Ever used a digital boarding pass? Paid for groceries using your phone’s digital wallet?
Mobile wallet usage continues to grow worldwide as smartphones become a mainstay of modern life. Juniper Research predicts total digital wallet users will exceed 5.2 billion globally in 2026–a 53% increase from 2022’s 3.4 billion users.
While some of that growth comes from consumer preference, a more significant push is coming from governments replacing physical documents with third-party apps for digital identity verification. For example, a European Union policy, effective September 2023, will require that all Member States offer a digital identity wallet to citizens and businesses.
In the U.S., numerous organizations, from airport lounges to hotels to college campuses, have moved away from legacy keycards in favor of digital access credentials. Why the shift from plastic to digital?
- Greater operational efficiencies from automation for facilities, security, and real estate operations.
- Higher security as users tend to safeguard their phones better than a plastic card. Additional authentication methods, such as a challenge question, biometrics, or one-time code, further strengthen security.
- Better user experience for access and self-service is the primary value driver.
Making the Move from Plastic to Digital
In our recent webinar, representatives from SwiftConnect and Apple shared how their technologies work together to enable companies to transition away from physical access cards toward a digital access solution. Employers are using this solution for several use cases:
- Front door access
- Secure area access
- Event access
- Printing
- Lockers
- Parking
- Transit and amenities use
- Cafe payments
Employee digital credentials can be easily segregated from personal digital IDs with a Modo-powered workplace app. The Modo Workplace digital platform enables organizations to integrate enterprise systems, engaging features, essential tools, and more into a single, company-branded workplace app. The seamless experience matches employees’ digital expectations set in their personal lives; especially the Gen Z set who navigated college with the convenience of a campus app.
“We’re all more engaged with our devices…those devices are creating expectations around things being instant, self-service, and not having to wait,” said Brandon Arcement, Chief Commercial Officer at SwiftConnect.
Access Enablement: How to Get Started
During the webinar, Arcement shared how a large financial services company deployed employee badges in Apple Wallet utilizing its existing access control infrastructure. He also offered some first steps for enterprises considering digital access.
- Conduct an Infrastructure Assessment: Understand what reader terminals and access control systems you have in place.
- Begin with One Location: Use one site to launch, test, and gather feedback. That site can be the test case to garner support for a larger rollout.
- Review Apple’s Participating Provider Terms and Conditions: These outline expectations for a secure, private, and remarkable user experience.
- Align Stakeholders: For the solution to be successful, it requires physical security, HR, real estate, IT/IS, and workplace tech to all be involved and to align on a shared vision of the business outcomes.
Modo Lab’s Founder and President, Andrew Yu, wrapped up the webinar by demonstrating how access controls integrate into a Modo-powered workplace app. The integration provides a streamlined experience for employees and supports the provisioning process and communication plans for introducing digital IDs.