An important element in any office is receiving individuals who come to the end user organization to talk business or simply pay a visit. This is where visitor management systems play an important role. Today’s VMS products come with various functions and features that not only keep offices safe but also make them smart.
An important element in any office is receiving guests who come to the office to talk business or simply pay a visit. This is where visitor management systems play an important role. Today’s VMS products come with various functions and features that not only keep offices safe but also make them smart.
A major function of VMS is to keep track of visitors who come in and out of the office, and doing so electronically is more effective than the conventional way of keeping paper logs which can be illegible or unclear. “Today’s visitor management systems offer a smart and digitalized solution for a process that can traditionally be time-consuming, inefficient and with room for loopholes and inaccuracies. Instead of relying on people and paper for visitor records, smart visitor management systems can save and track data, allowing end users to easily search for and analyze visitor information and statistics,” said Chloe Leiper, Marketing and Communications Manager at ICD Security Solutions. “In addition, costs can be cut by the reduced need for staff to manually authorize and grant site access, and the identity of the visitor can be more reliably verified with electronic ID recognition and face recognition technology.”
“Potential risks become less probable when undesirable guests are deterred through the use of a visitor management system, said Virginia Savietto, Marketing Manager at Security Identification Systems Corporation. “Our visitor management solution can also cross check external criminal, sex offender and internal “deny-entry” watch lists. This greatly increases the security team’s ability to quickly identify and stop potential undesirable security threats from gaining access to the facility.”
Get smart with VMS
A visitor management system typically includes components that capture, store and analyze visitor data. “Today’s visitor management systems capture a variety of information about visitors, including agreeing to and signing documents, such as an NDA, and checking visitors against watch lists, including sex offender screening and government watch lists,” said Debbie Pendleton, VP of Sales and Marketing at STOPware. “Real-time integration with many external systems from employee data to access control systems is also an important feature of today’s visitor management system.”
“We make use of consumer-grade hardware such as iPads, making it very affordable to consider implementation of a digital visitor management system,” said Steve Barrett, CEO of Teamgo. “Using the devices’ native capabilities you can expect to collect data from the visitor, capturing their photo, viewing and signing agreements on screen, instant notifications to staff notifying them a visitor has arrived and badge printing.”
All these features make offices smart in many ways. One of them is through increased operational efficiency, allowing staff and employees to do more with less.
“Operational efficiency is increased by reducing the visitor processing time. Visitor management becomes a three-step process taking approximately 30 seconds: the operator simply scans a visitor’s ID or pre-registration barcode,” said Pendleton. “The workplace can be further automated by using kiosks for self-registration by the visitor, instead of or in addition to, a receptionist. This frees up the receptionist for other tasks or for a remote satellite site negates the need to hire a receptionist.”
“Improve efficiency is achieved through reduced contact time between the visitor and their host through the arrival process from collection of data to acceptance of any contracts. Productivity is also achieved in removing disruption of employee concentration and focus when visitors arrive to an unmanned reception desk at the workplace,” said Barrett.
The role of data
Beyond operational efficiency, companies and offices can further benefit from a visitor management system by leveraging the visitor data collected from the system. “Data from visitor management systems can be accessed by end users at any time in the form of raw data or customized reports. Visitor data can then be analyzed during specific time periods or at particular sites, enabling the end user to find patterns (or discrepancies) which may help a company optimize their visitor registration or authorization processes, or the site’s security,” Leiper said. “The data generated can also help the end user to monitor and categorize visitor groups in various ways, for example white list and black list management, identifying people who may need a frequent visitor pass and so on.”
“Analytical data helps draw meaningful and accurate decisions,” said Savietto. The use of factual analysis can help leaders make strategic business decisions and set a new course. Analyzing visitor traffic data can help an organization with: lowering costs, preparing and planning for emergencies, conducting in-depth investigations, maximizing time and resources, projecting outcomes, predicting future trends, adhering to compliance rules, improving customer experience, and achieving better, fact-based decision-making and creating higher-quality products and services.”