The Three Pillars of Digital Access: Why Smart Locks, Intercoms, and Access Control will converge over time in the housing industry

Imagine a tenant who needs three different apps to get into their apartment building – one for the main door, another for the intercom, and a third for their personal smart lock. Or put yourself in the shoes of a property manager juggling different systems just to onboard a new resident. This is the fragmented reality of digital door access.

While this is still superior to managing metal keys, it is the fragmented reality of digital door access you’ve likely experienced as an owner, a manager, or a developer at some point.

We have these three distinct pillars, each with a specific purpose, yet they rarely speak to each other. We’re talking about smart locks, digital access control systems, and modern intercoms.

It’s a situation ripe for disruption.

1. Keyless digital access is currently still very fragmented across three pillars (aka trades): Smart Locks, Digital Access Control, and Intercoms.
2. In all three trades, the digital product maturity and sales competition are increasing rapidly (with AI starting to become important around digital access control).
3. There is a strong argument to believe that the three trades will increasingly merge due to digitalization, which further increases the pressure to innovate.

Let’s first unpack the three trades and see why their separation can’t last.

Pillar 1: Smart Locks – The Rise of Residential Convenience

Smart locks are the most popular of the three, often the first piece of digital access technology a tenant encounters. They’re designed for a single apartment or a private home. Their core value is convenience: you can open your front door with your smartphone, create temporary codes for a dog walker, or check if the door is locked from your couch. The smart lock experience is personal and intuitive, but it’s often a siloed solution. It focuses on the tenant’s individual living space, not the broader building infrastructure. The typical customer  is the tenant themselves with only 1-2 smart locks and a handful of users. For smart lock products to succeed, they have to be easy to install, manage, maintain, and use for non-technical users. This is why motor locks dominate this market: they are easy to retrofit and don’t require modifying the door, the mortise lock, or even the cylinder.

Pillar 2: Access Control – The Backbone of Building Management

On the other end of the spectrum, digital access control is the workhorse of a building. This is the centralized system that manages who can access which doors, at what times. It’s built for scale and security, handling thousands of users and doors across an entire property portfolio. From a property manager’s perspective, this is where the power lies: issuing and revoking digital access in real-time, pulling detailed audit logs, and integrating with other software. While it comprises smart locks, they more often come in the shape of knobs, handles, wall readers, or door fittings and not in motor locks like they often do in pillar 1. Access control systems are complex systems which are typically installed by trained technicians. The strength of access control is its management capability to easily administrate large numbers of doors and users. The typical customer is a top level manager in a larger real estate organization, easily managing hundreds or thousands of doors and even more users.

Pillar 3: Intercoms – The Face of Visitor Communication

Modern intercoms are all about a different kind of access: visitors. These systems are the digital doorbell, allowing a resident to see and speak to a guest or a delivery person at the main entrance, then grant them access remotely from their apartment intercom station or phone. They’ve moved beyond a clunky call box to become a vital communication hub. But like the other two pillars, they often exist as a separate piece of technology, with a different app and a different sales channel than the building’s access control or the individual smart locks. Customers vary depending on context. They can be B2C consumers for single family homes – or managers in real estate companies just like for access control. 

The Sales Channel Divide

This fragmentation isn’t just a technical problem or based on different user profiles; it’s a deeply ingrained business model.

• Smart Locks live in the B2C e-commerce world, sold directly to consumers through e-commerce platforms, product websites or at hardware stores. The sale is a transaction, driven by marketing and immediate user convenience.
• Digital Access Control is a traditional B2B business, often sold through a direct sales team or a two-tiered system with distributors and resellers. The sales cycle is complex and involves multiple stakeholders.
• Intercoms are sold in a similar multi-tiered B2B model, relying on security system integrators and electrical contractors for installation and service.
• Installation also differs and ranges from DIY to specialized contractors and highly trained professionals.

This table highlights the clear divide:

Sales Channel / Installation	Smart Locks	Digital Access Control	Intercoms
B2C E-commerce	Primary	Niche	Niche
Direct B2B Sales	Niche	Primary	Niche
Multi-tiered B2B (Distributors, Resellers)	Niche	Primary	Primary
Installation	DIY / Handyman	Professional B2B Installers	Specialized Contractors

This separation creates silos, which leads to higher costs, lack of a seamless experience, and difficult maintenance. A smart lock company selling on Amazon has little reason to build a robust B2B management platform. An access control firm selling to property owners may not prioritize the consumer-friendly user experience needed for a smart lock app.

The Inevitable Convergence

This fragmentation is an obstacle to a truly smart, efficient building – at least as long as we look at larger real estate and mult-family buildings. We are convinced that in these buildings, the future belongs to a single, unified platform where these three pillars merge into one seamless experience.

Imagine a tenant: they arrive at their building, and the main door unlocks with their smartphone in their pocket (access control). A guest arrives, the intercom rings their phone, and they can see and speak to them, wherever they are, then grant access with a single tap in that same app (intercom). The guest is then granted temporary access to the main entrance and the specific apartment, which the tenant might have equipped with a smart lock themselves (smart lock) all managed from a single, intuitive app. In the end, all three trades are about opening doors to the right person at the right time – conveniently and securely.

While a full, universal platform for every building is still an evolving vision, the first signs of convergence are already here. The pressure to innovate, driven by market maturity and customer demand, means that the old silos will break down. Companies that once specialized in a single pillar will either integrate or be left behind by those who see the bigger picture.

The future of digital access is an end-to-end solution. It’s likely a single software platform that controls every door, manages every user, and handles every type of access, from the main gate to the tenant’s mailbox. If not a single platform, it is one that is truly open across different trades – as much as “open” is an overused buzzword. Either way, it is a vision that moves beyond fragmented point solutions to a unified whole.