A large social housing provider managing approximately 10,000 homes required a more secure and efficient way to manage access across its estate. With increasing safety requirements, significant administrative workloads and the need to support incident investigations more effectively, the organisation selected SALTO Systems’ smart access control technology, delivered and supported by TMB Systems, a Platinum SALTO Partner.
About the Organisation
The provider operates as a social landlord, employing around 130 staff responsible for delivering safe, sustainable housing and high‑quality services to tenants and leaseholders. Its strategic priorities include improving building safety, preventing homelessness and supporting strong, inclusive communities. To help meet these goals, the organisation moved away from traditional key‑based access and adopted a modern, centrally managed smart access control solution.
About SALTO
SALTO Systems is a global leader in electronic access control and a core part of the SALTO WECOSYSTEM. Its technology enables organisations to replace physical keys with secure electronic credentials, allowing centralised control, remote access assignment, and detailed audit trails.
The organisation uses SALTO to manage permissions across its housing schemes and support investigations into anti‑social behaviour. One residential building alone contains over 1,050 SALTO door locks, demonstrating the system’s scalability, reliability and suitability for large multi‑building estates.
Selecting the Right Partner
A multi‑disciplinary panel from the organisation’s facilities and procurement teams led the tender process, seeking a partner with proven SALTO expertise. Their previous provider, a generalist contractor, lacked the depth of specialist knowledge needed to support the technology effectively, resulting in high callout volumes and operational challenges.
TMB Systems was selected based on:
- Platinum Partner status with SALTO
- Demonstrated technical understanding through previous smaller projects
- A track record of delivering within budget and time constraints
- Clear, structured proposals and reliable communication
- Strong interpersonal skills and positive engagement with housing managers
Planning and Delivery
From the outset, TMB provided detailed, well‑structured information to support the tender and planning phases. Communication had previously been a challenge with other contractors, often causing delays across housing schemes. TMB’s consistent, transparent approach ensured smooth coordination with managers across all sites.
A phased upgrade was delivered across multiple sheltered schemes. More than 1,050 SALTO locks were installed or modernised, and every site was migrated onto the SALTO Space platform for unified, centralised management.
Training and Support
TMB provided hands‑on training for housing managers, enabling them to independently complete routine tasks such as issuing fobs, revoking access and reviewing audit trails. This reduced reliance on external callouts and streamlined day‑to‑day operations.
System Improvements with SALTO Space
The transition to SALTO Space has significantly improved usability for staff. Navigating audit logs, managing user access and handling operational queries are now far more straightforward. These improvements have contributed directly to smoother workflows across the housing portfolio.
Performance and Communication
The contract management team reports:
- A significant reduction in callouts
- Fewer complaints
- Increased satisfaction among housing managers
- Minimal need for senior management involvement
TMB provides monthly updates summarising all completed work, ensuring transparency and reducing administrative load.
Outcomes and Benefits
Since the upgrade, the organisation has seen clear operational and financial benefits:
- Fewer callouts and operational incidents
- Reduced administrative workload
- Greater autonomy for frontline staff
- Elimination of costs associated with cutting and managing physical keys
- Enhanced security through digital auditability and consistent access control
- More reliable day‑to‑day operations across sheltered housing environments
Staff have highlighted the value of the new system, with one stakeholder commenting that it now “makes no sense to have anything other than a system like SALTO.”
The Upgrade
“I’m very grateful for the high‑quality support TMB provides for the access control systems installed across our residential properties. Their team responds quickly, diagnoses issues accurately and resolves them within agreed SLAs, ensuring downtime is kept to a minimum. The professionalism and technical expertise they demonstrate are excellent, and it is reassuring to have a partner as reliable as TMB supporting our security infrastructure. I would confidently recommend them to any organisation requiring dependable and timely SALTO access control support.”
