Insights / Our own office

Our Kantech system never knew who left. Now it does, on the same hardware.

By Tom Jin, founder of GateStride. This is the story of our own office in Spring, Texas: the access-control system that came with the lease, what we did with it, and why GateStride exists.

At a glance

Site	GateStride’s own office, Spring, Texas (leased)
System	Kantech access control, left behind by the previous tenant
Doors	4
Hardware replaced	None. Readers, locks and controller all kept.
Service	A local Kantech installer, on their minimum service plan
The pain point	Kantech recorded who came in, but not who left
Before	Cards, or a wallet waved at the reader to get in; exits not identified
Now	Staff use the phone app; entries and exits are both identified
If GateStride is off	The Kantech system runs the doors exactly as before

1. Moving in: four doors that already had readers

When I rented this office, the previous tenant had moved out and left their access-control system behind. There were card readers on four doors and a control panel that ran them. I have worked in IT for 30 years, so the first thing I did was look closely at what we had been given.

All of it looked good: the readers, the locks and the panel were in nice condition. It was equipment that would have cost real money to buy and install new, and I hated the idea of tearing it out.

That is the situation many tenants walk into. The usual advice is to treat an inherited system as someone else’s problem: rip it out and start again with a new cloud platform, new readers on every door and a monthly subscription per door. For a small office that means paying to throw away working hardware.

2. Reading the panel and calling the manufacturer

The label on the control panel said Kantech. That one word answered the most important question: this was a mainstream commercial system, not an unknown brand, so there would be installers who know it.

I called Kantech and asked them to put me in touch with an installer. That is the step I recommend to every tenant in the same position. The manufacturer knows which local dealers service its systems, and an authorized installer is the right person to take over a system safely: they can check its condition, take care of the administrator access and make sure nothing touches the fire and egress side of the doors.

If you are not sure what brand you have, our guide to identifying your access-control system shows where to look, and the tenant’s guide to inherited access control lists the questions to ask your landlord and the previous tenant.

3. Getting it running again, with cards first

We signed up with the installer on their minimum service plan. We did not need a large project; we needed someone qualified to look after the system. With that in place, the system was running for our team again, and we started the way most offices do: with access cards.

Cards worked, and that is an important point. The system we inherited was not broken. It did what it was designed to do. But living with it every day showed us one problem we could not fix with cards.

The pain point: the system never knew who left

Coming in, people badged: a card, or more often a whole wallet waved at the reader until it beeped. That entry was recorded with a name. Going out, nobody badged. The door opened from the inside the way exit doors do, and the Kantech system logged that the door had opened — but not who walked through it.

So the records only ever told half the story. At any moment we could see who had arrived, but not who was still in the office, who had gone home, or when they left. For a small team that sounds minor until you need the answer: who is still here when you lock up, who to count after an evacuation, or what time someone actually left.

Card systems are built this way almost everywhere. Asking staff to badge out at every exit does not work in practice, and adding exit readers means new hardware and wiring. The usual answer is a whole new platform. We thought the missing piece was software, not hardware.

4. Adding the phone app: exits identified, no more waving cards

So we built GateStride as an add-on to the Kantech system we already had. Today our staff use the phone app instead of cards. Nobody digs out a card or waves a wallet at the reader any more, and the part that mattered most to us now works: exits are identified. When someone leaves, the record shows who it was, so the office has a complete in-and-out history and a live picture of who is still here. See how exit tracking works.

The readers, locks, controller and the installer relationship are all the same as before; GateStride sits on top and adds what was missing.

Because it is an add-on, it is not a single point of failure. If GateStride were switched off tomorrow, the Kantech system would keep running the doors on its own: cards would still work, schedules would still run, and nothing about the doors’ fire and egress behaviour depends on us. We describe it as an upgrade you could remove, not a dependency you are locked into. See how it works and our security approach for more.

This installation is why Kantech EntraPass is the first system marked Verified on our compatibility list. To be precise about what that means: it is verified on our own office. Other Kantech sites can differ in edition, version and controllers, so we check each one before quoting.

What this cost compared with replacing it

We are not publishing our own figures, because every site is different and one office is not a benchmark. What we can say is where the money did not go: no new readers, no new controller, no rewiring and no new per-door subscription. The ongoing cost is the installer’s service plan we chose and the GateStride software.

To see what that looks like for an office like ours, try the 4-door office estimate or enter your own numbers in the savings calculator.

What I would tell another tenant

• Look before you rip out. Read the labels on the readers and the panel. Inherited hardware is often better than you expect.
• Call the manufacturer. They can point you to an authorized installer, which is the safe way to take over a system and get administrator access.
• Start small. A minimum service plan and the cards you have can be enough to get going.
• Add what is missing in software. Knowing who has left, and opening doors without a card, do not require new doors or new readers.
• Leave life safety alone. Fire and egress belong to the installer and the building, not to an app.

What this means for installers and property managers

Our installer did not lose a customer when we added GateStride; they kept one. That is the model we sell through: integrators keep the system and the service relationship, and add software their customers would otherwise switch platforms to get. Read more on the partner page.

For landlords and property managers, an inherited system is an asset you can hand to the next tenant in working order rather than a removal job. Our end-of-life tracker helps you tell a system that is genuinely at the end of its support from one that just looks old.

Questions we get about this story

How does the phone app know who left?

With cards, nobody badges on the way out, so the Kantech system only logged that the door opened. With the phone app, GateStride identifies the person leaving, so exits are recorded with a name without anyone stopping to badge out.

Did you replace any of the Kantech hardware?

No. All four doors kept their existing readers, locks and controller. The hardware was in good condition, so there was nothing to gain from replacing it.

Do you still need an installer if you add GateStride?

Yes. We called Kantech, who pointed us to a local installer, and we signed up for the installer’s minimum service plan. The installer looks after the access-control system; GateStride adds software on top of it.

What happens if GateStride stops working?

The Kantech system keeps running the doors on its own. Cards keep working, schedules keep running, and the doors behave exactly as they did before GateStride was added.

Does this mean GateStride works with every Kantech system?

Not automatically. Kantech EntraPass is verified on our own office installation. Other Kantech sites can differ in software edition, version and controllers, so we check each system before quoting.