Intelligent, digital key management technology
Smartbox is a security platform with a cabinet attached, not a cabinet with software bolted on. Every cabinet is a connected IoT device, managed in the cloud.
Some of our customers
The range
Every cabinet is built from 14-key strips, so one system scales from a single strip to several thousand keys across networked cabinets. The hardware is engineered in Scandinavia by Creone and integrated into the Smartbox platform. Rental guide prices for every size are in the configurator.
Two ways to set up your pegs. Fixed gives every peg a numbered home, so peg 3 only ever comes back to slot 3. Pooled lets a peg live in any linked cabinet, so a key taken in Birmingham can be handed back in London or Manchester, and the cloud keeps every site in step.
Two peg types for the same strips. Locking pegs are held in place and release only for the right person. Unlocking pegs lift straight out, with every movement still identified and logged. Try it: click a peg below.
A badge on a lanyard, a MIFARE card, a PIN, and soon a palm: every user identifies before a single key moves, and each identification lands in the audit trail.
Touchless palm vein recognition from 15 to 45 cm, authenticating in under 0.35 seconds. A palm cannot be lent to a colleague or left in a jacket pocket.
Contactless identification for the smart cards your staff already carry, from MIFARE Classic to DESFire EV3, with AES128 encrypted card-to-reader communication.
Every intelligent cabinet supports RFID badge and PIN login as standard, with the branded readers as upgrades where sites need more.
Every cabinet connects to KeyWin6 over outbound-only communication to the Azure cloud. No inbound ports, no local server. And the platform plugs into the systems you already run.
Create, update and remove users and groups from your own systems with the KeyWin6 web API, in bulk when you need to. The same API connects third-party access control, including ASSA ARX.
Administrators sign in through your own identity provider using SAML 2.0. Every authentication request KeyWin6 sends is signed, and password login for administrators can be switched off.
Each cabinet carries the Azure IoT Hub SDK and speaks over one outbound, encrypted channel. Firmware and new features arrive several times a year, signed and verified.
The platform is scanned and monitored continuously in Azure, with quick feedback whenever a risk is identified.
Email alerts reach staff and management in real time, and the full event log can be exported through the API.
Your data is held in Microsoft's Amsterdam data centre by default, inside the EU, with the region selectable if it needs to live elsewhere.
Two-factor login protects both ends of the platform: identification at the cabinet and administrator sign-in to KeyWin6.
Every cabinet has its own battery backup, so authorised users can still take and return keys through an outage. Events are stored locally and sync to KeyWin6 when the connection returns.
Active Directory integration arrives later in 2026, linking KeyWin6 user management directly to your directory.
Security
A key cabinet only earns its place if you can prove what happened. Every event in every cabinet is recorded, synced to the cloud and ready to export.
Every removal and return recorded: who, which key, when, and for how long.
Each user sees only the keys their role allows, while trusted staff can hold wider standing access.
Reserve a key ahead of time, so it is waiting for the right person and nobody leaves empty-handed.
When a key is overdue or a door is left open, an email goes straight to the people who need to know.
Traffic between cabinets, the cloud and administrators is encrypted.
An alert the moment something is wrong, from a forced door to a key that has not come back.
Exportable reports filtered by user, key or site, ready for audit.
Why change
Hooks and log books work until the day you need an answer. Then the difference is stark.
Partners
The hardware and the software each come from a specialist. Every cabinet is engineered and manufactured by Creone in Sweden, and the KeyWin6 platform behind it is developed and maintained in partnership with Combitech, part of the defence and security group Saab.
Cabinet engineering and manufacture
Creone have made key and valuables cabinets since 1979, with manufacturing and the head office in Tranås, Sweden. Every Smartbox cabinet is a Creone build: the same steel, strips and pegs that secure keys in some 50 countries, mainly in Europe.
Part of the Saab group
The KeyWin6 platform behind every Smartbox cabinet is developed and maintained in partnership with Combitech, part of the defence and security group Saab (founded 1937, around 28,000 employees worldwide). The same house delivers electronic warfare software to a NATO member state and works on the Swedish Armed Forces' digital command and control infrastructure.
KeyWin6 runs on Microsoft Azure IoT. Cabinets connect via outbound-only communication to the cloud service, so there is nothing to install on-site and no server to maintain. Administrators manage every cabinet, key and user from anywhere.
No inbound ports are opened on your network: cabinets call out to the Azure IoT Hub and nothing calls in. Each customer runs on a separate SQL database, encrypted at rest with AES256 and backed up continuously with seven-day point-in-time restore. The KeyWin6 web front end and API are tested against the OWASP Top 10.
How it works
Any screen
The admin portal runs in any modern browser, so the same live picture follows you from the office to the site floor: every cabinet, every key, every user.
Customers
Industries
About us
Smartbox is deployed and supported by our own UK-based team, with field engineers reaching customers from Truro to Inverness.
Field engineer coverageFull support desk, Birmingham
Rentals
Rent Smartbox for one fixed monthly price: hardware on the wall, software in the cloud and support behind it, with everything kept current automatically.
One fixed monthly price.
Predictable from day one. Everything listed is in the price.
Get a rental quote See the guide price for your sizeInstallation available at an additional cost.
What is included
Configurator
Tell us how many keys you manage and the right cabinet picks itself. Choose your strips and entry option, and an exact quotation follows within one working day.
Slide to the number of keys you have and we put you in the next cabinet up: 42, 70, 98, 126, 154 or 210.
Unlocking strips: any peg lifts straight out, with every movement identified and logged.
PIN code entry is included. A fitted RFID card reader adds £16 a month.
Getting started
Tell us your key count and an exact quotation follows within one working day.
Cabinets are wall-mounted and run from a standard 230 V supply. Installation is available at an additional cost.
The cabinet connects outbound-only to the Smartbox cloud, so nothing is installed on your network.
Users, groups and access rules are set up in KeyWin6, in bulk through the web API if you have many.
Updates
Firmware and software updates arrive over the air: security fixes, improvements and new features, live on every cabinet without anyone lifting a finger.
Remote demonstration
Tell us how you manage keys today and we will show you KeyWin6 live on a remote demonstration, with your own setup on screen. No visit, no obligation.
Not ready for a demo? Choose Talk to us on the form.
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