Digital key makes parcel delivery easy

Danish tech company Bekey aims to expand the use of its digital key solution, offering safe and smooth delivery and ensuring that couriers can deliver parcels successfully.

Danes are buying electronics, furniture and clothes on the Internet on an unprecedented scale. The strong expansion of e-commerce in recent years reached new heights during the COVID-19 crisis, but it also had its challenges. Overloaded parcel shops and redirected parcels have become a big issue for online shops, courier services and not least consumers, and the trend has become particularly evident in the past year.

Danish-based Bekey, forming part of the North Media Group, provides the solution to smooth delivery services in future, according to CEO Jannik Bray Christensen. 

Massive pressure
“Good and efficient delivery remains one of the major hurdles both in relation to finances and convenience to a large number of businesses. In the past year, we have seen massive pressure on parcel delivery services which has exposed the need for a solution, ensuring that couriers can deliver parcels successfully and that consumers always get parcels delivered to their doorstep,” says Bray Christensen.

Bekey works by way of a simple concealed chip on the inside of the stairwell’s entry phone system, which provides access to the stairwell. Courier services can use Bekey’s digital key platform or even integrate the function directly into their own digital platforms to ensure quick and easy parcel delivery.

Widely used in Copenhagen
Today, Bekey’s key platform is already used in 29 Danish and 44 Norwegian municipalities. To Bray Christensen, the goal is to become the market standard for access to stairwells in Denmark, and the company’s solution is currently installed in every second stairwell in Greater Copenhagen, providing access to a total of 200,000 multi-storey units.

To Bekey, the goal is for the expansion to reach various business segments.

“Bekey’s solution has been important to municipalities in Norway and Denmark, but we are very pleased that couriers delivering parcels, property administrators and others have also become aware of the benefits of keyless entry. We have great ambitions for our scalable key platform, and right now we are seeing a huge need for our solution that may eliminate unsuccessful delivery attempts which are a costly affair for freight companies, courier services and municipalities,” says Bray Christensen.

How the system works
Since 2008, Bekey has expanded its customer segment massively among municipalities, newspaper and promotional leaflet carriers as well as meal delivery services in both Denmark and Norway.

In 2020, Bekey facilitated the authorised opening of 10 million doors for 32,000 users in Denmark and Norway. Bekey also has a ten-year contract with the City of Copenhagen. Bekey is one of several digital platforms under North Media A/S, which also includes BoligPortal.dk and Ofir.

The system works by way of a secure digital platform which automatically allocates encrypted digital keys to selected service providers.

Unchanged function
Certified fitters install the solution in the existing entry phone system, which continues to serve its original purpose so residents can let themselves in using a key as usual.

A concealed chip on the inside of the entry phone provides access to the stairwell by way of Bekey’s Netkey software. Couriers simply use Bekey’s digital key platform and need no longer worry about locked stairwells and redirected parcel routes.

Moreover, the software may be integrated into the courier services’ own digital platforms so that the couriers can quickly and easily deliver parcels.

The article is published by Børsen. Read the original article in Danish here.