Enterprise security costs are rising and businesses everywhere are feeling the strain. From high labor costs to maintaining aging infrastructure and manual processes, traditional security models often come with hidden expenses that add-up over time.
With a staggering 44% of security professionals expecting their budgets to remain the same or decrease in the next year, forward thinking organizations are turning to modern access control systems as powerful catalysts for innovation, efficiency, and cost savings.
Advancements in automation, real-time monitoring, and data reporting, are enabling these cost-effective security systems to transform how organizations view security – not as a cost center or necessary expense but as a smart security investment for enterprises with measurable returns.
By focusing on automating processes and integrating technology, businesses are discovering significant access control cost savings while enhancing security, operational efficiency, and productivity.
Key Cost Challenges in Enterprise Security
Enterprise security is a critical priority for organizations, yet managing its associated costs effectively pose significant challenges, such as:
- High Labor & Staffing Costs: Dependence on security personnel for manual processes.
- Inefficiencies in Access Management: Time-consuming credential issuance and revocation.
- Compliance & Regulatory Costs: Meeting industry security standards and avoiding fines.
- Physical Security Infrastructure Expenses: Maintenance of traditional lock-and-key systems.
- Downtime & Security Breaches: Financial losses from unauthorized access incidents.
High Labor & Staffing Costs
One of the key contributors to rising enterprise security costs is the expense associated with labor and staffing.
Recruitment and retention are major pain points in the industry, with a shortage of skilled technical staff being a particular challenge. Gallagher's Security Industry Trends Report 2025 indicates that high turnover and the competitive salaries needed to attract and retain capable staff significantly drive-up labor costs.
Additionally, the reliance on security personnel for non-automated workflows such as monitoring, incident response, and workplace access management further inflates operational expenses, resulting in a poor ROI of access control solutions.
Inefficiencies in Access Management
Another significant challenge impacting access control cost is the inefficiencies associated with manual workplace access management processes.
Traditional methods for issuing and revoking credentials are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, leading to delays in onboarding and offboarding. These manual workflows can also increase the risk of costly data breaches and physical security incidents, emphasizing the need for reducing security expenses with automation.
Compliance & Regulatory Costs
Organizations face the daunting task of adhering to a multitude of industry regulations. Staying up to date with these evolving compliance's requires meticulous documentation, thorough auditing, and detailed reporting.
Legacy systems offer limited reporting capabilities. Coupled with manual processes needed to gather documents, this places a heavy burden on resources and considerable financial strain on businesses, contributing to higher access control costs.
Businesses reliant on these outdated systems risk significant penalties for non-compliance.
Physical Security Infrastructure Expenses
One of one the major drivers of access control costs is the maintenance of outdated systems such as traditional key-based systems and legacy access control solutions.
While key-based locking mechanisms are widely understood, the often require high maintenance costs and labor-intensive upkeep, due to the wear-and-tear associated with these systems.
Similarly, legacy access control systems frequently rely on outdated hardware and software, which can be costly to repair or upgrade as components become obsolete.
Managing these aging systems can lead to increased security risks, high maintenance and specialized support costs, frequent hardware repairs, and missed opportunities to reap security automation benefits for improved performance and efficiency.
Downtime & Security Breaches
When evaluating enterprise security costs, it's crucial to consider the financial impact of downtime and security breaches.
In 2024, the number of breached accounts soared to over 5.5 billion, a stark increase from 730 million in 2023. At the same time, the average cost of a data breach rose to USD 4.88 million. This rise was driven by the increased costs of lost business, including operational downtime, customer attrition, and the expenses associated with post-breach responses such as customer service staffing and higher regulatory fines.
Downtime, whether caused by data breaches, system failures, bugs, or maintenance delays, can lead to significant productivity losses, operational disruptions, and decreased revenue. Reducing these incidents can help lower costs and highlight the importance of cost-effective security systems.
Top 5 Ways Access Control Systems Reduce Security Costs
Unlocking ROI of access control solutions means moving beyond just keeping intruders out. This forward-thinking approach transforms security from a cost center into a strategic asset that unlocks new revenue streams, drives business insights, and even to cut down on energy bills.
For businesses seeking to mitigate enterprise security costs, access control emerges as a surprisingly cost-effective security system, with the potential to yield substantial returns.
1. Reducing the Need for On-Site Security Staff
One of the most significant advantages of a modern access control system is its ability for reducing security expenses with automation. For example, take access request workflows, a task so time consuming for some organizations that it requires a full-time employee to manage.
Through security automation benefits, these workflows are simplified, minimizing the risk of human error and reducing labor costs, while also expediting the on-boarding process for employees, contractors, and visitors.
A cloud-based access control system also offers the benefit of remote site management, particularly advantageous for businesses with multiple locations or those that need to oversee systems in real time. This capability further reduces the need for on-site security personnel, ultimately lowering operational costs with access control.
2. Minimizing Security Breaches & Losses
The financial implications of a security breach are staggering, in 2022 alone, over 1 trillion USD of revenue was lost by companies as a result of physical security incidents.
Access control systems are the foundation of a secure environment, allowing organizations to proactively manage who enters specific areas, when, and under what conditions, effectively creating a robust barrier against potential intruders.
Solutions like Gallagher Security’s Command Centre, integrate real-time monitoring and alerts. These capabilities provide businesses with a vital layer of security by detecting unauthorized access attempts and immediately notifying security teams and law enforcement. This rapid alert system enables swift responses to potential threats, ensuring that incidents are quickly contained and their impact minimized.
By preventing unauthorized access and providing real-time monitoring, access control systems significantly reduce the enterprise security costs associated with breaches.
3. Automating Credential Management & Access Permissions
The traditional lock-and-key method is not only antiquated but also falls short in delivering comprehensive security or operational efficiency, especially as organizations grow.
Modern access control systems are shifting to digital and contactless solutions, such as biometric authentication or mobile credentials. These solutions provide access without the need for physical keys or cards and eliminate the hassle of carrying extra items and contribute to automated security cost reduction.
This mobile technology not only enhances security but also significantly lowering operational costs with access control by:
- Eliminating the manual distribution of physical keys and the associated costs of rekeying locks.
- Remote provisioning enabling administrators to grant or revoke access to employees, contractors, and visitors
- Managing and overseeing site or organization wide credentials from one centralized system
Enterprises that focus on reducing security expenses with automation find these advancements fortify overall security and improve operational efficiencies all while delivering a more convenient workplace experience.
4. Lowering Maintenance & Infrastructure Costs
For smaller businesses and remote sites that still rely on traditional lock-and-keys, access control systems eliminate rekeying costs and reduce the reliance on physical security staff to manually validate access permissions and manage access.
For enterprises, integrating with other business systems such as building management systems (BMS), can further enhance energy efficiency, lowering operational costs with access control. For example, by analyzing peak arrival and departure times and identifying access bottlenecks, businesses can adjust staffing levels and coordinate smoother hours of operation. Monitoring occupancy and space utilization also provides valuable insights into building usage, enabling improved office configurations.
Additionally, integration can further lower maintenance and infrastructure costs by optimizing energy consumption by adjusting lighting, heating, and cooling based on occupancy data, leading to reduced costs and supporting sustainability efforts.
5. Improving Compliance & Audit Readiness
Regulatory compliance is a critical requirement for industries such as healthcare, finance, and education. Yet maintaining compliance is time-consuming and largely manual.
Modern access control systems come equipped with audit and reporting tools that streamline compliance activities. For instance, sites with heavy machinery or hazardous materials can ensure an environment of responsibility by integrating access control with drug and alcohol screenings, fatigue management, and exposure monitoring.
This integration helps organizations demonstrate adherence to industry standards and regulations. Gallagher's competency and compliance function, for example, enables organizations to grant or deny access to machinery based on whether the operator holds the necessary and current training and certification.
And there are many other examples like these.
These security automation benefits reduce the administrative workload and minimizes the risk of compliance-related fines. Enterprises can maintain audit readiness effortlessly, ensuring they meet regulatory requirements without incurring additional access control costs.
Real-World Case Study: How Gallagher’s Access Control Saves Costs
St Peter’s School
St. Peter’s is the definition of a busy boarding school, with over 1,000 students and 350 staff calling the campus home. But with so many people using their facilities round-the-clock, their energy bills were significant.
By monitoring and controlling all aspects of facilities management through their Gallagher access control system, St. Peter’s achieved a 30% energy savings on their bills, effectively demonstrating ROI of access control solutions. This reduced consumption also increased the life span of their air conditioning units, resulting in further cost savings.
Green Cross Health
Green Cross Health provides care to communities via a network of 352 pharmacies and 53 medical centers. With highly desirable drugs on site, they had a keep people out mentality to protect their staff and assets from theft.
When they installed Gallagher’s cloud-based access control system, they gained greater visibility over their sites, including remote control of alarms and easy credential management.
As a result, they had the confidence to begin subletting consult rooms to other healthcare professionals, offsetting their operational costs and generating revenue.
Businesses across the globe, such as St Peter’s and Green Cross Health, that prioritize cost-effective security systems gain measurable returns including reduced labor costs, improved risk management, and enhanced operational efficiency.
Future Trends: How Access Control Will Further Optimize Costs
The future of access control is being driven by advancements in AI and cloud-based access control systems. These advancements are poised to significantly optimize access control costs and enhance the efficiency of security operations.
There is growing comfort with AI in the security industry, with organizations eager to adopt AI for its security automation benefits, such as:
- Significant time savings
- Reduced administrative work
- Decreased labor and staffing costs
- Predictive analytics
- Unified data analysis
- Proactive risk mitigation
- Enhanced decision-making
Despite lingering concern about privacy, performance, and training requirement, increased adoption of AI tools is a common goal for security systems over the next three to five years, signaling a potential shift towards greater acceptance of AI’s ability to reduce enterprise security costs.
Of all the technologies driving the evolution of security systems, arguably none has as much potential to transform industry dynamics than the Cloud. The drive towards cloud migration is fueled by advantages such as:
- Remote access and control
- Ease of use and configuration
- Reduced access control costs
- Unlimited scalability
- Decreased dependence on IT teams
- Lowering maintenance and infrastructure costs
- Improved security automation benefits
- Enhanced integration opportunities
And with limitless potential to scale, roadblocks to growth can be removed entirely with cloud-based access control systems, saving time and maximizing security investments.
Modern access control systems provide numerous cost-saving benefits for enterprises. By reducing the need for on-site security staff, minimizing security breaches, automating credential management, lowering maintenance costs, and improving compliance, these systems offer a smart security investment for enterprises.
As access control systems like Gallagher Security’s deliver more intelligence, they create new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and automation that weren’t previously possible, ultimately reducing access control costs. In the process, they unlock users’ imaginations and empower businesses to think bigger.
Discover how Gallagher’s solutions can optimize your security costs. Contact us today for a consultation!