During our recent months of market expansion in Europe, we had in-depth discussions with numerous system integrators, turnstile manufacturers, and access control solution providers.
The industry challenges they repeatedly highlighted were remarkably consistent. Below are the three most prominent pain points currently facing the market:
Starting August 2025, the new RED (Radio Equipment Directive) cybersecurity requirements have officially come into effect. Many projects have incurred far more time and cost than expected just to handle certification documents, Declarations of Conformity (DoC), and technical dossiers.
While solutions from high-end Tier-1 brands are highly reliable in terms of performance and certification, their premium pricing and long lead times often become major pain points during project bidding. Integrators are constantly forced to balance high-security standards with strict BOM (Bill of Materials) cost control.
A vast number of projects still require simultaneous support for legacy cards alongside next-generation high-security standards (LEGIC Advant, MIFARE DESFire EV2/EV3, and mobile NFC/BLE). This adds significant workloads in firmware adaptation, key management, and ODP/OSDP integration.
Interestingly, when we dug deeper and asked, "What do your customers (the end-users) truly need to solve?" the feedback was equally focused:
High Security + Auditability (fully compliant with GDPR and critical infrastructure requirements)
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Rapid Project Delivery & Easy Post-Deployment Maintenance
Seamless Migration Paths (avoiding costly "rip-and-replace" scenarios)
To make this actionable, we have structured these real-world insights into a typical scenario using the 4W Framework:
When: During the project bidding or design freeze phase.
Where: Turnstile projects in mid-to-large commercial buildings, industrial plants, and university campuses.
Who: Technical Directors, Procurement Managers, and Project Managers.
What: After adopting existing high-end module solutions, they realize the cost exceeds budget by 15–20%. However, they hesitate to switch to cheaper alternatives out of fear of incomplete certifications, lacking firmware support, and long-term after-sales risks.
This exact scenario plays out almost every single week in the European market.
As a manufacturer with over a decade of deep expertise in LEGIC technology (and an official licensee of LEGIC Switzerland), we are supplying European partners—via daostone Oy (Finland)—with high-security LEGIC modules and readers, as well as DESFire solutions currently nearing completion, while simultaneously addressing certification and local support requirements.
Only by truly understanding the pain points of European integrators can we deliver solutions of genuine value.
