Exploring Smart Entry Solutions: Nokē | Self Storage Explained #7

Hi, I'm Gavin Shields and this is Self Storage Explained, expert advice on how to set up and scale your self storage business.

Okay.

Hello and a big welcome to Paul and Will from Janice and Noki, the Janus Noki combo. Thank you very much for joining both. Paul, would you mind starting by introducing yourself and then Will, please.

Thanks governor and appreciate the invite today. Yes, I'm Paul Sheppard, I've been with Janice and Noki for just over 15 years now and I work as a product account manager for the Noki Smart Entry product covering the uk, Europe and a little bit the Middle east as well.

Yeah, and I'm Will Debord, the director of products and customer experience for Janice, working with our Nokia products. And I've been working with Janice and Nokia for about five years now. Great.

Well, thank you both. This is the first recording I've done where I've got two people joining, especially from two different countries. So Will, thanks for joining us from the us, Appreciate it.

Absolutely.

So I know quite a bit about Noki and Janice in my two sites here I have Noki and Janice, so that's a good starter for this call. But the purpose of this call is really for people listening to hopefully find out more about the options that they have for smart entry solutions. And lots of our customers use the Noki system and I use it and I've loved it. I have no complaints at all, it's been great. But I suppose this week really the questions want to go through are really to help people learn about what Nokia is and why it's, the benefits to it and the cons and so we'll go through it. So just to start, could you give us an introduction about what is the Nokia Smart Energy solution, how does it work and what are the different ways that people implement it on site?

Yeah, thanks, Gavin. Yep. So I think I would like to start by saying there's three parts to the Noki Smart Entry solution. We offer a mobile app which allows people to access facilities using Bluetooth on their mobile device. We offer a Nokia admin dashboard web portal, we call it, where you can go in and view information about your facility amongst a myriad of different things. And then probably the most critical part is the Noki Smart Entry hardware that we offer. And we offer solutions to allow keyless entry to both entry points of a building, be that gates, man doors, roller shutters, we offer solutions for lifts as well. And also on the on door lock solutions, a product that, you know, many people in the interview heard of is our Nokia 1 product. Which sell on door battery powered lock which again can be accessed with the smartphone smartphone app. We also have alongside that a couple of other products that are not as commonly used in the European market. So we have Noki pads or Noki Screen we call them which essentially is a two in one device where you can use a mobile app or also have access to a PIN code. In the European market generally that's used for multi use buildings where there might be a different business within a compound or you know, access for the emergency services. And we in other sectors as well we also have a Noki padlock that we use called the HD padlock. Generally don't use that in self storage for a number of different reasons and it's not as tied into our Nokia cloud solution. So reporting information to the cloud and such like. But we do see it in other markets and I think in terms of solutions available, the last one that we're starting to dive into a little bit more over the last 12 months I would say is retrofit solutions. So we've been looking at ways to fit our smart lock hardware to other vendors doors to allow us to integrate Noki into either facilities where we're doing currently a, a new phase or facilities that have been around for a few years that want to modernize their access control solution. And we'll go in there and install Noki smart blocks and, and access control to the entry points but primarily focusing on the solutions we can find to deliver a smart lock solution for all the, the properties.

Okay, so that retrofit, is that something you're currently doing and is available to UK and European operators if they wish to put Nokia into existing doors?

Exactly, that's correct. Yep. So we've done around, around 30 to 40 sites now with retrofit solutions and we'll continue to come across and develop different solutions. We may not have a solution at this point for you know, every door out there, you know, but we continue to investigate and adapt to the requirements as we, as we speak to individual operators.

Okay, okay, that's great. Yeah, I remember hearing that a year or two ago. And so that, that's a, that's an exciting development actually for operators who you know, want to, want to get the Noki system into an existing facility. That wasn't maybe done by Janice.

Exactly. Allows people to modernize their facility. You know, as the, as we all know the technology landscape's changing and the opportunity to bring facilities up to, you know, current standards, it's great for operators to be able to leverage that Now.

One of the things I'm always really interested in is the end user experience. So how does that work with Nokia? So let's say you're an operator, you install Noki. Then a customer comes and books a unit and is moving in, say tomorrow. Can you talk through and I have a fair idea how this works because I have my own sites. But can you talk through. What is the customer experience whenever you have no key on the site?

Yeah, absolutely. When a customer books a unit, however they decide to do it. Most customers are, you know, booking online now, but when the customer books the unit, the management system sends us the information. So we get, you know, the tenant name, what their phone number and what entry points they should have access to, what locks they should have access to. So immediately we set up that account, send a text message to super tenant, they download the app, use temporary password, set up their real password, and they have immediate access to the facility. So if they're, you know, renting at 8pm on a Sunday and they want to start moving things in immediately, they can do that. If they, if they want to wait a day, they can, they can wait, no need to go in and, you know, get a, get a padlock or anything from the actual facility. So, so it just allows them to move in on their own terms. If they have a mover, they can share their access with a mover for 24 or 48 hours or indefinitely. And it really puts the whole experience in the tenant's hands. Right. They're deciding who has access to their unit, when they're deciding when they move in. And it's just really all up to the tenant. So when they get to the actual facility, you know, kind of the app experience is they'll get up close to the first entry point, whether that's a gate, you know, sliding door, whatever the, the entry point is, the icon for the entry will highlight, tap the icon to open up and get to their unit, wake their lock just by touching the touch sensor and unlocking the same way they open the entry point, the icon highlights and they tap the icon. So pretty straightforward and easy for people to pick up pretty immediately. Yeah.

And I've been with some of my customers before where I've watched them go through this process. You know, so I've met, in my first year or so of my site, I met people sometimes and kind of help them move in or just I want to observe what happened. And sometimes so was they had the, they got the text message, they downloaded the app, they got in just as you said. And immediately they can see on their screen, you know, the buttons. So I remember the couple of things that worth mentioning. They needed to turn on Bluetooth sometimes some people didn't have Bluetooth turned on. That was. So that's still the case. It's a, it's a Bluetooth system, is not right?

That's correct. So they are prompted when going into the app, hey, allow us access to your Bluetooth and turn that on. For Android customers, they also have to turn on location services because just the way Bluetooth works on Android, they have to have that bit on. But that's all within the app. The app is walking you through what permission turn on on your phone and making sure that you have. Have everything on so you can access it. Actually will pop up a banner on the bottom. If you turn off Bluetooth and then open up the app, it'll pop up a banner saying, please enable Bluetooth to use NOKI Smart entry.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's great. And I remember this elderly couple actually moving in one time, and I was sort of worried. I thought, oh, this isn't going to go well. But they downloaded the app and they said to me, I can't believe that this place exists in this time. I couldn't believe how advanced the facility was. And it was a great experience. I remember, I think once or twice out of hundreds of people, I've maybe had the odd phone call. I can't remember my itunes password. That's happened one or two times. There's nothing you can do with that. That's just unsolvable if you're downloading an app. But other than that, I've had so many, like the vast, vast majority, 99 being very, very positive solutions. So in the case where somebody might have a smartphone, you also do have fobs. And is that still something you do? Because I, I have fobs. I actually bought 10 whenever I have my installation done and I still have nine almost five years later. So I haven't actually been asked for any apart from one. But is that something that's still an option?

Yes, we. We do still have bobs as an option. We have, you know, across our portfolio, maybe, I think it's. Maybe 2% of tenants are using fobs, and that's viewed by a couple of random facilities. But yeah, for the most part they're. They're not, they're not used. And I would say specifically in the European market, it's probably half a percent that actually utilize the fob option, but it's there if Anybody should need that option.

Yeah, yeah. And Paul, you mentioned the online system as well, which is not something I go into very often, but I do remember one time somebody, one of my customers had dumped a load of wardrobes at the front of my facility. I had a skip sitting there for a few days and they must have thought it was just a free skip they could fill. So they dumped the pile of stuff as they were moving out and I went on CCTV and I saw them moving on. But the only way I knew who it was was by going into the NOKI log and seeing who wasn't opening and closing the doors at the time, because I had no way of knowing I hadn't met the customer, so I didn't know. So I remember using it for that. So that's where your customer logs are moving it coming in and out. Well, actually coming in, I believe, mostly maybe depending how you operate it. But is there anything else that that system is useful for?

Yeah, I think there's a few of the things to mention that all of our entry points and locks are cloud connected at all times and that allows them to send information to and from the cloud. So obviously, as you mentioned, govern the passing activity information when things happen to the cloud, but. But also it's allowing information to come inside the facility. So, for example, operators can remotely open entry points if they want to allow somebody who's not set up on the app into the building. We've even seen a trend towards, particularly with remotely managed facilities, where you can actually remotely open the vehicle unit as well. So what we've seen is people coming in, people doing tours of sites, allowing people to show them around, check if the unit size is correct for them, if it's not, show them a different unit and actually not having to actually visit the site to allow them to have access. Other things that we can do remotely. For example, if you're a busy site, you can remotely hold open the gates and things so you can keep them open for one hour without having to use the app for every interaction and then allow that to be closed either at any point in the future or a fixed time. And. And then from, I think just the other side of that, from a maintenance perspective, being cloud connected and online, it's allowing us to understand what's happening on the facility. So locks are checking in with their status, be that, you know, the battery life, be that the units not connected or perhaps, you know, we've detected a security alert inside a unit, it's allowing all that information to be filtered in Almost real time to the cloud and that can then be distributed to operators via a notification system to allow early warning of incidents immediately or just like you said when you log into the dashboard to actually be able to see a summary of all the information recording, be it activity, unlocked units, you know, amongst many other things that you can see from the data.

And a part of the NUGI solution as well is so security is an issue obviously and we hear a little bit more about in the UK a couple more break ins and things that are happening. And I've heard recently about this concept of tunneling, which is somebody takes out a unit and then they go into the unit and then they actually tunnel through into the next unit and the next unit. It's actually a pretty effective way to, you know, get into lots of units and get all the valuable stuff out. And it's also quite hard to catch because, you know, it might be a week or two before it's even discovered. But the Noki solution also comes with some unit unit alarms. Can you, can you explain how they work as well, please?

Yeah, yeah. So you know, we see all over the world, you know, different, different kind of break in tactics but you know, tunneling or you know, going over the partition into a neighboring unit is something, you know, we've, we've seen in different areas. And our, our locks have a motion detector looking into the unit. So if somebody, you know, goes into their own unit that they've rented, closes the door down and then they start, you know, going into other units.

You.

Know, figuring out a way to get into other units, they'll be caught essentially by the motion detection inside each unit and the notifications that are configurable. So they can go to somebody's smartphone through a push notification, they can come through an email or a text message. So essentially the operator can be alerted right away when there's a security situation and people are breaking into units.

So if you're using a monitoring service, so if somebody's monitoring your CCTV for example, they could also be receiving those emails or text messages to kind of catch that pretty soon. So tunneling really, because I have these in my units as well. Tunneling, imagine would not be possible. I mean the alarms would go off as you move into the units.

Right?

Yeah, because they're not. You know, the nice thing with tunneling, the reason I guess it works is if you've got door alarms, you're not actually touching the doors. So you know, you can, you can kind of go in the side wall instead. Okay. All Right, Yeah.

I think the first, first instance we heard about somebody breaking into a unit with, with NOKI Smart Entry was, was this kind of scenario where they, you know, closed down their unit door and attempted to go over the partition into another unit. And you know, the notification went off, the, the facility personnel responded and they didn't catch the person necessarily in the act, but they, you know, figured out by the activity combined with the CCTV footage who did it and made an arrest about a day later.

Ah, okay, nice one. Okay, okay. So I've got a couple of questions more about sort of practicality. So if you want to, if you decide the NOKI systems for me, what do operators need to know? So for example, you know, do you need power at every door? Do you need power at every gate? Do you need Internet? What's the kind of requirements? Installation?

Yes, sure, Gavin. So essentially there's three main aspects to it. There is power data, as in data cables, network cables that allow us to build our, what we call our mesh network infrastructure. And there is also the option of having WI FI available at the facility as well. So if I start with the power, generally, because we have our Nokia 1 battery powered smart locks, you don't need power at every unit. Generally power is required where we put a hardwired, you know, powered controller at the gate or the entry doors of the facility. We also install in the technical room or the comms room a network switch to allow us to communicate with our devices. That generally requires power supply in the technical room. And then on top of that we install around the building what we call our Nokia gateways. There are essentially devices that allow our locks to send data to the cloud. And we install generally one of those at each entry point and then a few locations when the storage facilities, if you were to say one every 50 units, would be a rough estimate. But it depends on the layout of the building and the facility. And we need network cables running from the comms room out to each of those locations before we install. No game, we will just plug our device and connect that into that when we're on site completing the the install. And I think that the last piece to go to that is with our mobile app. We have a digital key solution within our mobile app that essentially allows tenants so what when they visit the facility for the first time each calendar day, the app will do a validation to authenticate the digital key. The reason we do that is that if somebody then goes into the storage facility and they don't have data connection via the mobile or the App, they can then get what we call offline access to the unit. So the app will communicate purely using Bluetooth and allow them to access the unit. The critical piece to that is when it, when the tenant visits their first point of entry at arrival at the facility, they will need a data connection on their mobile device for a few seconds to complete that authentication process when they unlock the gate of the door. Usually in most cases, mobile data is perfectly fine for that, but if somebody doesn't have a data plan or occasions, it's not a great signal area for a 4G or 5G connection, then we do suggest that you may want to install WI fi within the facility, predominantly at the main points of entry, just as a backup to allow to make sure it's a seamless experience for the people visiting the site. But other than that, that's the three main requirements for Noki Smart entry.

Yeah, and one point with the digital key process. So the tenant doesn't realize this is going on. This is just happening in the background as they open up their app. You know, the app is going and saying, all right, are you still in good standing or are you overlocked? Did you move out? You know, they're just essentially making sure the tenant's in good standing. And once it sees, okay, yep, they're, they're good to go. Just refreshes the queue key for them and yeah, they can, like Paul said, lose data connection, go into the building, you know, where, where there are dead spots everywhere and still get into their unit.

That's really. I didn't realize that, but I was wondering because one of my sites has really bad Internet. And so that is why I don't get all these calls saying I can't get into my room because they, they obviously have Internet on the way in and that's enough. Then even if they lose all connection inside the building, the Bluetooth kicks in and works. So that's. That explains that. Okay. And so one of the things we often get asked is how do we integrate Stora with Noki? I'm sure it's the same for other software products out there as well. So generally I'm not talking with storage specifically generally, what's the kind of process with connecting it to a software, a self storage software product? And I suppose one of the things I also do they. Do they have to integrate much with Noki because if they're using Stora, we take care of all the communication with Noki on the operator's behalf. I know all the stuff gets kind of that Thing will you describe where you receive the email address and the phone number? That's all sent by our system and so I assume, I'm sure they're all the same. But what's generally the process for connecting your Nokia system to the software? Yes, somebody's on site and then there's a code and how does that normally work?

So from the kind of onboarding perspective, essentially what we do is match up our unit list, unit lock list with you know, Stora and from then on when a tenant rents a unit, we're sent that information from Stora right away. Email address, phone number, name, units rented, just, just pretty, pretty basic information. Then when a tenant goes into overlock, whether that's, you know, whether, whether you're doing first a month or anniversary billing, we get that update straight away and restrict access. When the tenant pays, we get another update from, from the management system and we restore access right away. So we use a standard set of webhooks that the management system hits when different events happen and it's really, really seamless, quick. And updates come through to us in a matter of seconds.

Yeah, it is great. So we have customers, we allow our customers to drive up to our gate. Sorry, we allow non customers drive up to our gate to our website on their phone, book a unit, pass their ID check, sign the contract and just immediately get a, get a text message from Noki. So I often on a Sunday afternoon just receive a message on my phone saying somebody's booked and they've moved in and I'll be able to look in store and see they're paid and they're in unit number whatever and they're happily in there. And so it's a great experience for customers and it's a great experience for me too because that's just such a nice way to sell self storage. But it also works similarly with non payments. So if the payments feel our system messages people but we've communicated with your system and say this person isn't paid and they can be knocked out. But the second they pay, our system will send a message to Nokia and say they pay now they can get in. So people can go to the gate and actually sort out their late payment right there and then and just get straight back in again. So it's, yeah, it's a, it's a pretty slick system I have to say. And do you have the ability to let customers have restricted hours? So you know, some operators might let people, you know within 9 to 5 or have access 9 to 5, Monday to Saturday and then you might have. And one question I was gonna, I wanted to ask was about access hours. So some operators want to let customers, you know, move in 9, 5 or have access 9 to 5, Monday to Saturday and then maybe upsell on additional hours of access. Is that something that your system can handle?

Yeah, absolutely. So we have different schedules essentially that can be assigned to tenants so that, that can be done through the portal. So if you rent a unit to somebody that you know, you want to give 24 hour access to for some sort of charge, that can be edited on the tenant's profile in our web portal. And we have also recently added support to receive that through our webhooks, through our integrations. So that can be, that can now be fairly recent, but that can now be sent to us during the onboarding process for a tenant and we can, we can give that tenant automatically, you know, extended hours or you know, default hours, whatever, whatever the case may be.

That's interesting, Will. So that would allow us, because we handle the, the checkout store, you know, handling the checkout and the even upsells, you know, we could potentially be in store handling that offset and then our system will know that and could send that information directly to you. So you know, the, the operator, you know, once we support that, the operator can potentially be setting that up and that could be just completely automated too, which would be nice because it's a great way to upsell. Even just if it's just Sunday access or 7am to 9am and 5pm to 11pm, whatever it might be. That's good to know. One thing we get asked a lot, we have a lot of customers who have container sites and they also, lots of them want to automate, letting people in and out and also managing moving into the containers. And we do have some customers who have used the Nokia solution at their container site. And what they've generally done is bought the containers but then either added your doors or added your roller shutter door and then put Nokia on that. Is that the application of Noki you would see in container sites or is there other ways to use it as well?

That's what I've seen for the most part. Don't know Paul, if you've seen otherwise.

Yeah, I think predominantly that's the way we've seen it. It's obviously in the mixture like you said, entry only with the standard, you know, container padlock on the, on the, on the rooms or the conversion kits that, where they're converting it to either smaller units, you know, or putting A roller door on the end and generally that works. I think that's in keeping with our whole, you know, the product philosophy as well in terms of the being cloud connected. So, so we really want to, you know, if we want to install Nokia, we want to make sure that we're installing our, the Nokia 1 smart locks which are designed to fit a storage door. Just really to make sure that we're offering the full benefits of the product to the, to the container sites as well as the internal storage customer.

Yeah, what we've seen a lot particularly in the US is instead of doing container sites on those same kinds of properties, we've seen people use the mass, mass units. So the mobile, mobile storage unit with a, you know, Janus roller door, you know, already already fitted out and it's you know, basically the same application as, as container storage but a little more purpose built for the storage industry.

Okay. Okay, great. And what does is Moki if you're an operator in like anywhere in the world, is it available anywhere in the world or is are there. Do you just support certain countries?

For now, yeah, I would say that we support, you know, we're a global business. You know we, Janice has Noki have offices in primarily usa, Europe and Australasia but we've got, you know, we've got facilities obviously start in the U.S. canada, Mexico, UK, majority of Europe, Australia, New Zealand to name a few. What we do as well with our mobile app as well we have a number of different languages in the app. We've done the majority of the European countries that we've developed into, we've developed language translations for both the app and the web portal and we have a translation service that we use. Should we move into a new market? You know, if, if, if we feel that that needs, you know, other operator fields that needs local language in the app, then then we will, we will get the app translated. We can usually do that within you know, six to eight weeks, you know, a development period. We can have that completed to fairly quick process to ensure that we can, you know, give the best experience locally.

Okay. Okay, thanks Paul. One of the things that, so having my own, my own online sites here in Northern Ireland and with nobody there, we do things like the remote tours. So we've been giving people tours for, since we opened over the phone, which is great. One of the downsides, one of the, the only limitations I see with an online site and this is not to do with noki but a limitation is that if you've no staff there then some businesses when they want to store things, they kind of want more a service as well. So they want to be able to send deliveries there, pallets there. And I know lots of the bigger self storage operators will handle those sort of customers and maybe charge per pallet and charge for receiving deliveries. If you've got an online site, that's kind of impossible. You don't have somebody there with a forklift. But there probably are some ways to more cleverly handle deliveries potentially. Is this something that you have ever, you know, you have any experience of with your customers who are using noki? How are people operators trying to solve this problem of giving business customers a bit more service even in an online site? So one of the issues that I've found with my own sites here is with on man sites one of the limitations is business customers often want to, you know, who are using storage will want to receive deliveries like pallets and be Amazon deliveries. And if you've not got staff there who can drive a forklift or whatever else, that's just not possible. And so it's one of the limitations that sometimes I, the business customers ring up to inquire and we just haven't been able to bring them on. Obviously, you know, you're not going to, you can't without a forklift driver. There's no forklift driver. You can't unload Palace. But have you come up with any quite innovative ways that some of your operators who are using NOKI have managed to provide some sort of additional service to businesses for accepting deliveries at an on man site?

Yeah. So one that we see semi often is the business customer will give the operator access to their unit. You know, they'll do a key share with the facility, facility personnel and what that allows the operator to do is open that unit remotely. So when a, when a delivery driver gets there, you know, they'll, they'll be instructed to essentially call, call the operator's number and you know, they just in the web portal or in the smartphone app remotely in that lock and the, the, the delivery courier can essentially deliver service straight into the unit. So that's, that's probably the most common, common way I've seen to really allow business customers to get deliveries. Paul, I'm not sure if you've seen any other, any other ways to do that.

Yeah, I've seen a similar take on the, you know, the typical delivery unit that some operators have where they can allow delivery companies to deliver to one unit and that's really using all the other tools that, you know, the technology tools you know, your remote open facility, your CCTV so they can allow you know, a remotely open a delivery unit for a driver. They've got the cameras there so it's completely secure, monitored. They can monitor when they left the unit that's resecured again and follow that process. So they can minimize the risks of just allowing someone just to go into a unit without, you know, without any controls in place. So that's the other application that seen people do particularly with remotely managed facilities. Yeah.

Okay. All right, thanks very much. Well, so before we finish, is there anything that I haven't asked about that you think would be important for somebody considering their options to know about the Nokic system?

Yeah, sure. Just a couple of things just to touch on I think. Obviously I think we've spoke to your team Gavin a few times, you know, over the, the history of agility. There are times when you know there is some support needed from the NOKI team and you know we have a local support team based in Europe but because of our global nature we have, you know, a worldwide support team that can handle giving us global support backup out of hours. And you can contact, you know, we can be contacted via phone, email, chat pretty much around the clock. So you know, we, we and we will endeavor to you know, help solve as many things as we can. You know, on first time call when, when you, when, when people contact us. And I think the second part of that is in terms of our offering, you know we, we like to obviously we, we believe we sell a quality product and as part of our install, once that's completed we do provide a two year warranty on our hardware. So we've, we, we're covering that for the initial lease up period of the facility and onwards as well. But you know, we're making sure that people have the confidence that our product is you know, it's built to last and it's a, it's going to be great for their facility as they onboard their customers.

Yeah, and just, just to piggyback a little bit on the question earlier about you know, where we're available. As Paul mentioned, we're a global company. We've got around over over a quarter million devices installed now and that's in about 30 countries. So it really is a global solution and yeah, we're excited to talk to you about it today.

Yeah, me, well it's been great. I've learned some new stuff even though I have them on my site. So it's been great to hear about some of those things. So thank you very much so yeah. I have no other questions. You've answered everything really well. So thanks very much for all your time and I'm sure Paul definitely will see you pretty soon. I'm sure we'll meet at the UK conference. But yeah, thanks again.

Look forward to it Gavin, as always and thanks for your time.

Gavin thanks thank you for listening to Self Storage Explained, where we aim to provide expert advice on how to set up and scale your Self storage business. For more resources, including financial models and in depth guides for setting up or growing your business, visit our Self Storage Academy at Stora Cora Co Academy. And if you would like to find out more about how Stora can help your business grow sales and save time, set up a demo or contact us at Stora Cora Co.

Thank you.