Client

With the rapid advancement of technology, the consumers’ market has been increasingly used to more simplified and self-help experience of consumption. For example, self-help digital payment in clothing stores, or QR code ordering in food-catering industry. The digitalized and automated consumption flow of retails and service industries, apart from bringing more private, convenient and quick consumption experience, is able to save human resources for the merchants too. ZKTeco recently provided a solution for a chain-store Internet café enterprise, with more than 700 shops covering the entire Japan, offering a significantly enhanced experience with QR code access control and payment management functions.

Requirements

Better Consumer Experience

Our client’s Internet cafés offer individual rooms for their customers with café services, computers and stayover accommodation. As their targeted customers are more inclined to quick and simple registration, our client wished to simplify the complex and conventional check-in procedure with a more advanced access control and payment management for better user experience.

Cost Effectiveness of Solution

Improving the customer's user experience is important, but cost-effectiveness is also a key consideration in the solution. Since the client's Internet cafe network covers locations across Japan, with thousands of rooms, even minor differences in the costs of equipment, software, or even wiring can lead to exponential increases in the overall cost. Therefore, when selecting the various solution details such as equipment, software, and even cabling, the costs of each component must be carefully evaluated to optimize the total cost-effectiveness.

Solution Details

The internet cafes used conventional check-in registration, where customers needed to check in at the front desk to receive a room card before going to their assigned room and using the card to open the door.

ZKTeco's solution for the client aims to improve the customer experience while prioritizing cost-effectiveness. Since the client already has hotel locks, access control, and billing management systems, as well as an IoT management system for room selection, customer payment, and access authorization, ZKTeco opted to integrate over 7,000 units of Horus Hybrid-biometric Access Control Standalone Terminals into the rooms to manage the access control.

QR Code Access Control for Convenience and Quickness

All the installed Horus Standalone Terminals are customized with QR code reading function, and have been integrated with the client’s existing access control & payment management system. Upon their customers’ arrival at the café, instead of having to go to the reception for check-in and room card, they are only required to register and pay in the mobile app. provided by our client for their QR codes for the access to their assigned rooms. Then, they are only required to go to the rooms, present the QR codes to the Horus terminals. Upon successful authentication, there are allowed access to the rooms.

Integration with the Existing Systems for Better Cost Effectiveness

The client already has a corresponding mobile app and dynamic QR code functionality, as well as two management systems, one for access control and payment management, and another for IoT management. If the solution required a complete replacement of all these systems, not only would it require employees to relearn the new systems, but the cost impact would be significant. Given that the client's internet cafe network spans nationwide with thousands of rooms, replacing all the hardware like door locks to fit a new solution would be astronomically expensive, including both the hardware and installation costs. Prioritizing cost-effectiveness, integrating ZKTeco's equipment into the client's existing systems is the most beneficial approach. ZKTeco provided customized SDK firmware for the client's mobile app and management systems to accommodate their QR code encryption. By integrating ZKTeco's Horus solution, the client is enabled to directly manage customer room access permissions, payment, and room selection through their existing access control and billing management system, without the need for physical cards. This not only enhances convenience for customers, but also frees up the client's human resources and hardware costs. The integration with the IoT management system also allows the client to actively monitor the status of the access control terminals for timely maintenance and repairs.

Wireless Connection Capability of Horus

The reason for choosing the ZKTeco Horus Hybrid-biometric Access Control Standalone Terminal is its powerful functionality, high flexibility and adaptability. While adding QR code capability to the access control system could be done using common QR code readers, such as ZKTeco's QR50 reader, the sheer scale of the project with thousands of rooms would make the wiring work overly complex and significantly increase the installation costs.

In comparison, the Horus terminal already has built-in 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, and wireless networking capabilities. For this solution, the Horus terminals’ wireless network functionality is well leveraged to connect to the client's access control and payment system, enabling seamless system integration. Although the Horus terminal itself does not natively provide QR code reading capability, ZKTeco's strong software and hardware customization expertise enabled them to add QR code functionality directly onto the Horus terminals. The solution thus achieves the QR code access control functionality at the most cost-effective conditions.

Potential Functionality Expansion - Biometric Authentication

In addition to the wireless connectivity capabilities, the biggest advantage of the Horus terminals are their builtin biometric authentication functionality. It provides powerful visible light facial recognition that can accurately identify faces in ultimate speed, further enhancing the reliability and convenience of the access control system. In case the client wishes to upgrade to biometric access control in the future, they would not need to replace the entire system. They can directly utilize the Horus terminals' biometric authentication capabilities, which provides tremendous flexibility for future functional expansions.