Manage many doors and many dwellings from one position, and act on behalf of residents.

A resident's monitor is associated with one dwelling and one entrance relationship. A concierge station receives calls from every entrance it covers, shows which door is calling, and can release any of them.

It can also handle calls directed to residents - answering when a resident does not, taking a message, transferring the call, or admitting an expected visitor on the resident's instruction.

It typically keeps a log of calls and door releases, which is the record that matters after an incident and which no resident device provides.

And it is the position from which deliveries, contractors and services are managed - a function that in an unstaffed building falls back on residents individually and generally works badly.

That combination is why staffed buildings have them, and why the specification is driven by how the desk actually operates.

Calls fall back to residents, to a remote monitoring centre, or to an unattended mode - and deciding which is one of the more important design questions.

Most concierge desks are not staffed continuously. When the desk is unattended the system must do something sensible: route calls directly to the dwelling being called, forward them to a remote centre, or present a different interface at the entrance.

Falling back to residents is the usual arrangement and requires that resident stations and the associated cabling support direct calling - which is a design decision rather than an automatic capability.

Remote monitoring suits sheltered and supported housing, where an unanswered call needs a person rather than an unanswered ring.

The transition should be automatic and scheduled rather than depending on someone remembering to switch a mode.

Agree the out-of-hours arrangement with whoever manages the building before specifying, since it determines both the system architecture and the entrance panel's behaviour.

By bringing them to the same operator position, so entry decisions are made with the information available.

A concierge deciding whether to admit someone benefits from seeing the door camera, knowing whether the person holds a valid credential, and being able to release the correct lock - and doing all of that from one screen rather than three systems.

Integrated platforms present door entry calls, CCTV views and access control events together, and log them together, which makes the record far more useful afterwards.

The practical caution is that integration is where projects overrun. Systems from different manufacturers integrate to varying depths, and a claimed integration may amount to less than expected.

Establish exactly what each integration does - not merely that it exists - and see it demonstrated on the actual product versions being supplied. Where possible, choose a platform that provides the functions natively rather than assembling three systems and an interface.

Calls received and by whom, doors released and when, and the operator responsible - retained long enough to be useful and handled under data protection obligations.

The record that matters after an incident is who was admitted, at which door, at what time, and on whose decision. A concierge station is the only device in a door entry system positioned to record that.

Where the system integrates with CCTV, associating an image with each release makes the log far more valuable.

Retention needs deciding deliberately. These records identify individuals, so data protection requirements apply: a stated purpose, a retention period, controlled access, and transparency about the recording.

Specify what is logged and for how long, and confirm the log can actually be searched and exported - a log that exists but can only be reviewed event by event on screen is of limited use in an investigation.

Showing which door is calling unmistakably, releasing the right lock in one action, and remaining clear when several calls arrive at once.

The failure mode to design out is releasing the wrong door. On a system covering several entrances, the interface must make the calling door obvious and the release control unambiguous - preferably with the camera view and the release control associated visually.

Speed matters because callers wait for a short time before assuming nobody is there, so accepting a call and seeing the caller should be immediate.

Multiple simultaneous calls are the condition that separates good interfaces from poor ones, and it is worth demonstrating explicitly.

Physical arrangement counts too: the station's position at the desk, sight lines to the entrance itself, glare on the screen, and whether the operator can use it while doing the rest of their job.

Involve the people who will staff the desk in selecting it.

In smaller buildings where one person controls entry as part of a wider role - sheltered housing wardens, school and office receptions, site offices and small estates.

A master station provides the essential functions - answering calls from one or a few entrances, seeing the caller, releasing the door - without the multi-door management, extensive logging and integration that a concierge desk needs.

That suits a receptionist who answers the door among other duties, or a warden covering a single scheme.

They are also used as a secondary position alongside a concierge desk - in a back office or a security room - so cover continues when the main desk is unattended.

The selection question is the same as for a concierge station though: what happens when nobody is at the master station, and does the system fall back sensibly to residents or to a remote centre. A master station in an unstaffed reception with no fallback leaves callers with no route in at all.

The operational arrangements - staffing hours, out-of-hours fallback, visitor and delivery handling, and who administers credentials.

These decide the system architecture more than any product feature does, and they are frequently left until after installation.

Staffing hours determine whether an out-of-hours mode is needed and what it does. Visitor and delivery handling determines whether the desk needs to admit contractors, hold packages, or issue temporary credentials - each of which implies capability.

Credential administration is the one most often unresolved: who issues fobs, how a lost one is voided, what happens on a change of tenancy. Without an owner, access control degrades into shared codes and propped doors within a year.

And the fire strategy must be settled, since egress cannot depend on the system and the concierge position may have a role in an evacuation.

Get these agreed with the building manager in writing before specifying, and the hardware choice usually becomes straightforward.