dormakaba Modernizes a Mission-Critical Security Platform with Progress KendoReact
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Challenge
Kaba exos 9300, a 30-year-old platform, relied on a legacy desktop architecture that created deployment complexity and scalability limits. An initial web transition introduced inconsistencies, requiring a stable, enterprise-ready frontend to support complex workflows without risking reliability.
Solution
- Implemented KendoReact for enterprise-grade UI components and consistency
- Leveraged Data Grid and TreeView for complex workflows and large datasets
- Continued Telerik/Kendo ecosystem usage for long-term stability and continuity
Result
- Transitioned from desktop to centralized web architecture with React
- Eliminated per-device installations and reduced operational complexity
- Strengthened long-term platform reliability in security-critical environments
Full Story
Challenge
For more than 30 years, dormakaba’s Kaba exos 9300 platform has powered physical access control across highly secure environments, including financial institutions, global enterprises and critical infrastructure. In these contexts, system stability is essential.
Originally built as a .NET-based desktop (fat-client) application, Kaba exos 9300 became increasingly difficult to maintain and scale. Each deployment required installation and updates on individual machines, creating significant operational overhead and introducing risk during upgrades. As release cycles accelerated, these inefficiencies compounded.
An initial transition to web technologies in 2014 marked the first step toward modernization. Using Telerik tools and Kendo UI for jQuery, dormakaba introduced a web layer to the platform. However, the implementation—delivered by an external partner—introduced architectural inconsistencies and long-term maintainability challenges. As the system evolved, these issues made it harder to standardize development and extend functionality with confidence.
dormakaba needed a frontend foundation that could support complex workflows, large datasets and long-term evolution, without introducing instability. The challenge was clear: modernize the platform without disrupting the trust built over decades.
The fat-to-web migration of Kaba exos 9300 would not have been possible without a framework like Kendo.
Bertram Weckmann
Senior Manager, Software Development at dormakaba
Solution
In 2019, dormakaba made a decisive shift. Rather than continuing to extend the existing frontend, the team refactored its web clients and adopted React as the foundation for a second-generation architecture.
React provided the structure for a more maintainable and scalable frontend. To complement it, dormakaba selected KendoReact as the enterprise UI component library—building on over a decade of experience with Telerik and Kendo tools.
KendoReact delivered a production-ready set of components designed for complex enterprise applications. This was critical for Kaba exos 9300, where the frontend is not just an interface, but the control layer for configuring security policies.
Core components such as Form, Data Grid and TreeView play a central role in managing large datasets, hierarchical access structures and complex configuration workflows. With Kaba exos 9300 being all about configuration, this component is heavily utilized and can accommodate the complex needs they demand. These capabilities allowed dormakaba to replicate—and significantly improve upon—the functionality of the legacy desktop system without building components from scratch.
The team also adopted ThemeBuilder to streamline UI customization and improve development efficiency, enabling consistent design implementation across the platform.
Result
The transition to a KendoReact-based architecture fundamentally changed how Kaba exos 9300 is delivered, maintained and evolved.
By moving from a fat-client model to centralized web deployment, dormakaba eliminated the need for per-machine installations and manual updates. This significantly reduced operational complexity and improved reliability for customers operating in sensitive environments.
From a development perspective, the use of a mature component library increased efficiency and reduced risk. Teams no longer needed to build and maintain complex UI elements internally, enabling faster development cycles and more consistent implementation patterns.
End users benefit from a more modern and intuitive interface, with improved handling of large datasets and complex workflows. The platform is now better positioned to scale and evolve as customer needs grow.
Perhaps most importantly, the modernization reinforced confidence in the platform’s long-term stability. Over more than 12 years, Telerik and Kendo tools have provided a consistent and reliable foundation, supporting dormakaba through multiple stages of architectural evolution.
About dormakaba
dormakaba is a leading global provider in the access solutions market. The company reimagines access by setting industry standards for smart systems and sustainable solutions across the lifecycle of a building. More than 15,000 employees worldwide provide their expertise together with distribution partners to a growing customer base in more than 130 countries. dormakaba supports its customers with a broad, innovative portfolio of integrated access products, solutions and services that easily fit into building ecosystems to create safe, secure and sustainable places where people can move around seamlessly.dormakaba is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and is headquartered in Rümlang near Zurich (Switzerland). It generated a turnover of CHF 2.9 billion in financial year 2024/25.
SIX Swiss Exchange: DOKA
Further information about dormakaba Group on www.dormakabagroup.com/en
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We needed something stable, predictable and supported. This is not a system where we can take risks.
Frontend Development Team
dormakaba