One of the most common concerns we hear from manufacturers about universal standards is surprisingly candid: "If everyone can use the same credential technology, why will customers choose us?"
It's an honest question that reflects a real anxiety in the access control industry. If interoperability means any lock can work with any credential, doesn't that commoditize the market? Doesn't it eliminate differentiation?
The concern is understandable, but it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about how companies compete in our industry—and where real value comes from.
Let’s be direct about the facts: major end users are increasingly unwilling to consider products that don't comply with established credentialing standards. Compliance with standards like those from the LEAF Community isn't a competitive advantage—it's a prerequisite for being considered at all.
This represents a significant shift in customer expectations. Five or ten years ago, proprietary systems were the norm, and customers expected to be locked into vendor ecosystems. Today, customers are educated about vendor lock-in, aware of the long-term costs, and increasingly demanding interoperability as a basic requirement.
So if you're not participating in standards, you're not just losing a competitive advantage—you're losing your seat at the table entirely.
If everyone is supporting the same credential standards, how do companies differentiate? The same way they always have: by building better products in all the other dimensions that matter to customers.
Build Quality and Reliability: How long does your hardware last in real-world conditions? How does it perform in extreme temperatures or weather? How long is the warranty? These physical characteristics matter enormously and have nothing to do with credential technology.
Features and Functionality: Does your lock have battery monitoring, is it reliable and do they last long? How intuitive is the administrative interface? Does it integrate smoothly with building management systems? Can it support door position or lockdown? These features create real value beyond basic credential reading.
Price and Value: Can you deliver comparable functionality at a better price point? Or deliver premium features that justify a higher price? Standards compliance doesn't dictate your pricing strategy.
User Experience: How easy is your product to install? To configure? To troubleshoot? How good is your documentation? These factors dramatically affect total cost of ownership and customer satisfaction.
Customer Support: How responsive is your technical support? How knowledgeable? Do you provide training resources? Do you stand behind your products when there are issues?
Innovation Beyond Standards: Here's the key point: complying with a credentialing standard doesn't mean that's the only technology you support or the only innovation you pursue.
At PDQ, we participate in and support LEAF standards. That gives our customers confidence in interoperability and future-proofing. But it doesn't mean that's all we do or that's where our innovation stops.
We continue to develop additional features, support additional credential technologies, and explore new capabilities that go beyond the baseline standard. Standards provide a foundation—a reliable, interoperable baseline that customers can count on. But there's no reason you can't build additional value on top of that foundation.
Think about it this way: lots of vehicles comply with safety standards for airbags and crash testing. Those standards don't prevent manufacturers from competing on comfort, performance, efficiency, design, or dozens of other attributes. The standards ensure a safety baseline while manufacturers differentiate on everything else that matters to customers.
The same principle applies in access control. Standards ensure interoperability and security baselines. Manufacturers differentiate on reliability, features, integration capabilities, user experience, pricing, and innovation in areas beyond the core standard.
Consider mobile credentials as an example. Multiple companies now support mobile credentials, but there's enormous variation in the implementation:
Two companies can both "support mobile credentials" while delivering vastly different user experiences and administrative capabilities. The standard defines technical interoperability—how the credential and reader communicate securely. The implementation determines whether customers love using it or struggle with it daily.
The anxiety about standards often comes from market leaders who worry that interoperability will erode their dominant position. We understand that concern, but think it's misplaced.
If you're a market leader with 80% market share, and suddenly your products become compatible with a standard that anyone can implement, what happens? You should still be innovating in all the ways that made you a market leader in the first place.
Your customer relationships, brand reputation, distribution network, product quality, and all the other factors that contribute to market leadership don't disappear because credential technology becomes interoperable. If your competitive advantage was based solely on proprietary lock-in, that's a vulnerable position anyway—and one that customers are increasingly rejecting.
Instead, market leaders should view standards as an opportunity to compete on the merits of their complete offering rather than on artificial switching costs. If your products are truly superior, you should welcome a marketplace where customers choose you because you're the best option, not because they're locked in.
When we hear concerns about standards "stealing business," it sounds cynical —like a fundamental lack of confidence in your own product. It suggests that the only reason customers stay with you is because they can't easily switch.
That's not a sustainable business position in today's market. Customers are too educated, have too many options, and are too aware of the costs of vendor lock-in. Building a business on the foundation of making it hard for customers to leave is increasingly untenable.
A better approach is to build products so good that customers choose you even when they have other options. Make it easy for customers to switch if they want to—and then give them every reason to stay because your products and service are excellent.
So what does competition look like when everyone supports the same standards? It looks like competition in any mature market:
Focus on Customer Needs: Understand what your customers actually care about beyond basic functionality. What are their pain points? What would make their jobs easier? What features would they value?
Innovate Continuously: Don't rest on standards compliance. Keep developing new capabilities, improving existing features, and finding ways to deliver more value.
Build Relationships: Invest in customer relationships, technical support, and partnership ecosystems. Long-term relationships matter more when products are technically interoperable.
Communicate Value: Help customers understand what makes your products different and better. Credential standards might be the same, but everything else about your offering can be distinctive.
Deliver Quality: At the end of the day, quality and reliability matter enormously. Build products that work well, last long, and perform as promised.
The access control industry is moving toward greater interoperability, and that's a good thing for everyone—manufacturers included. Yes, it changes how we compete, but it doesn't eliminate competition or the ability to differentiate.
Companies that thrive will be those that embrace standards as a foundation while continuing to innovate and deliver value in all the dimensions that matter to customers. Companies that resist standards to preserve proprietary lock-in will increasingly find themselves excluded from consideration by sophisticated customers.
As a manufacturer, we’re confident in this direction because we’re confident in our ability to compete on the merits of our products. We don't need proprietary lock-in to keep customers—we need excellent products that solve real problems. Standards help us demonstrate that we're confident enough in our offering to let customers choose us freely.
That's the kind of marketplace that's healthy for everyone: customers get choice and interoperability, and manufacturers compete by building the best possible products. The companies that win won't be those that locked customers in—they'll be those that customers chose to work with because they consistently delivered superior value.
That's the future we want to compete in, and we think most customers would agree.
Read the complete series:
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