How dormakaba Modernized a Мission-Critical Security Platform with KendoReact
When software protects physical security, the frontend foundation becomes part of the product itself.
30+ years
Kaba exos 9300
Mission-critical
Enterprise access control
React + KendoReact
Modern UI foundation
12+ years
Telerik partnership
Platform
For more than 30 years, Kaba exos 9300 has helped organizations manage physical access across offices, campuses and other security-sensitive environments.
Administrators use it to configure identities, credentials, access rights and security policies defining who can access which locations, when and under what conditions.
In software like this, the frontend isn’t just where information is displayed. It’s where security is configured.
“We needed something stable, predictable and supported. This is not a system where we can take risks.”
Frontend development team
dormakaba
The first modernization solved one problem
In 2014, dormakaba moved Kaba exos 9300 to the web using Telerik technologies and Kendo UI for jQuery. The move addressed deployment and maintenance challenges. Over time, however, inconsistent components, libraries and UI patterns made the frontend increasingly difficult for the internal team to standardize, extend and confidently own.
KEY DECISION
Modernization requires architectural consistency, not just migration
It succeeds when the team responsible for the product can confidently understand, maintain and evolve the architecture for years afterward.
A second decision, built on what the first one taught
By 2019, dormakaba chose not to keep extending the existing frontend. The team rebuilt the web clients around React, creating a modern architecture it could understand, maintain and evolve internally.
Having already worked with Telerik technologies for five years, dormakaba chose KendoReact as the enterprise UI foundation: production-ready, well documented and predictable enough to build on for the long term.
The decision wasn’t about having more components. It was about having one less layer of infrastructure to worry about.
Why KendoReact
Kaba exos 9300 relies on KendoReact across complex configuration, data and hierarchical workflows.
Forms
Permissions, identities, credentials and security policies are configured across the platform.
KendoReact Forms provides consistent form behavior across these configuration-heavy workflows, reducing the amount of custom implementation the team needs to maintain.
Data Grid
Administrators work with large datasets of users, credentials and access configurations.
KendoReact Data Grid provides the foundation for these data-intensive workflows without requiring dormakaba to build and maintain complex table infrastructure.
TreeView
Buildings, departments, organizational groups and security zones naturally form hierarchies.
KendoReact TreeView provides a predictable way to represent and manage these relationships throughout the platform.
“Kendo documentation is one of the best I’ve worked with, especially the interactive examples.”
Frontend development team
dormakaba
What Changed
The biggest outcome wasn’t a visual redesign. It was confidence in the frontend foundation.
Today, dormakaba evolves Kaba exos 9300 on an architecture its team understands and maintains, while focusing engineering effort on physical security, access policies and enterprise workflows rather than rebuilding UI infrastructure.
Internal ownership
Architecture the team understands and maintains
Consistency
Shared UI patterns across complex workflows
Engineering focus
Less custom UI infrastructure to build and maintain
“The fat-to-web migration of Kaba exos 9300 would not have been possible without a framework like Kendo. It enabled us to move from desktop clients to modern web applications while improving usability, maintainability, and deployment for our enterprise customers.”
Bertram Weckmann
Senior manager, Software development, dormakaba
Lessons for enterprise teams
Dormakaba’s experience reinforces four lessons for teams modernizing long-lived enterprise applications
Modernization is about ownership as much as technology
Architecture decisions compound over time
Stable UI foundations reduce long-term engineering risk
Invest engineering effort where your product creates unique value