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How visitor management, check-in, and time and attendance platforms can enhance their value by embedding mobile access credentials

Learn how time and attendance, visitor management, check-in, ERP software have the opportunity to enhance their value offering with a mobile credential feature embedded alongside existing features, that doesn’t rely on hardware.

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As buildings become smarter and user expectations rise, visitor management, time and attendance, and check-in platforms must deliver a more cohesive front desk experience that provides a more secure, automated, and streamlined access experience without adding complexity or being financially unfeasible for customers.

This is where Sentry Interactive fundamentally changes what’s possible.

By embedding Sentry Interactive’s NFC mobile access SDK directly into their platforms, software providers can enable permanent or temporary mobile access for tenants, employees, visitors, contractors, or students without requiring enterprises to replace door readers, upgrade access control systems, or download additional apps. Mobile credential unlocks can be synchronized with the existing features in the platform e.g. room booking, check-in, registration and attendance, plus more. The result is a powerful new value proposition: integrated readerless NFC mobile access that is secure, cost-effective, effortless to deploy, and adds value to the current visitor or employee management features already provided.

NFC mobile access without readers: A true industry first

Traditional Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile access solutions still rely on physical door readers, often requiring expensive upgrades, site surveys, installation delays, and hardware compatibility checks. These are also proprietary solutions, closed off from working with wider systems. This leads to separate integration costs and disparate systems for organizations to manage. These costs and complexities are one of the biggest reasons mobile access projects stall or never happen, enterprises require an integrated system that’s adaptable and allows for seamless transition processes.

Sentry Interactive, a software development company, takes a fundamentally different approach to upgrading organizations to mobile credentials for door access.

Instead of using the phone as a credential that talks to a door reader, Sentry Interactive uses the smartphone itself as the NFC access credential reader, pairing it with their Smart Access Tile, an NFC passive tile.

Here’s how it works:

  • The smartphone’s active NFC technology interacts with Sentry Interactive’s secure cloud infrastructure
  • The Sentry Smart Access Tile enables authentication and access decisions in real time
  • The building’s existing access control system remains in place
  • No physical NFC readers are required at the door

This readerless architecture eliminates the need for new hardware while dramatically accelerating deployment timelines and reducing costs.

Open Software Development Kit (SDK) integration 

Sentry Interactive’s mobile credential SDK follows an open standard framework, designed specifically for simple, fast, and effective integration with wider management systems.

For visitor management, time and attendance, or check-in platform providers, this means:

  • No need to build a mobile access stack from scratch
  • No need to manage cryptography, device or reader security, or credential lifecycle
  • No need for customers to install or learn an additional separate application

The SDK embeds seamlessly into your existing platform and user experience. Facilities teams, reception staff, and administrators continue using the same system they already know, but it is now with enhanced features via the NFC mobile access SDK.

This allows software providers to:

  • Expand and enhance their feature set
  • Differentiate from competitors
  • Increase platform and application stickiness
  • Unlock new enterprise and multi-tenant opportunities

All without imposing significant investment in R&D, development cost or operational overhead.

Faster check-in, shorter queues, reduced administration

For visitors and contractors, first impressions matter.

By enabling NFC mobile credential management directly from the visitor management or check-in workflow, organization can eliminate:

  • Front desk congestion
  • Manual ID verification and badge issuance
  • Long queues during peak arrival times

Visitors or contractors can receive temporary NFC mobile access passes directly on their phone before they arrive or instantly upon check-in allowing them to move securely through the building without stopping at reception.

For facilities and front desk teams, this means:

  • Reduced administrative workload
  • Less credential management
  • Fewer access issues and support requests

The entire access process becomes faster, smoother, and far more scalable.

Security beyond reader-based and mobile wallet NFC mobile access solutions

Most mobile access solutions depend on expensive NFC door readers and complex mobile wallet integration, which introduces multiple attack surfaces and hardware dependencies.

Sentry Interactive’s reader free model delivers higher levels of security by design.

Key security advantages include:

  • The smartphone acts as the access reader, not just the credential
  • Multi-factor biometric authentication with Face ID and fingerprint recognition
  • Secure enclave processing within iOS and Android operating systems
  • Real-time cloud-based access validation
  • Elimination of reader spoofing and relay attacks
  • Mobile credentials are secured using asymmetric cryptography

This architecture makes Sentry Interactive the only mobile access solution that uses the user’s smartphone as the NFC door reader, enabling compliance with the NIST cybersecurity framework, a critical requirement for high-security environments such as enterprise offices, education campuses, healthcare, and government facilities.

Enhancing your platform’s value proposition without cost and complexities

Nowadays, where buildings are becoming smarter and user expectations continue to evolve, software platforms must do more than manage people, spaces, and schedules; they must enable secure, seamless movement throughout the built environment. By embedding mobile credential management via software developed from the likes of Sentry Interactive, visitor management, check-in, and time and attendance platforms can transform from administrative tools into true access enablement platforms.

Without requiring new door readers, costly infrastructure upgrades, or separate mobile applications, software providers can deliver frictionless NFC mobile access directly within the workflows their customers already rely on. The result is a more secure, efficient, and sustainable access experience that benefits organizations, users, and facility teams alike.

For platform providers, it represents a powerful opportunity: expand functionality, differentiate in a competitive market, and unlock new enterprise opportunities all while keeping development costs and customer barriers low. With Sentry Interactive, mobile access is no longer a complex hardware project. It becomes a simple software enhancement that dramatically increases the value your platform delivers.

Get in touch to integrate readerless mobile credential software as an additional feature you can provide via your platform without any upfront integration cost.

William Bainborough

Board of Directors

William is an experienced British entrepreneur, founder, and accomplished board executive and advisor for a number of businesses. He is the CEO and co-founder of Doordeck, the world’s only true cloud-based access control aggregator. He is also the managing director and founder of Group Secure, a leader in providing security, CCTV, and access control solutions, products, and installation for high-net-worth individuals in the UK. 

William established his first business at just seventeen and brings 20-plus years of in-depth experience and industry knowledge. He has a proven track record for building businesses from the ground up—and then leading them to profitability and a successful exit across a myriad of sectors including hospitality, retail, security, telecommunications, and e-commerce. William’s leadership, vision, and experience in creating cutting-edge SaaS-based technology platforms will prove invaluable for Sentry Interactive moving forward.

Denis Hébert

CHAIRMAN & CEO

Hébert began his career at Honeywell International where he held several leadership positions including Managing Director for the Automation and Controls business in France and eventually President of the NexWatch Corporation from 1999-2002. Hébert led HID Global as President & CEO over a transformative 12-year period from 2002-2015, where he provided strategic guidance and grew the business tenfold through a mix of strong organic and acquisitive growth. Most recently, Hébert was President of Feenics Corporation which is a cloud-based access control company that was successfully sold to ACRE LLC at the end of 2021. Hébert also served on the Board of Directors for the Security Industry Association (SIA) from 2009-2020 and was nominated to be Chairman of the Board for SIA from 2016-2018. He is currently Chairman of the Board for Nightingale Security based in Newark, CA.

Stephen Taylor Matthews

Board of Directors
Stephen is a very accomplished attorney, member of the Texas State Bar, licensed commercial real estate broker, and an avid philanthropist. He is an experienced executive board member, serving in leadership positions for more than 20 community councils and corporate boards—ranging from Boy Scouts of America to the ABBA Business Leaders Council, and most recently the American Bank BOD, the Real Estate Council of Austin, and the Marbridge Foundation BOT. With more than 35 years experience, Stephen and his firm, Barrond & Adler, L.L.P. are devoted to eminent domain cases in Texas.

Jon Davis

Board of Directors

Mr. Davis is an Experienced corporate board member, having served on boards of public, private equity-backed, and venture-backed companies. Jon possesses deep industry expertise in dairy, food processing, food technology and manufacturing, and food, beverage, and entertainment services. 

During Jon’s tenure of 25 plus years, he’s led operations, research and development, and mergers and acquisitions. He’s served as CEO and has been the founder and active board member for many successful enterprises—from startups to billion-dollar corporations. While COO and CEO of Davisco Foods International, Jon built a state-of-the-art cheese plant which was awarded the United States Dairy processing plant of the year in 2005 by Dairy Foods magazine. Currently, Jon is active with several non-dairy projects, including investments in local real estate, the Wayzata Brewworks, and his latest venture the new CōV restaurant in Edina’s Galleria.

Joe Caldwell

Founder and Chairman of the Board

Joe is an American entrepreneur, investor, and accomplished executive. He has co-founded, founded, and led many successful businesses, including US Internet, a leading fiber internet service provider, Securence, a leading provider of email filtering software, and Ravon, an industry-leading digital voice communications service. 

It was Joe’s venture, Municipal Parking Services (MPS), that inspired him in 2020 to start Sentry Interactive, an advanced touchless and staffless detection platform.

Caldwell currently serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board for Municipal Parking Services (MPS), a global tech company based in Austin, TX responsible for inventing and patenting technologies that assist in parking and security enforcement.

Joe was named one of Minnesota’s 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders for the past two years—and is a seasoned corporate board member. He’s served on boards of public, private equity-backed, and venture-backed companies—and has deep industry expertise in all aspects of digital technology.

Jason Bohrer

Board of Directors

Jason Bohrer is one of the visionaries behind our mission to bring people back together safely and securely, in any environment, through Sentry’s advanced digital communications and detection platform. With over two decades of senior leadership experience, Jason’s track record of success spans across sales, operations, product innovation, strategy, and technology for domestic and global companies like Bexar Technology Partners, CPI Card Group, HID Global, and Motorola, Inc. Prior to launching Sentry Interactive, Jason was actively involved with several key technology transitions across multiple industries, including the contact and contactless EMV transitions in the U.S. payments industry and the adoption of smart card and mobile technologies in the global access and identity market. Jason was an inaugural member of the University of Chicago Executive Institute and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as the Executive Director for two industry-leading not-for-profit organizations: the Secure Technology Alliance and the U.S. Payments Forum.
Brent Terry

Brent Terry

Chief Operating Officer
Brent Terry leads the operations and solutions organizations at Sentry. This includes all product innovation, development, and operations management. A veteran in the technology space, Brent has more than 30 years of experience across a myriad of industries, like physical security technology and building automation, SAAS, hardware and software product development, internet, digital TV, interactive TV, digital media, telecommunications, and medical products and services. Prior to Sentry, Brent has spun up successful startups and led high-performing teams for some of the biggest global, Fortune 500 companies, including ARRIS, Conerco, Motive Communications, SeaChange International, and IBM. Brent holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana. He also is the committee Chairman and Program Director for a non-profit organization responsible for the rollout of smart cards for physicians and first responders.