How Ion Put Every Tenant Badge in Google Wallet with Cohesion and HID

Ion is the innovation hub at 4201 Main Street in Houston. The building's team wanted one credential that works everywhere a tenant needs to go: the front door, the turnstiles, and the elevators. Cohesion and HID delivered it as an employee badge in Google Wallet. Tenants add the badge from the Cohesion app and tap their Android phone to get in.

Tenants already know how to use it

Most people with an Android phone have tapped to pay with Google Wallet. A building badge works the same way. The tenant taps "Add to Google Wallet" in the Cohesion app, the badge lands next to their cards, and the phone works at every reader in the building. There's nothing new to learn.

For Ion's property team, that was the whole point. They wanted tenants to come and go without thinking about it.

"We are constantly looking to increase our tenant user experience. We want to make sure everybody walking in the building has ease of access, because this is their place of business and work, and they're free to come and go as they please."

Jennifer Morris, Property Manager, Ion

A rollout tenants never noticed

Switching a building's credentials can go wrong in a lot of ways. Readers need to recognize the new credential, and tenants can't get locked out while the old badges are retired.

HID and Cohesion handled it in stages. The teams tested the integration in Cohesion's lab in Chicago first, then moved on site. Before launch, they sat down with Ion to build a migration plan so no tenant lost access during the switch.

"We'll work with them and test initially in their laboratories in Chicago, and then we'll work together on site. So sitting down with the customer, making sure that there's a migration plan in place, no one's going to be interrupted, and then we have a launch date which we drive to achieve."

Troy Johnston, Strategic Alliances Director, Mobile, HID

The word tenants use is "clean"

Tenants don't open an app or hunt for a card. They hold the phone near the reader, the badge pops up, and the door opens. Ion's tenant services team hears the same feedback again and again.

"The word that I hear all the time is clean. You see it pop up and you get this visual of what is being used. It's not clunky, it's not cluttered, it's concise."

Henry Caldwell, Tenant Services Coordinator, Ion

The badge also carries the security of Google Wallet. Credentials live on the phone's secure hardware, and a lost phone can be locked or wiped remotely. A lost plastic card just works for whoever finds it.

One team across three companies

Ion didn't have to sort out which vendor owned which piece. Cohesion and HID came in together, mapped the technology already in the building, and connected it.

"Working with Cohesion and HID during deployment has been very easygoing. They are truly the experts of their craft, and being able to come into the building and figure out what technology we have to integrate all together has been wonderful."

Jennifer Morris, Property Manager, Ion

Bring mobile credentials to your building

Cohesion supports employee badges in Google Wallet and Apple Wallet on HID readers and the other access control systems your building already runs. See how it works on the Digital Wallet page, or learn more about Smart Access.