With a large growing number of workforce stationed in offshore Oil and Gas Industry, workers management and security has become a challenge. In one of our client’s case, the amount of workforce in the Oil Rig where they need to manage is as high as 60,000! Given the large location, the sheer task of getting these 60,000 personnel to physically clock-in onsite, not only it is counter efficiency, it is also a logistical challenge to use a fixed access control reader when there are basically no walls.

To solve this, our client, UK-based Smart Media Innovations (SMI) supplied a mobile verification system where it operates in conjunction with WinPak access control system from Honeywell Security and highly secured iClass cards from HID.

The SMI solution allowed their client to extend the use of the WinPak system into a mobile environment – freeing them from the restraints of having to use a fixed access control reader. “It solved the old conundrum of how do you use a wall reader when there is no wall” said Michael Flink -General Manager of Honeywell Security in the Middle East.

PRADOTEC’s rugged mobile device, the ST4i Series was chosen to be used on a combination of on moving buses and fixed location. Each day the database of valid cardholders is synchronised onto these units. When a card is then presented to a unit in the field the operator can instantly see both the card validity and details regarding the cardholder – the latter point being a clear additional level of security above and beyond normal card readers. These reads are then synchronised back into WinPak via the close integration offered by the SMI software. The devices are deployed both on buses ferrying personnel to and from the site and at a number of other locations.SMI enhanced the software to allow the destination of the bus to also be noted – ensuring personnel are recorded at the correct location.