Tag Archives: smart lockers

Four Great Smart Locker Applications

Four Great Smart Locker Applications

The evolution of modern lifestyles and technological innovations are at the forefront of most, if not all, industries, resulting in the expectation of simple, technology-enabled experiences in all parts of people’s lives. From two-hour grocery delivery to instantly transferring money to friends, convenience and on-demand services are now considered standard.

That remains the same when it comes to storing personal belongings. Our smart locker applications provide the opportunity for organizations to provide convenient day-use storage and secure package delivery for their customers. Here are four ways organizations can leverage smart lockers to create a great customer experience while streamlining their operations.

Smart lockers create seamless book pickup for libraries

The library landscape is becoming more flexible and versatile than ever before. To meet customer expectations, libraries can provide their members 24/7, contact-free book rental and return with smart lockers. There are a variety of lock types to choose from; libraries can opt for people to open lockers with their smartphones or library cards, ensuring total security. Smart lockers even log every book pickup and return for accurate and complete tracking.

Outdoor Locker Straight Center Edit scaled — Library Outdoor Book Pickup Locker Bank

Businesses can utilize smart locker applications to provide flexible storage for employees in the office

With many employers shifting to hybrid work environments and implementing open office plans without assigned desks, employees now need a place to store their personal belongings when in the office. Employers can introduce smart lockers to give employees a secure space for small items such as laptops or small bags and larger items such as a suitcase before they take off for a business trip. Smart locker software integrates directly with HR systems and enables employers to remotely assign and monitor lockers, saving staff time and money.

Smart lockers automate package delivery for university dorms and apartment and condo buildings

Rather than having packages dropped off outside the door or at the front desk, residential buildings can leverage smart lockers to provide secure package delivery and 24-hour access for their tenants while saving their staff time. Once a package is delivered, tenants receive a text message, notifying them that their package is ready for pickup. They can then use their student ID cards or RFID building keys to access their package. This ensures that the individual for who the package is for is the only person who can access the corresponding locker at that time. Also, smart lockers are courier agnostic, so buildings are able to choose who can drop off and retrieve any uncollected packages.

UNLV Smart Lockers — University Dorm Smart Lockers

Fitness centers can install smart lockers for day-use by their members

Many gyms see hundreds, if not thousands, of people come in and out of their doors each day. For those who may come straight from work, bring a gym bag, or just want a safe place to leave their jacket and keys, fitness centers can offer smart lockers. They offer touchless locks and are easy to wipe down and sanitize between uses, reducing the spread of germs. Also, with a state-of-the-art locker room, gyms can gain a critical edge over their competition.

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Learn how we can improve your storage areas with more great smart locker applications. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

Smart Lockers at HOKA, an Athletic Shoe Company

November 29, 2021Athletics Equipment Lockers No Comments

A Modern Locale for Worldwide Runners

HOKA, an athletic shoe company that designs and markets running shoes, opened a brand new HOKA store in Hollywood, CA. They wanted to offer lockers so runners can safely store their car keys, wallet, and other belongings. Ojmar’s new OCS Smart lock made the choice simple thanks to its flexibility, locker management, and functionality. Below are the three main features that helped solidify HOKA’s choice for locks.

Hoka Edit 1 — Ojmar’s OCS Smart with Bluetooth lets users open the lockers remotely with their phones, or through the keypad when their phones run out of battery.

Flexibility

The ability to use a smartphone or keypad to operate the lockers. Many runners like listening to music while running. For these people, closing and opening the lockers with a smartphone is ideal, while giving them a complete “touchless” experience. The user app remembers the locker used (number) and provides a backup user code for peace of mind if their phone runs out of battery. This solves 99% of the issues with combination locks.

Locker Management

Managers at the store don’t need a master key, which often gets lost. They manage everything from their Ipad or phone. They can operate lockers directly from the maintenance app, read battery status, read events, provide permission to other store employees and change the master code backup as many times as needed.

Functionality

Thanks to the maintenance app it’s easy to assign a locker with an expiration date and remotely provide permission to a user. This can be very useful for online orders to be picked up at the store. Permission is provided via a user code or smartphone permit.

Hoka Edit 2 — Store managers can use these lockers for daily rentals, assigned employee lockers, or even online order pick-up.

For the HOKA Store Manager having the possibility to easily manage the lockers via a phone/Ipad is extremely convenient and one of the main reasons to choose the OCS Smart. They also value that the user app will be of great help to the locker users and reduce the time spent troubleshooting.

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Learn how we can improve your storage areas with more great product lines including contactless lockers, mobile storage, athletics, & more. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

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Case Study | Contactless Lockers for Wake Forest University

September 9, 2021Education Equipment Library Lockers No Comments

Building the Library of the Future at Wake Forest University

With a mission to inspire learning, advance knowledge, and build community, the Z. Smith Reynolds Library (or ZSR for short), provides services to over 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students at Wake Forest University, a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Creating an efficient, contactless way to connect people with materials

When COVID-19 hit the United States and schools and libraries all over the country shut down — including ZSR — the library’s Associate Dean, Mary Beth Lock, started to wonder: “How can we continue to meet the needs of our students and faculty?”

The library’s shutdown meant students and faculty couldn’t access the building — or its materials — in the usual way. “We knew we could utilize our foyer, which is open 24 hours, for pick-ups,” Lock says. “We started pushing more online services, including focusing on making the materials in our collections available for online request.” To keep providing for the students and faculty during the library’s shutdown the staff set up a make-shift exchange area in the foyer where materials were placed in paper bags for pick-up. This was based on the honor system to trust that people would only take items that were labeled for them, however, when valuable equipment like computers needed to be returned from repair, the paper bag solution was really not feasible.

Many months prior — in conversations about the long-term future of the library — smart lockers were brought up in a conversation. They were largely considered a “pipe dream” investment. Then, the world changed and in the midst of budget cuts and online requests continuing to grow, smart lockers were posed again as a solution. This time, there were no objections — the laminate, smart lockers would provide secure access, and most importantly — help the library carry out its mission of being of service in the way that made the most sense for students, faculty, and staff.

Smart lockers provide a secure exchange of goods and a conversation piece for the library

The adoption of lockers by the library patrons was seamless. The laminate smart lockers were designed to maximize the number of openings by understanding the typical size was of materials borrowed. Smaller openings were designed on top and a large opening at the bottom for any bulk rentals. When a student or faculty member is notified that their materials are ready for pick up, they simply use their existing campus ID cards as their key to open the locker. It’s a seamless user experience.

The system made so much sense that shortly after the locker bank was installed, because the locker system is smart, ZSR had access to the usage data of the lockers. They quickly realized the lockers were hovering around 90% capacity the majority of the time.

This gave the library all the justification they needed to order additional columns to add to the locker bank and provide more available openings to deposit rentals. This also allowed for the tech support team to be able to have locker openings allocated to safely deposit repaired computers and provide A/V equipment rentals.

The modular nature of the laminate locker columns made for an easy installation and addition of the new locker columns. Rather than doing standard sizes, the library designed locker openings that allowed for different sized and shaped equipment rentals, such as, tripods. Even with the additional locker columns, the lockers were so popular the library had to reduce the usual 10-day hold to five days due to the lockers always being near capacity from demand.

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Learn how we can improve your library with our great product offerings. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

10 Smart Locker Benefits for Day Use

July 22, 2021Equipment Lockers Technology No Comments

The office is transforming to accommodate a rise in remote work and a preference for flexibility. Many employees are spending more time away from the office, using coworking spaces, and taking opportunities to travel. But as they’re coming and going, employees and other visitors need a safe place to stow their belongings for the day. Here are 10 smart locker benefits that make the perfect day-use solution.

#1 Secure

Smart lockers give guests peace of mind. Heavy-duty, tamper-proof features and automatically-generated unique passcodes prevent unauthorized access, and the system keeps track of every transaction to ensure nothing gets lost or stolen.

#2 Convenient

A simple, user-friendly workflow makes it a breeze for employees and visitors to reserve and use the lockers as needed. And it takes just seconds to drop off or pick up items on the way to their next destination.

#3 Contactless

Smart lockers are part of the new normal. They help corporations support social distancing by allowing employees and visitors to secure their items all on their own, without staff assistance. They also reduce touchpoints — users can trigger the auto-open locker doors from a mobile app, so they don’t need to use a shared touchscreen.

#4 Clean

To help minimize the spread of pathogens, admins can put lockers on hold for cleaning between uses. The lockers are easy to wipe down and disinfect, and optional add-ons like antimicrobial materials and UV sanitation help speed up the process.

#5 Customized

With a wide variety of locker types, sizes, and configurations, smart lockers can handle almost anything. And they come in countless colors and materials to blend into a business’ brand or stand out with an eye-catching design.

#6 Space-saving

No need to set aside extra rooms for guest items. Smart lockers bring safe storage to shared spaces like lobbies and hallways so they’re easily accessible.

#7 Time-saving

Because of the self-serve nature of smart lockers, businesses won’t need to designate staff to manage and monitor belongings, saving time and cutting down on operational costs.

#8 Tech-powered

Employees are always looking for technology that helps them accomplish more during the workday — and smart lockers deliver. The technology behind smart lockers supports integrations with other company systems, further boosting simplicity, convenience, and efficiency.

#9 Automated

From text and email notifications to package sensors to real-time analytics, smart lockers include fully automated features that take all the guesswork out of temporary storage.

#10 Flexible

The workplace is constantly changing to keep up with the trends. So while businesses might need day-use lockers today, they might be looking for a new solution tomorrow. The good news is smart lockers easily adapt to the ever-evolving workplace. Using the same platform, companies can manage package and food deliveries, facilitate the transfer of IT assets, help onboard employees, and so much more.

So there are our 10 smart locker benefits for day use. Smart lockers can also provide temporary storage for hotels, libraries, universities, and many other places.

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Learn how we can improve your office storage and your employees’ space with some of our great locker offerings. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

3 Ways Smart Lockers Can Improve Device Management

April 15, 2021Business Device Management Equipment Library Lockers Manufacturing No Comments

Device management, for our purposes, is “the process of managing the implementation, operation and maintenance of a physical device.” A proper device management system will have a combination of audit trails, locker management software, and even charging capabilities. Accommodating these features into a locker bank system is essential for what our clients need them to do. Many clients have recently reached out to us for lockers with device management capabilities, so we’ve put this list together on how to improve device management using smart lockers.

Device Management Hardware

Managing hardware/physical devices like computers, laptops, mobile phones and more are some of the main products needing device management software. Smart lockers can help with the distribution of these devices to authorized personnel. Using an NFC, RFID, or Bluetooth lock, authorized users are able to check these hardware devices in and out during working hours. What’s more is you’ll know exactly who checked the item out and for how long they had it thanks to the audit trail in the locker software.

Energy Saving & Charging

Getting a powered device with a depleted battery is never a good thing. Thankfully, smart lockers can be fitted with chargers and power outlets which allow for overnight charging. You’ll always have your devices ready to use at any moment of the day. No more bothering with extra-long charging cords everywhere. What’s also great is the low energy use of these locker banks. This saves you even more money while charging your devices in the after-hours.

Charging Capabilities in Smart Lockers — Save energy and time with in-locker chargers

Renting Equipment

Smart lockers are a great way to manage rental equipment and devices as well. Smart lockers can be available for rent during working hours and have them open for maintenance in the evening. Thanks to locker software and its audit trail, you can find out how long a device was rented and if it has been sanitized before the next use. Place rental limits and give/remove access to certain units, all from one centralized database.

Rental equipment software — Locker software equipment helps with the management and distribution of devices

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Learn how we can improve your device management utility & gain a better user experience. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

The 3 Most Necessary Locks You Need Now

April 1, 2021Business Design Equipment Lockers Technology No Comments

Lock technology has progressed incredibly quickly throughout 2020 and even further into 2021. The functionality that was once only a thing of science-fiction is now available to everyone. From locks that are entirely touchless with NFC & RFID tech, wired locks that completely get rid of batteries, and even locks that can be opened with a simple push of a button on your phone thanks to Bluetooth compatibility. Check out our picks for the most necessary locks you need in your building now.

Bluetooth Locks

In a world where 95% of the population has a Bluetooth-capable mobile phone, the obvious necessity for lock manufacturers was to build a lock that could be opened, closed, and managed through ones phone. As our phones become more like an all-encompassing wallet, storing cards, passwords and the like, now we have the ability to open and close locker doors without laying a finger on the lock. What’s even greater is the increased security that comes with a Bluetooth-compatible lock, as the key to that lock will always be in your pocket.

NFC & RFID Locks

Similar to Bluetooth, NFC (Near-Field Communication) and RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) locks take full advantage of touchless technology by allowing locks to be opened with key fobs, access cards and more. Companies have already been exploring these technologies by using them on building entrances to authorize access to certain personnel. Now, we’re seeing this innovation come to personal assigned and rental lockers across every industry. As an added perk, these locks are perfect for managing access within a building, using the same fobs with different levels of access.

Pulsar NFC - RFID lock in office setting — NFC and RFID locks are perfect for managing access control in an environment already using NFC key fobs or RFID cards.

Wired Locks (No Batteries Required)

Last but not least of our picks are wired locker locks for companies that want to completely rid themselves of batteries. The greatest thing about these types of locks is the networked system for locker banks that all connect to a central locker management system. From this system the locks can be periodically opened for after-hours maintenance or scheduled cleaning, for example. Also, these wired locks are often paired with NFC, RFID, and Bluetooth compatible locks for even greater contactless flexibility.

wired locker bank with RFID locks — Seamless locker banks can be made by pairing networked locker management software and RFID locks.

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Learn how we can improve your locker room locks, functionality, and layout for a better user experience. Contact us online today or call us at 1-800-696-3453.

The Era of Smart Lockers

August 15, 2019Digitization Equipment Lockers No Comments

Smart Lockers Today, Efficiency Tomorrow

Like any revolutionary new industry player, smart lockers go by many names. Accountable mailboxes, package management lockers, intelligent storage boxes, automated parcel delivery systems and so on. But the one thing these names are all referring to is simple; technologically advanced, “smart” lockers.

Imagine this, you’re in your apartment building waiting for your brand new phone to come in. You’ve received an email and text, saying it arrived at your building’s mailroom. Anything bigger than an envelope will have to be checked-in to the parcel delivery room, where you can only pick up your package from 9 am to 6 pm. Someone might take your package by mistake, or worse yet, take it willingly. The only alternative would be to physically wait for your package and sign off on the delivery in person. You’re waiting and waiting, and still waiting. You’re thinking, “what a nightmare, is this 2019 or 1919?”

Now picture that same mailroom lined with a seamless wall of lockers, smart lockers. The mailman comes in, chooses an open locker that fits your package, and you’re notified exactly when and where your package was delivered, ready for pick up 24/7. Forget about losing track of the keys or having your package misplaced, the locker can only be opened through either your phone’s Bluetooth or your building’s RFID key. Using auditing software like Gantner’s GAT Relaxx or Lowe & Fletcher’s RAS (Remote Allocation System), the locker manager can reconfigure any locker and issue a key whenever one is open to use and can even track the history of that locker’s previous users. You’ll know who exactly came to drop-off and pick-up the package with the smart lockers’ security cameras overlooking the entire wall and its interface. More security, more convenience, more relief.

Adaptability for Any Industry

Parcel delivery is not the only use smart lockers have. Businesses, schools, gyms, even amusement parks are using these as day-use lockers for their flexibility and ease of use. Durable line-powered, programmable, or battery-operated steel lockers are perfect for those environments where you’re constantly reassigning users. Endless PIN, RFID, or even WiFi key and lock combinations can be configured for top-of-the-line security. Smart lockers can also add phone and laptop chargers through line-powered, programmable, or battery-operated systems. Modern offices today need to be adaptable, flexible, and adjustable for happy and effective employees.

Smart lockers can save you even more space with their nearly endless configurations. Integrate them into a blank wall, divide the room with a locker wall partition, or create an island of lockers which doubles as a collaborative workspace. The locker layout can include modern building features like spontaneous meeting spaces for critical ideation and TV screens displaying important company announcements.

Options and Customization

Customize your locker, your way. Companies like Spacesaver who manufacture high-quality smart locker and day-use locker systems offer the highest level of customizations. Choose from:

steel lockers
high-pressure laminate lockers
hidden hinges
locker number tags
vented lockers
recessed or flush base
sloped tops
interior shelves
interior coat hooks
standard 24″, 36″, 54″, 60″, and 72″ heights
a broad range of finishes

Need different size options? If these don’t fit what you need, custom locker sizes come in 1″ increments, so you’ll always find the perfect fit. Also as important is choosing a lock type that exactly fits your needs. Popular locker options include:

The options are limitless. Even if it’s not listed, a lock of your choice can be custom-fitted to any locker system. Every locker comes with the same level of security and satisfaction, no matter the choice of door finish, material, locker size, or lock type.

Change Your Space from Chaos to Relief

Now that you’re a tech-savvy guru on the subject of smart lockers, you’re miles ahead of the competition. Companies focus on what they’re good at — healthcare, sports, public safety, farming, education — but rarely are they thinking of the amount of space they’re outgrowing. That’s where a space solution company like Bradford Systems can help. Our focus isn’t simply to see how much empty space you can stuff into your environment. Your empty space will quickly become cluttered again without good organization. The goal of modern storage systems is to alleviate your storage from a state of chaos to relief.

So, if you’re ready to find out how much more space and effort you can save using less time and money, contact Bradford Systems today or call (630)350-3453 and get your storage problem solved.