A conversation with The Dataloog - Part 1
The Dataloog is a Dutch podcast series on big data, data science, Machine Learning, and data-driven transformation. With the goal to inform people in an understandable way about the digital data-driven world, The Dataloog is publishing conversations with data scientists, consultants, and technology companies, such as Clay.
We are very proud to have been interviewed for this podcast series as a tech company based in Amsterdam. For the people who want to read instead of listen, we have transcribed and translated the conversation to reach a broader audience.
Read the conversation about how we set the bar high in access control with our cloud-based access control software SALTO KS between hosts Lex Knape, Walter van der Scheer and Clay’s Managing Director Bart Klaver.
They talk, among other things, about how an international scale-up with Dutch roots knows how to disrupt the traditional market with their smart solutions, the infrastructure, the data collection from the edge, the applications, and the new opportunities that arrive when you don't use the conventional mechanical key system anymore.
Bart, tell us, who are you and how did you end up at Clay?
Seven years ago I ended up at Clay. It was still a small start-up back then, with just seven people, and the focus was on to decide how to get the product to the market and how to build a development team. My role was covering product and technology, with the aim to build a scalable team and product. Now Clay is a scale-up instead of a start-up that operates in 82 countries, thanks to mother company SALTO Systems which acquired Clay back in 2017. We are with 55 people we call ‘Bricks’ based in Amsterdam working on the cloud-based access control solution ‘SALTO KS’. The focus has shifted to how do we keep this running and how do you scale ahead of demand. We sometimes miss the ‘start-up vibe’ in the sense that things just take a bit longer now, but the culture is still very open and honest plus we get to reach bigger companies, bigger customers and operate globally being a SALTO Group company.
What exactly do you do?
We supply access control software in the cloud. SALTO provides the hardware and we (Clay) provide the cloud solution ‘SALTO KS’ a solution that runs entirely in the cloud. But of course, you need physical locks on the door that can communicate with the software, so it is a combination of hardware and software.
SALTO KS runs in 82 countries, how do you ensure it can operate in all those countries and always opens the door?
We want to avoid manual updates. We want everything to be digital. That means fewer ‘Tags’ which are the physical Key fobs. We want to focus on mobile access, so opening the door with your phone. Your phone becomes the ‘key’ to an assigned door with 2FA (Two Factor Authentication).
Does your team travel a lot or do you have another way to be operable in 82 countries?
Yes! We don’t travel that much. We do have 1200 dedicated SALTO KS installers worldwide that install the locks on the doors. These installers are experienced and their expertise lies in installing the hardware in such a way the door always opens using the SALTO KS software. Together with SALTO Systems, we solve the operational part, so support and installation. This way, we have been able to scale quickly to so many countries.
Can you tell us something about the data collection?
Every week we open approximately 4.5 million doors, that is worldwide, and those doors can be at multiple locations. In the Netherlands, for example, we work together with large customers such as Landal GreenParks, where we provide guests to their bungalow, but it can also be office buildings or banks, and it can be in different industries. The Data that we collect is mainly about which doors will open, but also which doors will not open. Usually, it goes well, but it could be that an installation is done and everything is supposed to work, but somehow the connection between the lock and our access point is confused by a wifi router next to it. We cannot see that from the cloud, we have no way of knowing that a change has taken place at the location itself, but it does have a direct effect on the satisfaction of the customer because he wants to open the door and we would very much like to step in. So this is where the data comes in. We wanted to make sure that the data we receive can be converted into something that we can use proactively, so not waiting for the customer to call, but calling the customer ourselves and saying 'hey, we have seen a change in your location and the lock was working but now it stopped, did something change?’. We now have several use cases where we can help the installers and our support department to proactively approach customers to say ‘hey the lock at that office is not working properly, you should take a look’. For example, the locks are battery-powered, so we want to proactively apply machine learning so we can recognize the behavior before the battery is empty.
I will give Landal GreenParks as an example use case. Let’s say I have booked a bungalow at this holiday park. Normally I would go to the plaza and look for the bungalow on the map. With a keyless reception, the experience is different. So, how does that work for the visitor, and how does it work technically?
For the visitor, they want to offer a seamless arrival, which means that you as a guest can book a bungalow and not see anyone between your booking and the moment your access your bungalow. As a visitor, you will receive a welcome email with your bungalow nr. and the time and place you have access. When you arrive at the park you get a message saying 'welcome, your bungalow is at the back of the park so you can follow this route to get to your bungalow'. In that whole process, you didn't see anyone.
All communication goes through Bluetooth. The lock is Bluetooth enabled (in the future also NFC). This all works seamlessly in the Landal application. The SALTO KS software runs in the background. Landal has done an implementation with an SDK to access the key and use that key to open the bungalow. So when you're standing in front of the door, you hold your phone against the lock, the phone and lock make the Bluetooth connection, the door unlocks and you’re inside.
With this flow, the whole guest experience has changed. You don’t have to get in line during peak hours, you can just immediately turn on the fireplace or go to the pool, which is especially convenient when you have small children. This seamless experience is the future: you make a booking, and you go to the location, all without needing anyone in the process. You can additionally book extras in the app, such as a trampoline or a bowling alley.
Do SALTO KS customers want to know how often users go in and out the door?
Yes, that is interesting, for example, at the arrival. What time do people arrive, and what time do they leave? When you leave your bungalow, for example, you can say in the app this is the last time you closed the door. This means you left the holiday park and the whole after-booking process can start. Suppose you leave on Sunday evening and you check out through the app, you don't have to see anyone, but the app knows who has left and the cleaning crew can start. This way the whole process can be optimized.
Will this data be linked to other databases of the customer so they have a 360-degree view of the users?
We, as Clay, do not do this ourselves. We offer our customers access to this data, such as streaming endpoints that our customers can use to read their data again. They are for example able to see which bungalow is open and when. Then they can consume that data in their own data platform and enrich that with, booking information, how often does someone actually come to the park, how often does that person book a bungalow at Landal, etc.
Something else, Clay builds SALTO KS on Azure. Why did you choose Azure and can you tell us how your architecture works?
Yes, 5 or 6 years ago we wrote our backend in .NET, which means we were very close to Microsoft technologies already, so it was a logical choice for us to host on Azure, a Microsoft product. We now host a lot with Kubernetes which previously you could only run .NET applications on. We have a lot of customers with offices, so we scale up during office hours between 08:00 AM and 17:00 PM when doors are opened. Before and after these times we scale down. The Kubernetes service is great for this since you have this scalability feature with your pods. This is a big part of why we are still using Azure and have been growing our data platform from. We use the Azure technology to save and enrich our (anonymous) data.
What does it look like in the back-end when a lock doesn’t open?
If someone has booked a bungalow via the back office system this information automatically gets fed to our access control system, so we ensure that we know in advance who has access to which bungalow and from what time. It’s really important to design this process really well so the data integration of the back-office system will be fed in the night in batches to the access control platform. All of this is to ensure the door will open when a customer presents their phone to the lock.
While the access control platform and the back office system are online, is the lock also online?
Definitely! The lock is linked to an ‘IQ’ which is an IoT device or an Edge device if you will. We try to bring all the information such as who has access to the edge as much as possible to avoid users standing in front of a closed door. By preloading the IQs (IoT/Edge devices) with this information, we ensure the opening is always local and the lock can receive all the latest information and can open. In the case a platform is not online, the communication is not optimal or stable, or Azure has a worldwide outage in our availability zone we are always able to provide access.
The IQ communicates with the lock over Bluetooth and the lock additionally has memory itself. Suppose that the power goes out in an office, then the lock itself has the memory to open when a Tag (key fob) or phone gets presented. As you can read we have built-in several different layers to ensure an opening always can take place.
The distance between an IQ and a lock is about 10 meters, which is limited by Bluetooth. The quality of the connection also depends on how the IQ is mounted, for example, that is never allowed on steel, then the connection will be lost. In that regard, we again benefit greatly from SALTO's installer network. These people know everything about installations and ensure that everything is installed properly so that the connection cannot fail. We also train customers ourselves to commission a successful installation themselves.
So, in the architectural process of a building, the placement of a lock and the IQ are also taken into account?
Yes! From the moment a floor plan of a building is available we work together with our customers to help them place the locks, but more importantly the IQ’s. Locks are mounted on the door and don’t need much thought. IQ’s on the other hand you need to place in a smart way. You want to be able to link as many locks as possible to an IQ so that you do not have to purchase too many. We help to be as efficient as possible with the floor plan and the purchase of the hardware.
And that communication between the Edge device and the back-office system takes place in batch or real-time, I can imagine that when a customer cancels a few minutes before time, you need something more than a batch.
Yes, that's right, the communication between the lock, the IQ, and the back-office system is all in real-time. So, if I now want to open a door at home or at the office, I signal it and that signal is processed immediately, the same way it works with a booking.
What possibilities do you see in the future in terms of collecting data and combining this with external databases?
Customer satisfaction should be as high as possible. A lock should always open, that is our main focus. Everything we work on such as data collection and software development focuses on the customer experience to make sure there is no doubt that the door will open. Because it’s a smart lock connected to a cloud environment someone with a lack of technical knowledge could doubt this solution. People don’t like what they don’t understand, which is a legitimate worry. Our challenge and main focus is to take that away. That is why we now also collect data about, for example, how often a lock opens, but also how often a lock does not open, and how often the lock loses communication with the Edge device. If the lock is mounted 15 meters from the Edge device, it is possible that the communication is not good, but we are not able to ‘see’ that. We are now working on building in smart solutions to be able to recognize these ‘flaws’ based on the data that the lock often loses communication even when no one is around. In this example, we would receive a signal so we can pro-actively improve.
This is the end of part 1 of the interview. The whole interview is 11 pages, and we didn’t want to put you through that all at once :) Thank you for reading and stay tuned for part 2!
Clay Solutions - A SALTO Group company is the daughter company of SALTO Systems. A lock hardware manufacturer based in Oiartzun Spain. While Clay builds the cloud-based software that allows users to tap their locks open with their phone, SALTO provides the hardware, the locks that are enabled to communicate with the software. This website functions as a platform to showcase our company culture in our office in Amsterdam, the way we build our software, and why and who the Bricks are. Feel free to browse around, head over to SALTO to find more about the hardware, or apply if you see a job you think you are just perfect for.