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Leveraging the power of the smartphone to complete the evolution of mobile access 

Darwin tells us, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.”  

The idea that adaptability is essential for survival has never been more relevant than it is in today’s rapidly evolving access control landscape. 

For decades, the industry has delivered dependable, hardware-based solutions that served a critical purpose. But as organizations embrace new technologies, they are shifting to more mobile-enabled technology that’s cloud-based, for user-centric environments, and changing the expectations around access. 

With smartphones getting smarter by the day, users now expect the same mobile-first convenience for their workplace experience and access, that they already get for their cars, banks, and more. 

However… The access control industry, long grounded in reader hardware, continues to wrestle with adoption costs, compatibility issues, and its infrastructure limitations. 

The bigger question is… 


What do they do with the cards and readers they’ve been selling and installing for the past 45 years? 

Until now, the only upgrade path has been another round of reader replacements, another retrofit cycle, and another database remapping project to enable partial mobile compatibility.  

That’s not innovation… it’s simply the status quo. 

Technology that’s adaptable survives  

Technology rarely asks permission before it moves on. When it’s time for the next step, the transition feels sudden, but it evolves over years. We have experienced this and now that the mobile phone has become a virtual handheld computer, its replacing cameras, credit cards, car keys, and access cards. 
 

This is innovation driving evolution. 

And just like with nature, the systems and solutions that survive are the ones that adapt. In access control, that adaptation is happening right now, and it’s happening with disruptive software for mobile access. 

The mobile phone has already secured its place as the most disruptive innovation for access control

Everyone agrees that as a disruptive technology there is no other device in history as powerful, personal, and trusted as today’s mobile phone: 

  • It authenticates your identity with multi-factor authentication  
  • It unlocks your car 
  • It pays your bills 
  • It holds your boarding pass 
  • It stores your medical records 
     

It’s cloud-connected, secure, biometric, always on, and always with you. 

So why are more plastic badges being issued and reader hardware installed? 

A disruptive technology hides in plain sight 

Every major technological shift follows a familiar pattern: 
 

What was once disruptive becomes the default. What was once was essential, becomes obsolete. 

 Reader manufacturers are now experiencing this exact pattern. 

From badges to wall-mounted readers and wired infrastructure, these are the tools that shaped early physical security, are now approaching a bygone era.  

Today, your phone can unlock, verify, identify, and grant secure access. That’s why the future of mobile access is not based on retrofitted hardware, it’s powered by the device people already use and are deeply connected to. 

The question for reader manufacturers is… Will mobile access dominate access control and if so, what role will traditional cards and readers play in a smartphone-led future? 

Have wall-mounted readers become the flip phones of physical security? 

Reader-based systems were once innovative. But in today’s mobile-first world, they’ve become the equivalent of a flip phone, functional, familiar, and fundamentally outdated. 

They’re fixed, rigid, and costly, the opposite of the technology consumers expect today. 

Meanwhile, the mobile phone is adaptive, intelligent, and secure, the platform of choice for virtually every other part of modern life. 

So what if your phone acted as both the credential and the reader for mobile access? 

Unlocking the power already in your pocket 

Sentry Interactive’s software engineers envisioned another pathway to complete mobility. 

Instead of pushing legacy hardware to adapt, we chose to bypass it altogether and developed a platform that leverages the full capability of the mobile phone as the access device it was destined to be. 

With our SDK we enabled mobile-first NFC credentialing without replacing your wiring, your readers, or your backend infrastructure. 

Rather than replace the past, Sentry Interactive completes the next step of evolution, purpose-built for a world that has already gone mobile. 

The result is a solution that displaces the traditional access control reader infrastructure that is: 

  • Software-first – frictionless deployment, remote provisioning, instant updates 
  • Cloud-native – no local servers or complex integration 
  • Secure by design – leveraging mobile biometrics, NIST compliant encryption standards, and modern authentication protocols 
  • Hardware-light – no wiring, no electrical boxes, no future retrofits 
  • Native NFC – for phone and credential 
     

And most importantly: it’s evolutionary, not incremental. 

Sentry Interactive’s software grows with you. It scales with the users. It gets smarter every day, just like the phone it runs on. 

Take the next step, the future is now.

Contact us to learn more.

sentryinteractive.com

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William Bainborough

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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Jason Bohrer

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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.
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