Hiking, Biking, and Access Control

An Open Options and Specialized Bicycle Components Success Story

Located just south of San Jose, California, in Morgan Hill, Specialized Bicycle Components has grown into one of the most successful bicycle manufacturers in the world. For more than 40 years, their business has operated from the ground up on a campus that includes three facilities totaling 250,000 square feet. Visitors and more than 400 employees regularly traverse the dynamic complex, which hosts a variety of unique and wonderfully eccentric facilities.

Specialized Bicycle is an American brand of bicycles and related products that has always maintained a sharp focus on providing a better biking experience for all riders. Specialized's success lies in their ability to expertly design and develop road, mountain, fitness, utility, and BMX bicycles as well as equipment and gear while working hard to protect trade secrets in this highly competitive market.

The Challenge

Upon entering the impressive lobby of Specialized headquarters, visitors can instantly access the history of this exceptional company in the Specialized museum that showcases the 40-plus year history of the brand and includes race-winning bicycles, original production pieces, and even extreme sports legend Shaun Palmer's downhill race bike. Visitors find themselves on a quiet street facing a real-life example of a storefront that was expertly recreated to illustrate how these top-of-the-line products should be showcased. With state-of-the-art facilities comes an imperative need for reliable and cutting-edge security. 

There are many challenges associated with securing Specialized, including theft protection and loss prevention, general security for employees, and protecting the company's highly confidential trade secrets, which are safeguarded at headquarters. Although they had an access control solution in place for nearly a decade, Head of Security, Alfredo Echauri, put the brakes on the previous provider and sought out a better solution. "The access control provider in place at the time required an expert level of access control user knowledge, which made it extremely difficult to use and therefore ineffective," says Echauri. 

So, Specialized Bicycle Components explored replacement options while keeping expense in mind, as they did not want to lose their initial hardware investment by converting to a new system. 

That's when they discovered Open Options.

The Solution 

Open Options provided Specialized with a complete security solution along with the added benefits of ease of use and the customer-centric nature of DNA Fusion that was exactly what Specialized was seeking. Because Specialized had Mercury Security hardware control panels installed, the conversion from their existing access control solution to DNA Fusion was seamless. The panels, readers, locks, and all other hardware infrastructure were able to stay in place while their existing database was converted to use the DNA Fusion access control software. 

The Specialized deployment consisted of access control coverage for more than 50 doors throughout the complex. The supporting hardware for the installation was the existing and new Mercury Security authentic hardware supplied by Open Options, including LP1502 intelligent door controllers, MR52 reader sub-controllers, and RP 405 HID readers.

Echauri says he was surprised at how smooth of a ride it has been from the existing system to Open Options, and is glad Specialized had invested in open architecture hardware from Mercury to help facilitate the transition.

"You don't expect to have to change access control software providers mid-ride, but we are so grateful at the options we had because we wisely chose an open platform hardware solution. As world-renowned winners in bicycle racing, we know that it takes a winning team to deliver an excellent product, and we are extremely pleased with our technology partners," says Echauri.