Breeze: The platform that
makes smart identity simple
One person. One identity. One platform.
Monday morning, 07:58. Three new employees are standing at the reception desk. Their cards are not where they’re supposed to be. IT doesn’t know who they are. HR thought the operations team handled it. The receptionist has no way of checking where the cards are without calling around or sending emails. This is a fictional story that reflects events happening in office buildings every single week.
These situations don’t occur because the building lacks technology, but because no one has full oversight of who should have which access. In a smart building, it’s not enough that light and air adjust automatically — you need to know who has access, and why. This is exactly what Breeze is built for: secure onboarding, administration, and offboarding. A unified platform for smart, secure, and efficient identity management.
ID-photos collection was its own bottleneck. Many organizations didn’t have updated photos of their employees — often no photos at all. That triggered even more emails or requirements for physical attendance with a dedicated camera setup. Data had to be exported from one system, imported into another — and sometimes sent onward to a third. The larger the organization, the clearer the weaknesses became.
Smart technology without smart identities is like a building with a loose foundation: it may look stable, but beneath the surface lies poor control and increased risk.
The challenge: Technology without control creates false security
Many buildings invest in sensors, access systems, and automation. But what’s often overlooked is the foundation for all of it: identity. When identities are managed manually — through emails, Excel sheets, and fragmented processes — security gaps, duplicated work, and frustration arise. Employees receive incorrect access, guests are forgotten, and no one has full oversight.
“We saw a clear gap between how identities should be handled — and how it actually worked in practice,” says Product Owner Marius Nergård at Sotera. “A card order could ‘live its own life’ in one person’s inbox without others having insight or control. Often there was no status or traceability — you had to ask around to find out whether the card was ordered, produced, or shipped.”
Breeze is a cloud-based platform for identity and access management that gathers all processes into one solution — from ordering access cards and mobile IDs to activation, changes, and offboarding.
We chose to build the platform from the ground up. “Our ambition has always been to fully manage a digital identity and all associated permissions within one single platform,” says Nergård. That gave us complete control over functionality, security, and integrations.
In short:
One portal for collection, ordering, production, and activation
Full traceability and real-time overview
Integration with HR systems, access control, and existing IAM
User-friendly interface with robust role and permission management
The platform is modular, API-available, and built on open standards. This means Breeze can grow with the building and the systems around it — without becoming a bottleneck. It works with existing infrastructure rather than requiring full replacement.
What is Breeze?
How does it work in practice?
We started where the need was most urgent: physical ID and card production. Before Breeze, card orders were handled via manual emails. Data lived in separate systems. Processes were person-dependent and inefficient.
With Breeze, everything happens in one continuous process:
Tenants or operations managers can easily submit orders online for a streamlined experience.
ID photos can be uploaded or taken using the Duo ID self-service feature by the cardholder, or managed by an administrator through the portal.
Combined with the background removal functionality, this helps administrators streamline the process and gives your organization a professional look on all ID credentials.
Cards are produced and encoded locally when needed — or centrally at Sotera, with professional quality and full traceability
Activation happens automatically or upon receipt
Any updates to cards or identities in Breeze are automatically reflected in your connected access control system.
The result is an end-to-end, traceable identity lifecycle that reduces manual work, eliminates errors, and gives organizations consistent processes — regardless of size. “For me, it’s mostly that Breeze actually makes everyday work easier — for customers, for partners, and for us,” says Nergård.
What does it mean for you?
For property managers and building owners:
Professional and fully documented identity management. GDPR and NIS2 compliance through complete logging. Higher property value and simpler audits. Predictable onboarding for new tenants.
For operations teams:
Less manual work and fewer errors. One portal offering full overview of all ID holders. Tenants can order and manage access themselves — operations stays in control without becoming a bottleneck.
For security managers:
Fast deactivation during offboarding or lost cards. Integration with access control and existing systems. Complete logging and audit trails. Support for secure protocols and mobile credentials.
For us at Sotera, it’s also about ensuring quality throughout the entire supply chain, rolling out improvements quickly, and building on a stable, modular foundation.
Built for the future
Breeze is developed with what’s coming in mind. Going forward, identity will play an even larger role because more systems will need to communicate, and demands for security and traceability will continue to tighten.
We are also building Breeze toward more automation: hires in HR should automatically trigger the correct access and orders. We are following the development of AI closely and already use it for concrete tasks like translations and ID-photo background removal. Over time, agents will be able to handle more processes on behalf of users through secure interfaces.
Another important need ahead is insight: the ability to easily see who has which permissions — and why. This makes it possible to maintain strong control, traceability, and give tenants access to their own data. With stricter frameworks like NIS2, Breeze must evolve in all these directions — without losing simplicity at its core.
What Sotera is working toward
Many still view physical and digital identity as two separate things. IT manages user accounts; operations manages physical access. But it's the same person receiving both. If these don’t align, security gaps appear. The user account may be deactivated while the access card still works. For attackers, this is a golden opportunity: a former employee with active physical access is an ideal starting point for a hybrid attack, as described in the article on access control.
Another misconception is that identity is a background service — something that “just needs to be there,” but not as important as new apps or visible features. The reality is the opposite: without strong routines and systems for who is who, who has which roles, and how access changes over time, the rest of the technology loses much of its value.
“A building doesn’t become ‘smart’ by adding new technology on top if the identity foundation is manual and unclear. One person — one identity — one platform. That’s where we need to go,” says Nergård.
The path forward starts with identetity
Smart identity management isn’t just for large organizations. Breeze is developed to provide professional, flexible, and secure identity handling to organizations with high demands but limited time and resources.
We build for users, partners, and owners — unified in one platform. When identities are managed holistically, buildings become safer, onboarding becomes faster, and security work becomes more precise.
Want to see how it works in practice? Contact us — and see how Breeze can simplify your identity management.