Notre Dame College, Shepparton, Victoria

Creating a Safer Learning Environment: How Notre Dame College Modernised Access with ASSA ABLOY

Located in Shepparton, Victoria, Notre Dame College serves a diverse student and staff population across multiple buildings and zones - classrooms, administrative offices, specialist labs and community spaces. With a growing footprint and evolving security needs, the College recognised its legacy mechanical key and basic access-control arrangements were no longer delivering the flexibility, auditability or retrofit-friendly installation required in today’s educational environment.

To meet these demands, Notre Dame College engaged ASSA ABLOY’s wireless and digital access platform - deploying the Aperio^® wireless locking technology integrated with the Incedo^® access-control ecosystem (and including Impro^®-enabled hardware) across its campus doors. System integration was conducted by Solar City Locksmiths.

The Challenge

• The College had many doors covering differing zones: staff-only offices, student common areas, secure storage, external entry points. Managing mechanical keys and disparate access systems created security risk, administrative burden and lost-key cost.
• Installation downtime could not interfere with the school’s day-to-day operations - class schedules and movement of large numbers of students meant minimal disruption was essential.
• The access solution needed to support centralised credential issuance/revocation, integration with existing card credentials, audit-trail capability and scalability for future expansion.
• Legacy wired solutions required significant labour, cable runs and infrastructure change - costly and disruptive in a live educational environment.

The Solution: Aperio + Incedo (with Impro hardware)

Notre Dame College selected a combined solution incorporating:

• Aperio^® wireless locking devices: Battery-powered escutcheons, cylinders and electronic handles equipped with RFID readers that retrofit into existing doorlocks, enabling online door control. According to ASSA ABLOY, “Aperio^® provides end users with a simple, intelligent way to upgrade the controllability and security level of their premises” via wireless communication to a hub. 
• Incedo^® access-control ecosystem: A scalable platform able to integrate both wired and wireless locks, credential types (card, mobile) and centralised software management. From ASSA ABLOY: “Incedo systems have been designed to provide the usability, flexibility and updatability demanded in today’s always-on world. Easily expandable and endlessly scalable.”
• Impro^®-enabled hardware: To support campus-specific door types, secure cupboards, specialist labs and external access zones requiring higher-level access hardware, the solution incorporated Impro^®-enabled locks as part of the system architecture (Impro is part of the ASSA ABLOY access-control hardware offering).
• Installation by Solar City Locksmiths, with phased rollout across the College buildings during term and holiday windows, ensuring minimal interruption to student movement and teaching.
• The combined solution allowed existing card credentials to be leveraged, remote revocation of access, audit-logging of door events, and the ability to scale across new buildings, future expansions or mobile credential adoption.

With the Aperio-Incedo-Impro combination we chose for Notre Dame College, we ensured a future-proof access control framework that could retrofit without major disruption, incorporate our existing credentials and provide full audit visibility across all doors. It was clearly the best choice for the campus.

-  Scott Forsyth, BDM VIC/TAS – Commercial Access Control, ASSA ABLOY Australia

Our team at Solar City Locksmiths worked with the College to schedule installations around term-time constraints, retrofitting Aperio wireless locks under the Incedo system with minimal impact on teaching and student movement. The end result delivers both operational ease and enhanced security.

- Solar City Locksmiths (System Integrator)

Why This Matters for Education Environments

• Tracking & Auditability: Wireless digital locks under Aperio enable fully logged door events, credential use, time-zones and access rights- critical for student safety, staff movement and regulatory compliance. Aperio supports “authorisation changes in real time … audit trails and time zones managed through existing system.”
• Ease of Installation & Retrofit: By retrofitting existing door hardware with battery-powered wireless locks, the installation avoided major rewiring or structural works - important in a live campus environment. As one industry commentary states: “The Australian Aperio product range … allows a quick and easy installation saving massive amounts of costs and time spent on site.”
• Seamless Integration & Scalability: The Incedo platform supports wired and wireless locks, multiple credential types (card, token, mobile) and centralised software, meaning the College can expand access control as buildings change or new access zones are added.
• Operational Efficiency: Fewer mechanical keys, fewer lost-key issues, remote credential management, and minimal disruption to operations means cost savings, less administrative overhead and faster reactions to access-changes (e.g., new staff, students, visitor access).
• Future-Proofing: The campus is enabled for future credential upgrades (e.g., mobile access), additional doors, new buildings, or changes in how access is managed (e.g., via the Incedo Business Cloud option).

Outcomes & Key Benefits

• Notre Dame College now benefits from a unified access-control platform covering multiple buildings and zones, replacing fragmented legacy systems.
• Installation was completed with minimal disruption - due to the wireless and retrofit-friendly nature of Aperio plus the meticulous scheduling by Solar City Locksmiths.
• Staff and administrators can now centrally manage access rights, revoke or change credentials instantly, monitor door use, and obtain audit logs for review.
• The College has a scalable, flexible access-control infrastructure ready for future growth - whether additional buildings, specialist facilities or credential upgrades (such as mobile keys).
• Risk of lost keys, manual re-keying, and inconsistent access management is significantly reduced.

Conclusion

For a busy educational institution like Notre Dame College Shepparton, embracing digital access control with ASSA ABLOY’s Aperio, Incedo and Impro-enabled hardware has delivered a high-performance solution that meets operational, security and future-growth needs. With seamless integration, minimal disruption, and full audit capability, the College now enjoys a modern, efficient and secure access-control ecosystem.