In the 19th and 20th century, pocket fobs or key fobs were small ornaments on a key chain. In the 21st century, FOBs are now keyless FOBs, and their purpose is no longer ornamental. The FOB is now called a keyless FOB because it will unlock restricted areas to authorized personnel without a conventional key. Keyless FOBs like Access Master Keyless FOBs, not only unlock doors, but they provide a much less expensive and more manageable security function than an equivalent set of traditional locks and keys.

How can sophisticated, electronic keyless FOBs be more cost effective than simple locks and keys? Using a keyless FOB is more cost effective because the expensive part of traditional locks and keys is in maintaining control of them. Consider what would be the appropriate action when one of those keys goes missing or is no longer in trusted hands.

If a traditional key is lost or leaves with a former employee, then the business must pay a locksmith to change the locks. Then they need new keys cut for other employees and have them distributed. But what if it was a ring of five keys, or there is uncertainty about the number of keys? The technical term for this situation is SNAFU, and an expensive one at that.