Сохранённая копия: Case Study: London Local Authority | Ansador Group

An access control unification, delivered across a live council estate.

A London local authority inherited a stack of legacy access control systems running on mismatched reader technology and disconnected databases. The compliance position was unauditable. The existing supplier could not run the SQL or generate the evidence the council needed. Ansador stepped in to do the work, identified the case for unification, ran a beauty parade of enterprise platforms, and won the open public tender to bring the entire estate onto one. AMAG Symmetry Connect now runs across the borough, and the engagement keeps growing.

A council estate running on mismatched access control.

By 2021 the council was operating multiple separate access control systems across its estate. Different reader technologies. Different software platforms. Fragmented user databases. No single source of truth. The incumbent contractor could not audit the position. Compliance evidence was effectively unobtainable inside the timeframe a Building Safety Act audit demands.

A council estate is one of the most operationally diverse environments in the country. Schools, leisure centres, libraries, sheltered housing, support hubs, civic buildings, listed properties. Each has different protection requirements, different user groups, different compliance regimes. Every building falls under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and, increasingly, the Building Safety Act 2022. The council carries statutory duty across all of it, accountable to ward councillors, residents, the press, and ultimately the electorate.

The council needed a partner who could take on the database work, run the SQL, audit the position properly, and lead the estate forward.

How we delivered.

Compliance work first, recommendations second

Ansador took on the audit and compliance work directly. Running the SQL servers, reconciling the user records, mapping every door, every reader, every credential type. Once the position was knowable, the recommendation was straightforward: a single enterprise platform.

A beauty parade for the stakeholders

We ran an evaluation of the leading enterprise access control systems with the council's stakeholders. Each platform tested against real-world council requirements: multi-technology reader compatibility, scalable user management, mobile credential readiness, audit and reporting depth, total cost of ownership across a long horizon.

Open public tender. Won on technical merit.

The council appointed an independent consultant and went to open public tender. Ansador competed against the field and won the unification contract on technical merit. AMAG Symmetry Connect was selected as the enterprise platform. Migration was phased. The estate did not go dark for a single shift.

A council partnership that keeps growing

What started as an access control unification has grown across the borough. Civic buildings, the town hall, support hubs for vulnerable residents. Multi-technology readers across every entrance. Mobile credentials enabled, ready for staged rollout when the council is ready. The engagement keeps expanding because the platform earns it.

What the council now operates.

A named team. A single point of accountability.

Alex Davey · Account Director (CEO, Ansador Group). Alex carries the account director relationship personally. Strategic direction, technical positioning, escalation. The council have a single point of senior accountability throughout the engagement.

Paul Smith · Group Operations Director. Paul leads the technical delivery. The SQL, the migrations, the day-to-day discipline that has kept the estate live through every phase of the unification.

Tracey Cohen · Client Experience Lead. Tracey leads the client experience relationship, making sure the council has clear communication, continuity and visibility across the service. She works closely with both the client and our operational teams to understand what is working, where improvements can be made and what comes next, giving the council a consistent point of contact they can rely on as the relationship continues to develop.

"The technical scope on this estate has been serious. Multiple legacy systems, the SQL work, a multi-vendor reader migration, ten thousand users brought onto one database. None of that matters without the people. The council team trust us because we are part of how they run their estate, not a vendor they manage. My engineers know every estates lead by name. That is the relationship that earns the next phase of work, every time."

Council client testimonial follows shortly.

The technical baseline.

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Multi-site, multi-building, one partner.

If your estate spans multiple buildings, multiple use cases, and multiple compliance regimes, you need consistency from one accountable partner. That is what we deliver. Start with a Maturity Assessment, or book a 30-minute call directly.