time view of evacuation status so operators can take immediate action when employees still remain inside the building. Given the hectic nature of evacuations, this feature provides invaluable data to improve employee safety and peace of mind for facility managers or operators during emergencies and can be installed without the need to invest in a separate system.

VIP functionality

This new functionality provides important visitors and company CEOs with a special welcome treatment via easily programmable features. With APE 3.7, operators can assign a personalized output signal to individual users to trigger specific functions.

For instance, when the president of a company opens a door via the card reader, the system displays a specific welcome message, automatically calls an elevator or plays an audio signal; among many possible configurations for VIP treatments.

Personalized permanent open functionality

While APE provides users the highest level of access control, some cases call for assigning certain doors to a permanent open status. This includes events, where guests are permitted to enter without presenting a badge.

The new version of APE makes it easy: authorized users can conveniently activate or deactivate permanent open mode right at the reader by presenting their card and entering a PIN code.

Easy management of user access rights

In order to help system operators ensure that only authorized individuals have certain access rights, APE 3.7 allows for accessing groups of users by specific criteria. For instance, searching for users by date of last access enables system administrators to easily remove access rights of multiple users at once. To avoid removing administrators on accident, their names do not show in list view.

GDPR compliance

APE 3.7 supports companies in being compliant with the GDPR requirements relating to data privacy. APE helps safeguard user data by limiting access to certain persons, who need to be defined by the system administrator. Moreover, operators can print all stored user data upon request and user data including personal images are erased automatically upon user account deletion.